Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
..
I'd agree with the first statement, which is why I do not agree with the second. If a company comes up with a DRM system that people do not complain about, and it increases their profit more than a non-DRM system will, they will continue to use it, and make more money.
Yes... we've just covered all of this ground, without actually establishing a rise in e-book piracy! (Sad, isn't it?) But that doesn't mean there is no problem... piracy does exist, the e-book industry has not managed to solidify into a vibrant industry yet, and the two may indeed be related. Not the only related factors, mind you... quality of reading devices, cost of devices and e-books, availability of titles, are all part of the equation... but it's still too early to determine which is more of the problem. So we try to deal with piracy here, and discuss the other issues elsewhere.
...
|
DRM - Actually, what iTunes and Amazon have shown is that DRM doesn't matter, or rather that it isn't the large factor. If DRM won't get you more money, why go to that extra step? Right now, DRM is purely a safety blanket for the publishers. It lets them stick their toes in the water while feeling safe about it. With Amazon showing that DRM free music doesn't particularly harm sales, I would be shocked if Apple doesn't insist that they be allowed to drop the DRM. DRM just doesn't translate to extra dollars in the publishers pockets.
piracy - The reason I raise this flag is because I think that this is truly the only issue that shapes the debate. If piracy does not significantly effect online sales, then there is no real point to coming up with some alternate funding source. You just sale the ebooks on line via Amazon or any other existing online store and away you go. Removing DRM basically will help to get consumers who aren't sure which e-Reader to get off the fence. Look how the sales of Blu-Ray DVD's have soared since it became apparent that Blu-Ray was going to win the format wars. All those people who didn't want to risk spending a lot of money on the losing format are now buying.
The beauty of e-books is that without DRM, it's easy to convert content from one format to another. I have a couple of Sony eReaders, a 500 and a 505. Right now, it appears that the Kindle is way ahead on both sales and content available, though it pretty hard to be sure. I can take a LRF file, run it through a converter program and read it on a Kindle with no problem at all. While I might be willing to risk having to re-buy books if Sony gets out of the content business, many if not most are not. I suspect that once there is a clear winner in the format wars, you will see sales jump much like the blu-ray sales have jumped.