MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Is DRM necessary? Should publishers be concerned about piracy?

doctorow · 10-09-2006, 10:09 AM

As books go online, publishers run for cover.

"We are facing all the same risks as the music industry," said Olaf Ernst, worldwide director of e-books for Springer, a German scientific publisher. "But if our reaction is like theirs was, we will have problems."

At the Frankfurt Book Fair, which ended Sunday, Springer introduced its pathbreaking system for managing digital rights for the scientific and professional literature that it puts out. Put simply, Springer's clients - mostly university libraries - will be able to access for a single fee more than 10,000 titles with minimal restrictions on sharing.

But the Springer model, as Ernst freely admitted, offers little guidance for how to manage the intellectual property issues surrounding best- selling novels and self-help books, which his company does not publish.

And further down:

"Once we can be assured that there will be security for our authors, then we can move forward," said Arnoud de Kemp, spokesman for the digital publishing working group of the German Association of Publishers and Booksellers.

10-09-2006, 10:09 AM	#34
doctorow Guru Posts: 914 Karma: 3410461 Join Date: May 2004 Device: Kindle Touch	As books go online, publishers run for cover. "We are facing all the same risks as the music industry," said Olaf Ernst, worldwide director of e-books for Springer, a German scientific publisher. "But if our reaction is like theirs was, we will have problems." At the Frankfurt Book Fair, which ended Sunday, Springer introduced its pathbreaking system for managing digital rights for the scientific and professional literature that it puts out. Put simply, Springer's clients - mostly university libraries - will be able to access for a single fee more than 10,000 titles with minimal restrictions on sharing. But the Springer model, as Ernst freely admitted, offers little guidance for how to manage the intellectual property issues surrounding best- selling novels and self-help books, which his company does not publish. And further down: "Once we can be assured that there will be security for our authors, then we can move forward," said Arnoud de Kemp, spokesman for the digital publishing working group of the German Association of Publishers and Booksellers.