[afa]

Originally Posted by frahse

Actually I have been trying to withdraw from this thread because I do feel the resentment building up, but a few nuggets of ideas have popped up that made me want to do "my writer bit."

I would suggest that any resentment you detect is less because of your pro-DRM position itself, and more to do with the impression your posts in this thread create. Namely - that you feel anyone who removes DRM is a pirate. That the only reason anyone would want to remove DRM is because they are immoral beings interested only in the mass distribution an author's written word.

When you attempt to paint so many people with the same ill-conceived brush, you have none but yourself to blame for any feelings of resentment that build up. That would be like my cracking my buddy on the head with a bat, and then claiming to be disappointed when he doesn't want to be friends anymore.

I would also suggest that another part of the reason for resentment is that it certainly seems that you are making no efforts at all in understanding the points the other side is making. No one insists on forcing you to change your beliefs and side with them, but they do expect you to debate the actual arguments being made, rather than reiterating the same points about pircay being bad. From what I have seen, no one is arguing in favour of that point. No one is arguing that copyright infringement is a good thing. They are arguing that DRM -- at least in its current form -- is all but ineffectual in preventing, or even slowing, piracy (which is true), that its potential benefits to publishers/authors are outweighed by the discontent it causes among readers and potential customers (which is true), and that the industry needs to think, and think hard, about better solutions (also true).

Still the discourse upsets me too. It makes me think about things that hurt that I can't control.

Again, the reason it hurts seems to be that your are misunderstanding the nature of the act. I understand you are an author, so I suppose you are concerned about copyright infringement and the effect it has on "Rights Holders" like yourself. An understandable concern, surely. I empathise.

But you are mistaken if you believe that the removal of DRM violates this right. You are mistaken if you believe that removing DRM hurts you, in any way, shape or form. It does not. Definitely. If I bought a print book you had written and sneezed and vomited all over it, it would hurt you and violate your rights as an author no less than the act of removing DRM.

If I then distributed the ebook... yes, that would disregard your rights. That would hurt, because I have now violated your copyright. But therein lies the problem, frahse: for removing DRM is not equivalent to copyright infringement. The two events might be somewhat related (in so much that some people break DRM and then distribute the files) but they are not the same.