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Old 08-30-2011, 12:39 PM   #5
Steven Lyle Jordan
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A lot depends on your content and your audience.

Contrary to the popular opinion here at MR, the majority of ebook consumers who use devices like Kindle, Nook and Sony readers do not know what DRM is, much less why it's important.

Your audiences sound to be more savvy than the average ebook consumer, though. In fact, like much of O'Reilly's audience, they sound like they might use your book at work, on a PC. If there are equations or complex diagrams in the book, you might want to serve the books up as PDF files... they will offer the best methods of displaying the content.

As for DRM: Just because O'Reilly serves up DRM-free books (considering they have a huge print-volume to make their money) doesn't mean the same applies to you. If you're not bothered by the prospect of many of your potential customers copying and sharing your files in their offices, or with fellow database nerds, don't use DRM. If you think the very existence of the ebooks will encourage users to buy the printed books (the O'Reilly strategy), by all means, don't use DRM.

If you have intellectual property you want to protect, DRM is useful as a legal tool. DRM is also useful to limit ebook dissemination, which can also encourage more print and ebook sales by those who cannot easily get ebook copies from others.

Use these as a guide for what's best for you.
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