Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
But this 'Social DRM' won't be removed by the casual user, because they can't, and the techical user who can will see no reason to do so, since it doesn't prevent any legitimate use of the ebook.
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The casual reader doesn't need to know how to remove it. They just need to know that there are sites where they can easily download a copy without paying. Non-technical people do that every day with music. There are plenty of folks that wouldn't feel comfortable running a cracking script that are fine grabbing a torrent. That's one of the things that makes DRM so futile when it comes to preventing piracy. I think the only way you're going to get those people to pay money rather than get it for free is to give them a reason to. Make it a reasonable price. Make it easy. DRM makes it way more complicated than it needs to be. Educate people that downloading stuff for free is stiffing the artists they love. I think a lot of folks just download mindlessly. They don't really think about what it means in the big picture.
Will books make it onto the dark nets? Sure. What would really help there is if we had a way of making anonymous payments. That would be useful for all sorts of things, not just this. Something like PayPal, but without sending on your personal information. Publishers could put a link in a book to the effect of, "Did you download this book without paying? Do the right thing by the author and pay here." Then you could send a donation to the account without worrying that they'd haul you into court RIAA-style.