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Xenophon · 05-09-2009, 12:00 AM

@markbot: It may be important to note that DRM and property rights are two quite different things. I make my living in an industry that depends quite fundamentally on intellectual property (the software industry). I thoroughly support the basic idea of IP (although I have some quibbles about the current implementation of that idea here in the US). In fact, I don't have any music, ebooks, or software that was not acquired entirely legitimately -- it's all squeaky-clean legal.

But DRM is a whole different thing. It interferes with my traditional fair-use rights. It is an attempt to prevent me from format-shifting (for music or ebooks). It seems to be used far more as a way to lock me in to a particular family of hardware (for eBook readers), rather than to protect the IP rights of authors and publishers. It's a pain-in-the-butt... and it totally fails its supposed goal! Any form of encryption that depends on the end user having a copy of the key is fundamentally incapable of preventing that end-user from decrypting the content. (Think about that statement for a moment...)

Now, go visit the good folks over at Baen Books and Webscriptions. They have a thriving business selling eBooks. With no DRM anywhere in sight! They don't do things that way out of the goodness of their hearts (or because they're against property rights), but rather because it helps them make more money. In fact, they make a very strong case that having the right business model protects the IP far better than does DRM. Certainly their sales results with this approach have been fantastic.

For today's homework

, do a forum search on DRM and on Copyright and read the many posts that have gone before. You'll find tons of people here who fully support property rights and IP, but who find DRM an abomination rather than a good thing. A one-screen summary of the best argued pros and cons on DRM will get you a good grade. Extra points available for digging up the sales info for Baen and Webscriptions. Double extra credit if you find the links to a longer and well-written discussion of copyright issues by one of Baen's leading authors.

Xenophon
(Can you tell I've been spending too much time in academia?)

05-09-2009, 12:00 AM	#5
Xenophon curmudgeon Posts: 1,481 Karma: 5748190 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Redwood City, CA USA Device: Kobo Aura HD, (ex)nook, (ex)PRS-700, (ex)PRS-500	@markbot: It may be important to note that DRM and property rights are two quite different things. I make my living in an industry that depends quite fundamentally on intellectual property (the software industry). I thoroughly support the basic idea of IP (although I have some quibbles about the current implementation of that idea here in the US). In fact, I don't have any music, ebooks, or software that was not acquired entirely legitimately -- it's all squeaky-clean legal. But DRM is a whole different thing. It interferes with my traditional fair-use rights. It is an attempt to prevent me from format-shifting (for music or ebooks). It seems to be used far more as a way to lock me in to a particular family of hardware (for eBook readers), rather than to protect the IP rights of authors and publishers. It's a pain-in-the-butt... and it totally fails its supposed goal! Any form of encryption that depends on the end user having a copy of the key is fundamentally incapable of preventing that end-user from decrypting the content. (Think about that statement for a moment...) Now, go visit the good folks over at Baen Books and Webscriptions. They have a thriving business selling eBooks. With no DRM anywhere in sight! They don't do things that way out of the goodness of their hearts (or because they're against property rights), but rather because it helps them make more money. In fact, they make a very strong case that having the right business model protects the IP far better than does DRM. Certainly their sales results with this approach have been fantastic. For today's homework , do a forum search on DRM and on Copyright and read the many posts that have gone before. You'll find tons of people here who fully support property rights and IP, but who find DRM an abomination rather than a good thing. A one-screen summary of the best argued pros and cons on DRM will get you a good grade. Extra points available for digging up the sales info for Baen and Webscriptions. Double extra credit if you find the links to a longer and well-written discussion of copyright issues by one of Baen's leading authors. Xenophon (Can you tell I've been spending too much time in academia?)