[JoeD]

I don't think it acts as a speed bump when it comes to piracy as someone else has already dug the speed bump up :P

DRM does not discourage over sharing in the slightest. The files that are "over shared" have already been "freed" by someone and released.

What it might deter is some level of casual piracy for those who don't download from pirate sites but might have shared a copy with close friends or family. At the same time it deters some purchasers who would have bought the books but don't want the hassle of DRM or risk of losing access to your books when you change to a different reading device.

Cracking tools may be illegal, but all that's doing is punishing your legitimate customers by preventing them using the books they bought on future devices or reading them at all. It won't stop someone uploading or sharing an illegal copy of a book and as far as the rest of the pirates are concerned, they don't even need to download the cracking tools, someone has already been there and done that. Mostly the people who do, are the publisher's legitimate customers who bought and continue to buy their books (i.e many of the people on this forum)

DRM is just as flawed as their reasons for still using it. It's getting in the way of legit usage and punishing customers rather than pirates.

Some publishers know this though, see Baen and o'Reilly. Others are waking up to it too and I hope in time more do. The music industry may not have wanted DRM free and in effect were forced into accepting it, ironically due to the high levels of piracy, but now we have it, people can buy music from all over and not worry about losing access in the future, compatibility problems with future devices etc Piracy is still an issue for music, but the industry can go after the sites facilitating it without causing hassles for the rest that buy or rip their music.