Quote:
Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer
Just to add to Tompe's point, Tor also specializes in the science fiction genre, so its reasonable to assume that the average Tor reader is more sensitive to and knowledgeable about DRM than the average reader. So for Tor, their could be an uptick in sales. Certainly a number of people on this site have said they won't buy a book with DRM.
Raising prices wouldn't be without precedent though, iTunes did that when the went DRM free. On the other hand, the game retailer site Good Old Games offers PC games that are DRM free, and doesn't price higher than its competitors for the same games that the competitors offer only with DRM.
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and GOG is another business that is thriving due to no-DRM sales. Do you really think people want to buy DOS and early Windows games from the 90s and early 2000s and want to deal with DRM? No. In fact, GOG actually removes any DRM on titles sold there (typically stuff to check a certain page on a manual or whatever). They have a loyal fanbase. No one would be buying 10 and 15-yr old PC games if they were DRM'd up. Because I think we already know how ridiculous 10-year old copy protection is.
People want to buy that kind of dated backlist game because they love the title and want to keep it forever...that mentality doesn't work with DRM. I think the same applies to your average voracious sci-fi reader. I think because we trend techie, and we're the ones called on to fix DRM for our friends and families (like recovering a DRM'd itunes library years ago, in my case) so we have a special dislike of it.
DRM-free has value to us.