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Worldwalker · 06-30-2010, 05:53 PM

The draconian DRM (publishers controlling my computer hardware?) you envision is simply Not Possible, even if it wasn't morally suspect.

You are forgetting one simple thing: In order for an ebook to be read, it has to be displayed in some fashion. Even if that ebook is DRM-locked to the reader's DNA and can't be read without a blood sample, it still has to be visible. If it's visible, it can be screenshotted, photographed, even just transcribed if someone cares that much. It's even easier if it's on deaed trees. For the last few Harry Potter books (which I should point out have never been available in a legitmate electronic form) ebooks of them were on the darknet before the pbooks were in the bookstores. When all they had to worry about was photocopiers and mimeographs, and when they had ruthless secret police and punishments ranging from decades in the Siberian gulags to a bullet in the back of the head, the USSR still could not keep control of the printed word. Words are just too hard to hold on to.

You say that people will get used to your ideal of rigid controls, of having no rights, of every word they read needing to be authorized and monitored and, of course, paid for ... probably on a rental basis, one would assume, since isn't someone who reads your book twice but only pays you once stealing from you, too? They'd get used to government and corporate intrusion into, and total control of, something as simple and personal as reading. And perhaps they will. But let me ask you this: If you wrote about such a world as science fiction, would your characters -- or you -- consider it utopia?

You're trying to solve the wrong problem.

You think the problem is "How can I force everybody who so much looks at a word I have written to give me money?"

The real problem is "How can I use my skill at writing to make a living?"

They're not the same problem.

06-30-2010, 05:53 PM	#71
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	The draconian DRM (publishers controlling my computer hardware?) you envision is simply Not Possible, even if it wasn't morally suspect. You are forgetting one simple thing: In order for an ebook to be read, it has to be displayed in some fashion. Even if that ebook is DRM-locked to the reader's DNA and can't be read without a blood sample, it still has to be visible. If it's visible, it can be screenshotted, photographed, even just transcribed if someone cares that much. It's even easier if it's on deaed trees. For the last few Harry Potter books (which I should point out have never been available in a legitmate electronic form) ebooks of them were on the darknet before the pbooks were in the bookstores. When all they had to worry about was photocopiers and mimeographs, and when they had ruthless secret police and punishments ranging from decades in the Siberian gulags to a bullet in the back of the head, the USSR still could not keep control of the printed word. Words are just too hard to hold on to. You say that people will get used to your ideal of rigid controls, of having no rights, of every word they read needing to be authorized and monitored and, of course, paid for ... probably on a rental basis, one would assume, since isn't someone who reads your book twice but only pays you once stealing from you, too? They'd get used to government and corporate intrusion into, and total control of, something as simple and personal as reading. And perhaps they will. But let me ask you this: If you wrote about such a world as science fiction, would your characters -- or you -- consider it utopia? You're trying to solve the wrong problem. You think the problem is "How can I force everybody who so much looks at a word I have written to give me money?" The real problem is "How can I use my skill at writing to make a living?" They're not the same problem.