MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Hachette UK asking writers to require DRM

FizzyWater · 08-17-2012, 10:49 PM

I dislike when any company (particularly companies without moral components) attempt to restrict their employees' actions outside of the workplace.

Hachette has every right to suggest to its authors that selling to competitors that choose not to use DRM might make it harder to sell their own Hachette books with DRM. I don't believe it's right, on the other hand, to require that in their contracts.

I belong to a reader' email list that also includes a lot of romance authors. I don't know if it's specific to the genre, but so many of them are so incredibly naive about business in general. Specific to this conversation, they have these women all wound up about DRM and piracy, but when you try to pin them down to what any of it actually means, they can only say "that's what my publisher, editor, whoever told me."

People need to make informed decisions. Maybe it really is in their best interest to sign with Hachette and refuse to sign with other companies that don't use DRM. But what happens when 5 or 6 years from now they want to release their own old backlist on Smashwords? Oops, sorry, I know you got your rights back, but you can't do that?!

But to be fair to Hachette, this behavior is certainly not specific to the publishing industry. I work for one of those really big financial businesses, and you should see the emails I get telling me what I (dumb little peon that I am) should believe about our politics and who to vote for and what measures to back....it's insulting and annoying.

08-17-2012, 10:49 PM	#22
FizzyWater You kids get off my lawn! Posts: 4,220 Karma: 73492664 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Columbus, Ohio Device: Oasis 2 and Libra H2O and half a dozen older models I can't let go of	I dislike when any company (particularly companies without moral components) attempt to restrict their employees' actions outside of the workplace. Hachette has every right to suggest to its authors that selling to competitors that choose not to use DRM might make it harder to sell their own Hachette books with DRM. I don't believe it's right, on the other hand, to require that in their contracts. I belong to a reader' email list that also includes a lot of romance authors. I don't know if it's specific to the genre, but so many of them are so incredibly naive about business in general. Specific to this conversation, they have these women all wound up about DRM and piracy, but when you try to pin them down to what any of it actually means, they can only say "that's what my publisher, editor, whoever told me." People need to make informed decisions. Maybe it really is in their best interest to sign with Hachette and refuse to sign with other companies that don't use DRM. But what happens when 5 or 6 years from now they want to release their own old backlist on Smashwords? Oops, sorry, I know you got your rights back, but you can't do that?! But to be fair to Hachette, this behavior is certainly not specific to the publishing industry. I work for one of those really big financial businesses, and you should see the emails I get telling me what I (dumb little peon that I am) should believe about our politics and who to vote for and what measures to back....it's insulting and annoying.