One author's pledge on DRM

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

In other words, I expect DRM to be dumped in time, and eventually usurped by another document security system that can be applied to digital products like ebooks, which will actually work.

I wouldn't hold my breath. The document security I can see people spending time and effort on has nothing to do with copy protection. It's digital signing and watermarking so you can be sure the document you get is from who it claims to be, and is a true bitwise copy of what was sent.

You don't care if it gets copied - only where it came from and that it hasn't been altered in transit.
______
Dennis

[Freeshadow]

Originally Posted by MrPLD

It seems the 'most effective' balance a lot of software makers go for is to have a light level of copy-prevention, just enough to let you know you're being "naughty" but then give you an upgrade path without any questions. That way, you feel redeemed of your sins and they get a lock-in.

Paul.

comperable to the watermarked PDFs sold by RPG rulebook retailers I think

individualised, not nagging,

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I wouldn't hold my breath...

Oh, trust me, I'm not. Nonetheless, I think most people are assuming that since today's DRM doesn't work, it naturally follows that nothing will ever come along that will work. I personally believe that thinking is short-sighted, akin to assuming that aircraft would never carry more than 2 people, or that cars would never be more than rich men's toys. Or that a computer would never be much smaller than a house.

Those examples turned out to be wrong, but they weren't disproven overnight. I expect "DRM will never work" to be disproven, but not overnight. I think it's 50-50 whether or not they achieve it before I die... and at 50, I plan to continue to take breaths, and live a while longer.

And until they figure out workable DRM, I'm perfectly content to do without.

[Freeshadow]

it will only wprk if the systems distinguish between people not "ways of use" as today since it depends on who is doing something with a file rather than what is done to determine if its fair use or not.

(i ve spomwhere on MR a post bout that i could look up)
as long as the files are in focus it is restriction management since the owner is out of scope. when you get a user based model (and not a file/or device based as today) we could get a rights management since it is the person recieving rights via the act of purchase and no devices or accounts on some companies servers.

there d be needs to universal ID protocols allowing transfers of digital rights in a way similar to handing $_phys_obj to somebody.

Methinks you agree such protocols are far future thing...

[MrPLD]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

You might be able to accomplish the same things with Quark, or the open source Scribus product, but you would just as soon not have to try.

So glad I've invested my time into Inkscape and Scribus, I know they're not the 'top of town' but they certainly still outpace me for what they can do versus what I need. For authoring/typesetting I leave it in the capable hands of LaTeX/LyX. Certainly nice to be using OpenSource in this situation.

Paul.


http://elitadaniels.com - Tree of Life (Part I)

[Doranna Durgin]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

I can't speak to issues of royalty rates, or contract terms, or any of those kinds of things. But the bundling is sheer genius! It got me to try out a ton of authors whose books I would never EVER have purchased on their own. There're quite a few I didn't (and still don't) like. More whose books I now check out when I see them, and many who've gone on the "buy it all, ASAP" list. Including you.

Xenophon

From a marketing/reader POV, the Webscriptions program did some innovative and successful things. I'm grateful that one of those things led you to read my books!

[JSWolf]

Does anyone here remember how Amazon screwed lots and lots of people when they decided to stop selling eBooks and people could no longer download them when they needed to update the DRM on the legally purchased eBooks?

Well, Amazon sold eBooks before the Kindle and when they stopped selling them, people who had bought from Amazon could no longer download them again when they upgraded their systems and need a new copy. Amazon screwed lots of people. Since Amazon has a piss-poor track record with eBooks, why are people falling for Amazon and eBooks yet again? If Amazon had insisted that all the eBooks be DRM free back then, then nobody would have been screwed over. Now Amazon is a player in the DRM wars and a player on the enemy's side. So really, why buy a Kindle and then buy eBooks from Amazon when we know history can and often has a way of repeating?

[Doranna Durgin]

Originally Posted by starrigger

Doranna, I'm sorry to hear of your negative experience with the Baen program. I've found it to be a customer-friendly site, but their royalty rate to authors is on the low side, and they do make mistakes. (They put my Free Library books up for sale for a while, by mistake. But they caught it, apologized, took them down, and sent me a check--enough for dinner at a downscale restaurant.)

It would be inappropriate to go into detail here, but my negative experience with the program--and one of my books was among the very first to go up--goes far beyond low royalty rates and even beyond the things that were obvious (if inexcusable) mistakes.

Re your pirated books, are you certain it's the Baen ebooks that were pirated?

It would be naive of me to state so with utter certainty, but the facts don't add up to coincidence. (I will mention that I was with them before the program, and not all of my books were entered into the program.)

I'm not staying awake nights over it. I was only responding to Dennis' post, which didn't reflect my experience in any fashion.

The Baen program itself has been successful in many ways and has created understandable loyalty and a good reader resource. It is, however, an example of how the experience can be different behind the scenes.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Does anyone here remember how Amazon screwed lots and lots of people when they decided to stop selling eBooks and people could no longer download them when they needed to update the DRM on the legally purchased eBooks?

Well, Amazon sold eBooks before the Kindle and when they stopped selling them, people who had bought from Amazon could no longer download them again when they upgraded their systems and need a new copy. Amazon screwed lots of people. Since Amazon has a piss-poor track record with eBooks, why are people falling for Amazon and eBooks yet again? If Amazon had insisted that all the eBooks be DRM free back then, then nobody would have been screwed over. Now Amazon is a player in the DRM wars and a player on the enemy's side. So really, why buy a Kindle and then buy eBooks from Amazon when we know history can and often has a way of repeating?

Really Jon.. we all know how you feel... Sony reader rules and Kindles drool.. but please stop with the FUD. This isn't an Amazon only issue. The sony store and many others use DRM too. What happens if Adobe decides that DE and their DRM just isn't working out, so they drop it. You'll have the same issue.

BOb

[MrPLD]

Just to even up everything, let's not forget the Sony-Music rootkit debacle.

Let's face it, almost all large corps will do stuff like this if they think there's a profit-margin boost in it, real or perceived.

[patrickt]

"I figure if I treat you with respect, you'll respect my need to earn a living, so I can continue to write."

Good luck.

[MrPLD]

Originally Posted by patrickt

"I figure if I treat you with respect, you'll respect my need to earn a living, so I can continue to write."

Good luck.

Sadly, while there are a few people who live by that mantra, there's a lot more who'll sooner take advantage of anything in order to leverage themselves further.

That said, I wish all the best of luck - many of us write because it's a passion and I believe that's the right type of choice to make.

[Steven Lake]

Originally Posted by MrPLD

...many of us write because it's a passion and I believe that's the right type of choice to make.

Exactly! If you write just for the money, you're in the wrong field. But if you write because you love to, and it's a passion, then you're in the right field. My thought is this. If you're doing something, regardless of what it is, and you love doing it, and would do it the rest of your life even if you never got paid a single dime for your work, then you're doing the right thing.

But, if you'll only do the work for the money, then you're in the wrong job and doing it for the wrong reasons. Personally, I'd rather support someone who does it because they love it, rather than someone who does it because it makes them lots of money, even if the one who does it for the money produces a better product. Now just because someone makes money at something doesn't mean they're a lesser person. If you love what you're doing, AND you can make money at it, that's awesome! But if you're doing it JUST for the money, and don't love what you do, then that's not. I hope I made myself clear.

[MrPLD]

For now I'll have to keep searching around, or at least keep on putting more fingers into more pies until I strike the golden one.

The latest one for me is to ride along with my wife as she writes the novels and I do all the other stuff associated with bringing that to the world. We aren't rolling in the money yet but we've only just started and we haven't even really had a chance to get in more than a couple of the first reviews.

Paul.

http://elitadaniels.com - Tree of Life (Part I). They shall age like us; they shall die like us - High Fantasy.

[neilmarr]

What a refreshing attitude, Steve. On the other hand, the labourer is worthy of his pay. Produce something folks like and they'll happily pay a fair amount for it. This frees you -- and encourages you -- to produce more. Bestest. Neil