Quote:
Originally Posted by dgatwood
But, you might say, doesn't DRM keep honest people honest? I mean, that's the theory—that making it hard to copy something will make it less likely that people will copy it. The answer, unfortunately, is a resounding "no".
Ignoring the fundamental impossibility of truly unbreakable DRM, the second-biggest flaw with the concept of DRM for fixed content like books is that it only takes one person cracking the DRM one time to make that DRM worthless. After that, the DRM cracker can broadly distribute the cracked version, rather than the original, and nobody else will ever have to crack that particular piece of content again.
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I agree with your premise, but not your reasoning.
The vast majority of ebook consumers wouldn't know how to find a good sharing site or what to do with the files if they did.
Bookclub Betty don't know from BitTorrent.
The reason ebook DRM isn't more successful at "keeping honest people honest" or stopping as much casual sharing as some might think, is that stripping ebook DRM is SO quick and easy that even those people who don't know how or can't almost certainly KNOW SOMEONE who does and can, and it's trivial for them to do it for you.
Compare to DRM on movies, which is also easy to bypass, but takes a bit more know-how and considerably more time. It's often easier and faster for a non-techie to just stream, rent, or even buy a disc legally than to get a good copy.
My point is not that video DRM is very effective. It's not. My point is that compared to even THAT low standard of effectiveness, ebooks DRM is STILL remarkably ineffective.
And the more effective they try to make it, the more intrusive it becomes, and the more incentive there is to bypass it.