Quote:
Originally Posted by jbcohen
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management is the means by which author can protect themselves from unauthorized re-distribution of their work...
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Except it doesn't allow authors to protect themselves from unauthorized re-distribution of their work. It doesn't slow down the pirates for a moment. The example I always use is
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- it has never been officially available as an ebook, but it was on the darknets
before the dead-trees edition hit the stores. Yeah, it was an inside job, but the point is that if people want to distribute an illicit ebook, they will, and not only will Digital Restrictions Management (rights? DRM manages rights like prisons manage freedom) not slow them down,
not having the book in electronic format at all won't slow them down if they want it enough. And if people
don't want it enough, your problem isn't people not wanting to give you money; it's people not wanting to read your book.
DRM hurts the honest and legal readers by enforcing device lock-in, re-buying of existing content, etc. It annoys the honest but questionably legal readers who buy books and strip off the DRM. And it doesn't even cramp the style of the people who download torrents of hundreds of books at a time (usually to get the two books in there that they actually want to read). It can be argued that DRM actually helps the bad guys by teaching people to pirate books -- how to download books off the darknet so they can get the book they want for the device they have, or the book they already own for the device they just bought instead of the one their dog chewed on -- when they would otherwise have been content to just buy the book. Once they find they can get it free with fewer hassles than buying it, especially given that we have a society that values wealth over honor, they are likely to continue with that course. All thanks to DRM.