One author's pledge on DRM

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Oldpilot

In such a word, nobody would publish anything worth reading, because it would all be stolen without recompense; the only books available would be propaganda and special pleading.

Ok... seems like we are going to beat a dead horse again. But, were do you get the evidence that the above is true. Music sales increased once the Amazon DRM free store went online... and then again when iTunes went DRM free.

Why do you think ebooks would be different.

There are tools readily available to steal cars... yet most cars do not get stolen because people know it is wrong and illegal.

BOb

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by Oldpilot

Well, not if you expect the book to sell on Amazon.com. Amazon will match the price of a book at any competing retailer, and if the price is zero, it can and at least sometimes has de-listed the book.

The way I read the post, he was saying that he'd give individual copies to individual people, if they contacted him to say that they had a problem. Effectively, he's offering to replace a "faulty" copy (in so far as the customer can't use it) with one that the customer can use. I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that he's a retailer in that case.

Originally Posted by Oldpilot

I fail to understand the dislike of DRM on this board. All my books are DRM-protected, to the extent that it provides any protection at all, and I can't image why any author wouldn't protect his literary rights to the best of his ability. DRM-free is the equivalent of publishing in a world where machine copying was free and instantaneous. In such a word, nobody would publish anything worth reading, because it would all be stolen without recompense; the only books available would be propaganda and special pleading.

I don't have an issue with the idea of DRM, I think it can be useful. I don't like the way DRM is currently used. I see two issues with it.

First, it doesn't stop illegal copying, it doesn't even make it difficult. I like Andy McNab, and earlier today I googled for "Andy McNab ebook". On the first page were a few links to legal copies (with DRM), and more links to illegal copies, free to download, without DRM. If I wanted an illegal copy, it wouldn't have been difficult to get one.

Second, it inconveniences people who buy ebooks legitimately. If the cost of a DRM book is sufficiently cheaper than other versions of the book, then I might buy the DRM book. I can then make the choice of whether the cost saving is worth the extra inconvenience.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Your challenge is to provide value, price fairly, and make it as easy as possible for people to give you money.

Amazon excels at the last: Whispernet on the Kindle means instant gratification. You can select, pay for, and download a Kindle edition at any time, day or night. Why go through the time and trouble required to locate and get a pirate copy?

I've found exactly this with music. Until recently, the number of MP3s that I had could be counted on the fingers of one hand (all bought legally). Then I got Ubuntu 10.04, which comes with a music store built into the music player. In the last five months, I've bought lots of MP3s, all through that music store, because it is incredibly convenient. I could probably have got all those MP3s for free, but I didn't, because I would rather have legal copies, and the music store makes it easy for me to pay for them.

[Krystian Galaj]

People always do what's convenient, and choosing to jump over hoops with DRM for moral values seems to me very similar to what flagellants did in Middle Ages for the grace of god.

[geniodiabolico]

Jeffrey, that's a very cool and principled stance of you. Having paid cash money to Peanut Press for the annotated version of Vinge's A FIRE UPON THE DEEP in a locked version for devices I no longer own to even try to recover that would cost more in time than it would take to buy again. I appreciate you putting your own rep on the line to reduce the barrier to entry for potential satisfied customer.

I'm not sure why so many people are working so hard to find the cloud to wrap around this silver lining. Take the victories in front of you when you have them, people.

[HamsterRage]

Awesome, awesome, awesome Jeffrey.

Thank you.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by geniodiabolico

Jeffrey, that's a very cool and principled stance of you. Having paid cash money to Peanut Press for the annotated version of Vinge's A FIRE UPON THE DEEP in a locked version for devices I no longer own to even try to recover that would cost more in time than it would take to buy again. I appreciate you putting your own rep on the line to reduce the barrier to entry for potential satisfied customer.

I'm not sure why so many people are working so hard to find the cloud to wrap around this silver lining. Take the victories in front of you when you have them, people.

edited to remove link....I'm pretty sure that is an unauthorized copy as it is selling for $8 at Amazon.

Surprises me....I hope that's not an illegal link.

[starrigger]

I should point out, in defense of writers who might hesitate to make such an offer, that the majority of authors I know are not yet very ebook savvy, and probably do not even have copies of their own ebooks that they could send to anyone. I just happen to have gotten involved in this while making some free promotional editions a while back, and I make sure that I have good ebooks of all my stuff, even if I have to make them myself.

Of all the ebook retailers that have my books, the only two that have made it possible for me to download copies of my books without actually buying them--even for quality checking--are Smashwords and Baen. (I don't even know that Baen does it routinely; I just happened to have the right email contact, and when I asked, I received.)

There are many things that are screwy about this business, and that's one of them. As far as I know, even the publishers don't get copies of their ebooks; if they want to check how they came out, they have to buy them.

I bought my one self-pubbed ebook currently in the Kindle store. But the price was low, and I used my associates referral link, so I could get most of the money back.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Oldpilot

I fail to understand the dislike of DRM on this board.

If Amazon were to withdraw the Kindle from the market, and you have a few hundred DRM'd books, and you decided to purchase another reader, and the bookstore you originally downloaded from is closed. (I doubt this would happen, but not everyone is, or wants to be, tied to Amazon/Apple etc).

That is when DRM will affect you.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

If Amazon were to withdraw the Kindle from the market, and you have a few hundred DRM'd books, and you decided to purchase another reader, and the bookstore you originally downloaded from is closed. (I doubt this would happen, but not everyone is, or wants to be, tied to Amazon/Apple etc).

That is when DRM will affect you.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

If Amazon were to withdraw the Kindle from the market, and you have a few hundred DRM'd books, and you decided to purchase another reader, and the bookstore you originally downloaded from is closed. (I doubt this would happen, but not everyone is, or wants to be, tied to Amazon/Apple etc).

That is when DRM will affect you.

If it is one thing I've learned these couple of last years is that no business is permanent. Who would ten years ago expect GM to go belly up? So, yes, I think it is a very valid point you make. At the same time I feel confident - without any actual backing - that the people who constructed the Amazon DRM will offer it to the public domain should Amazon file for Chapter 11.

[neilmarr]

As promised, Starrigger, and with your generous permission, we now carry a similar guarantee (below) on the front page of our own storefront section at the www.bewrite.net BeWrite Books website. Many thanks again for pointing the way. Such simple slutions are always the best. Cheers. Neil

A PROMISE TO OUR EBOOK BUYERS

Should you buy a BeWrite Books ebook from a third party-retailer rather than from our own site, you might find (through no fault or desire on our part) that it is locked by store-imposed Digital Rights Management (DRM) software. We feel this restricts your legitimate owner's rights. So if you ever encounter this problem, simply let us know and we will freely send you the DRM-free version of that title in the format of your choice (evidence of original purchase would help us identify the errant stores, but isn't strictly necessary for this offer to be fulfilled). BeWrite Books and its authors want you to be able to share our ebooks with friends and family as you might share our paperbacks. We want you to be able to easily convert ebooks to any format you like, to read them on whichever device you like, wherever you like, whenever you like. We trust you not to make a business of it, but to fairly use a BB ebook as you would a BB treebook. BB reckons you own the ebook you bought – you've not merely licensed it with strings attached. DRM is not only an inconvenience to you but a downright insult. We'll put it right. That's a promise. And those who know us will attest to the fact that BB never breaks its promises.

Neil Marr & Tony Szmuk

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

If Amazon were to withdraw the Kindle from the market, and you have a few hundred DRM'd books, and you decided to purchase another reader, and the bookstore you originally downloaded from is closed. (I doubt this would happen, but not everyone is, or wants to be, tied to Amazon/Apple etc).

That is when DRM will affect you.

If not Amazon, then some other store; and its happening NOW - see thread
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho....php?p=1113214

Snowman

[Doranna Durgin]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

The same holds true elsewhere. One inconclusive example is Baen Books. They offer ebook versions of everything in their catalog, plus ebooks from other publishers. Their ebooks are high quality, without the formatting and production issues others complain about from other vendors. They price very reasonably, and don't apply DRM. They're doing fine, thank you. Out of curiosity, I looked at various pirate sites. I could find all sorts of other stuff, but couldn't find Baen's selections, even though they have no DRM and would be trivial to pirate.
______
Dennis

Just as a data point, Dennis--and to show the pitfalls of assuming on short data--my Baen webscription books have been consistently and continually pirated, and even though they're finally removed from the Baen site/servers (years past when they were reverted, I might note, including one book that was put up *after* it was long reverted), they still show up. (I think I have several sites to hit with a DMCA even at the moment.)

I have never been happy with that program from an author point of view, which is not politic to say, but I think it's important to remember that appearances can be deceiving (hey, it's 5am my time, I'm gonna use cliches and make typos). I'm sure others feel differently, and have their own reasons. Mine are certainly much deeper than DRM issues.

Just one illustration of how things look unexpectedly different from the other side, sometimes.

[Steven Lake]

I myself have vowed to never have my ebooks offered in anything other than a non-drm'ed, open source format. The only exception I *might* make is the Kindle format since you have only one choice of formats on Amazon. But if they allow you to offer it in Epub, I'll be choosing that instead right away. Either way I'm 100% for non-DRM'ed ebooks using open formats.