[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I really don't agree with you that DRM is the huge issue that some people make it out to be.

I turn again to iTunes as an example. iTunes has DRM for the overwhelming majority of its content, and it's been a massive commercial success. I don't know anyone who says "I'm not going to buy music from iTunes in case Apple goes out of business."

I know that one person here reported that they were unable to read a MobiPocket book that they'd bought while the MobiPocket server was down, but that's a bit of a mystery: I'm also a member of the "Fictionwise" Yahoo group and, while you couldn't buy new content from FW that depended on MP's DRM server, nobody there reported that they couldn't read what they already had. I don't know why that one person had a problem.

I really don't think that the average "man in the street" cares two hoots about DRM.

For you, as an individual, DRM may not be a big deal. For me and for many others it is.

More importantly, it's a parasitic weight on an industry that's struggling and cannot afford to support it. I'm going to draw examples from other industries than just e-publishing, as I believe DRM functions similarly in all situations.

DRM is supposedly about protecting content from piracy. Unfortunately it doesn't work. They have yet to find any form of DRM which cannot be cracked. Even if they do provide an uncrackable DRM, there's still the 'analog hole' where someone simply scans and OCRs the book. I'm not saying this means we should roll over and surrender to pirates. I'm saying that we need to find alternate methods of fighting copyright infringement rather than keep throwing money at something that doesn't work.

One thing DRM does do is add cost. Someone has to pay for its development, so DRM'd products are going to be more expensive than ones without unless the price is artificially inflated on DRM-free products. It also adds complexity and reduces reliability. It gets in the way of paying customers. It has all these negative effects without providing the benefit (protecting content from piracy) that is supposedly its reason for being. I call that parasitic.

Let's look at some examples:

There's the recent mobipocket issue. It may not have had too much impact on reading, but what would have happened had they gone out of business? No DRM server means no more devices could be authenticated. So reformat/upgrade all your devices (likely to happen in five years or so) and there goes your library.

Google's Video download service-- people thought they were getting the videos in perpetuity, but they took the server offline and nobody could watch what they paid for anymore.

Sony's rootkit debacle with CDs. In an attempt to produce unrippable CDs Sony opened a huge security hole through installing cloaked software on a paying customer's computer.

I bought the DVD of Casino Royale, but thanks to DRM there are some Sony DVD players that can't play it. Think about that, here's Sony rewarding a good customer (they buy both movies and hardware from them) by releasing a movie you can't play on something that's specifically designed to play it.

Nobody benefits from that except the people paid to code the DRM.

DRM is something we really can't afford.