DRM Good or Bad?

[Gardenman]

Lazer

I am not an author. I am a reader. Let me ask yo a question. Your kindle reader has no problem reading your book with drm. What are you going to tell the reader when his kindle breaks and he decides to buy a Sony reader. Because your book is locked into Amazon drm he may not be able to convert it to read on his sony. Your reader is not going to happy when he finds this out.

What answer are you going to have for him?

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by Lazer

Here is my quote: "you that don't buy DRM'd books, no problem, you're not my market" –thus I didn't say DRM is limiting my audience. (maybe I'm wrong!) My first book HAS been pirated and I don't think I'm getting any benefit from it–it's a guide for the criminal investigator. Maybe I'm naive here but people that buy pirated books just aren't my market. My second book is about a criminal case I worked years ago about trafficking in wildlife with all sorts of ugly twists and turns.

Er. People who don't buy DRM'd books buy non-DRM'd books. They're not admitting to piracy when they say "I don't buy DRM'd books". Was that unclear, or have I misunderstood your quote?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Lazer

As far as which DRM scheme? Both my (ebooks) will be available on Barnes and Noble and Amazon and I really don't think there is a device out there that doesn't cover those two "schemes." Buy it as a Kindle and you can put it on your phone, Kindle, Droid, or iPad. Probably all at the same time.

There are lots of devices/readers that don't handle B&N's DRM or Amazon's confusion (confusion because of KF8/Mobi/topaz). I have a 650 that handles none of these. B&N is fine once I rip away the DRM. Amazon needs the DRM ripped away, converted and then most likely fixed up. My iPad doesn't have the nook app do B&N eBooks don't with it unless I rip away the DRM.

So if you are going with DRM then you do have to find another place to put your eBook that doesn't involve B&N, Amazon, or Smashwords. I mentions Smashwords because I won't buy from them because I loath the meatgrinder and the code it generates.

[JSWolf]

There are a lot of people out there that pirate eBooks because of DRM. They are forced to buy with DRM. So they strip the DRM and send them out in the wild while eBooks tey purchase that do not come with DRM are kept at home.

Also, some people pirate because of the agency rip-off prices & DRM.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Also, some people pirate because of the agency rip-off prices & DRM.

Isn't "pirate because of agency rip-off prices" the equivalent to shoplifting designer labels because they're rip-off prices? Are you suggesting that somehow makes it okay?

The answer to not liking the price of something is to not buy it, not to steal it.

The problem with DRM is not it's intention (it is trying to make the world of ebooks operate in a way similar to pbooks), it's the fact that it does not achieve it's goal; it effects the honest more than the dishonest.

[Lazer]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

Lazer

I am not an author. I am a reader. Let me ask yo a question. Your kindle reader has no problem reading your book with drm. What are you going to tell the reader when his kindle breaks and he decides to buy a Sony reader. Because your book is locked into Amazon drm he may not be able to convert it to read on his sony. Your reader is not going to happy when he finds this out.

What answer are you going to have for him?

Buy it on Barnes and Noble. It's an epub there, and I suspected it's DRM protected. Am I write? Can't Sony Readers buy off of B&N?

L

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by Lazer

Buy it on Barnes and Noble. It's an epub there, and I suspected it's DRM protected. Am I write? Can't Sony Readers buy off of B&N?

L

Not if they have a Canadian Credit Card or Address. I can't even "buy" a freebie from B&N. Plus, I think their DRM coding is different. Not all DRM (even for epubs) is created equal.

[Gardenman]

Barnes and Noble has its own brand of drm. Sony readers cannot use it with out removing the drm. Also If someone has bought a book once why should they have to buy it again just because something happens to their ereader and they change brands?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Lazer

Buy it on Barnes and Noble. It's an epub there, and I suspected it's DRM protected. Am I write? Can't Sony Readers buy off of B&N?

L

Sony Readers cannot handle the B&N flavor of DRM. Strip the DRM and the resulting DRM free ePub will work fine.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

Barnes and Noble has its own brand of drm. Sony readers cannot use it with out removing the drm. Also If someone has bought a book once why should they have to buy it again just because something happens to their ereader and they change brands?

Amazon is the same way. You buy eBooks from Amazon to read with a Kindle and then you change from the Kindle to any other eink reader and none of your Amazon purchased eBooks will go with you.

Same thing going from say Sony, B&N, Kobo and others to a Kindle.

In this case, it's DRM and incompatible formats.

[Gardenman]

Without drm any epub book will work on any reader except kindle.

[Lazer]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

No, you're absolutely right. If you don't never wanted me to buy your book to begin with, you didn't limit your market by making sure that I never will. But if you want to sell to as large a crowd as possible, then putting DRM on your book is counter-productive to that goal



You said earlier in your post it's been pirated, but you doubt it has been pirated?

The question we DRM-boycotters want you to ask is, "how much more could I have sold if I hadn't used DRM to my book?" If your answer to that is, "I don't care", that's your choice and your loss.



This is so far from being even close to relevant to DRM on eBooks that I am baffled that you think it's a valid comparison.

ScalyFreak:

No disrespect; you are not my book's market. That's not a problem for either one of us. Even if it wasn't DRM protected you would not be interested in a book about analyzing firearms evidence at a crime scene. Am I wrong? Am I missing a market component here?

As far as the "been pirated issue." I'm not going to scroll through my threads here to see how poorly my writing has been that it's managed to confuse you and others. Probably MY miswriting. The truth is this: You can get it on-line from an unauthorized download as a PDF, so yes, it's been pirated. However, the book has such a limited market, criminal investigators, that I really doubt the pirate site has distributed any copies. If they have I really doubt it's generating interest from the criminal investigators of the world to run out and buy a legitimate copy. But it still pisses me off and copyright law has been broken.

As far as the Sony Reader? As near as I can tell, that's about 10% of the e-reading crowd out there, perhaps smaller since the creation of tablets such as the iPad Droids. A Sony Reader owner can still buy my book in print. How about all those people that just buy their books at the grocery store or the mag stand? Nope, not going to get my market share there either! Good-grief. I'm an admitted two-bit self publishing author that's never going to be found in Wikipedia.

And about copyright and patent laws? I think it's pretty damn close to being the same issue and DRM (as poor as it is) and copyright are intermixed. Or am I wrong?

[VydorScope]

Laser,

I do not understand your choice. To me seems like you are adding limits on your market, and making your legit buying readers life harder, for no demonstrable gain. BUT its your call, your book, and your choice. Sounds like you are happy with the level of sales you got, and are enjoying what you are doing, so its all cool.

As for your father's story, I hate that happened to him. That really sucks, but if there was DRM on that mold... it would not have stopped anyone from doing what they did. DRM is not effective. All it does its make the people that way to stay in legal channels have a harder time of it. It makes the pirating path the easier choice.

Bottom line, IMO, DRM ENCOURAGES piracy.

But I do not want to come across as attacking you. I think it was very brave of you to stand up for the minority view on an internet forum. I highly respect that courage you showed.

[Lazer]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Laser,

I do not understand your choice. To me seems like you are adding limits on your market, and making your legit buying readers life harder, for no demonstrable gain. BUT its your call, your book, and your choice. Sounds like you are happy with the level of sales you got, and are enjoying what you are doing, so its all cool.

As for your father's story, I hate that happened to him. That really sucks, but if there was DRM on that mold... it would not have stopped anyone from doing what they did. DRM is not effective. All it does its make the people that way to stay in legal channels have a harder time of it. It makes the pirating path the easier choice.

Bottom line, IMO, DRM ENCOURAGES piracy.

But I do not want to come across as attacking you. I think it was very brave of you to stand up for the minority view on an internet forum. I highly respect that courage you showed.

VYDORSCOPE:

Thanks for the moral support. How 'bout we meet at the pub and I buy you a beer?

I AM glad I took the other side of this argument. Am I right about the issue? Shoot, I dunno. I'm old enough to realize being right 51% of the time is about all we ever aspire to––except we all believe we're 99-percenters.

So all you anti-DRM "freaks" out there... what would you suggest I do? Where would YOU guys sell a non-fiction forensic ebook? (The best thing I did was the POD on Amazon by the way)

[Belle2Be]

Are you published enough to have the luxury of a target audience?