One author's pledge on DRM

[MrPLD]

Steven,

Well, I've converted my wife, my family... and my wife even writes her books using Linux (LyX)

Okay, it's not widespread conversion but at least it's starting. Might be a good idea if authors, when they go out on tours or have a captive audience to start informing people of the risks of DRM, or rather, the positives of not having DRM.

Paul.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

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

Remember me why i de-drm my books, or why I have DRM. That's exactly the problem with DRM.

DRM cannot work, for two reasons :
- No security is bullet proof. Everything can and will be cracked.
- Software is buggy. You will always find cases where the drm locks out the legit user.

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

- No security is bullet proof. Everything can and will be cracked.

Ahhh, my friend, THAT is where you are wrong! I have it on good authority (quite good in fact) that the leading PHs are preparing to release a new DRM system that will offer 100% security as well as work on every ereading device in existence (based on current technology).

Step 1.) After logging in, select the material you are interested in purchasing from any of the fine and competitive online retailers.

Step 2.) Enter/confirm you financial information for said purchases.

Step 3.) Download you new purchase from one of our secure transfer sites.

Step 4.) Enjoy looking at the cover in one of the many numerous electronic bookshelves available for so many readers!

(Now, they do admit that the current problem they are having with this particular DRM is that you aren't allowed to open the book at all. Still, after extensive in-house focus groups they've come to the revelation that most people don't want to actually read the ebooks. In fact, this new DRM will solve almost all the most vocal complaints from the un-well-scented literate masses.

1: No covers. The new system will almost ALWAYS include a cover (of some sort) so you can gaze in awe at you new, authorized ebook!

2: Text and formatting errors. Another problem solved after careful and arduous testing and development. If you can't read the book then any errors will be unnoticed. Brilliancy in action!

3: Reader lock-in. Another concern, this new system solves the inability to use on multiple devices or after switching devices. Each device registered under you 48 digit ownership number (must be a mixture of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols in at least 3 languages and alternating each digit with a randomly selected one from our site) will be able to download the new DRM-featured ebook with no hassle or effort (aside from mandatory re-entering all information for each ebook on each device upon initial download).

4: And most importantly, this system will solve readers most pressing concern of how to prevent the PHs from losing money. Since the files contain nothing other than a (possible) cover, the money saved on proofing, editing, and publishing can all be passed to you, the consumer! (Minus small in-house fees.) Thus will (theoretically) be cheaper than even print books! Again, in-house testing has given a low, low price of -10% off of the MSRP hardback price as a wonderful incentive that will drive most honest readers wild with consumer lust.)

So lay aside all these silly and out-dated conversations about DRM. That was the past and the Future is Now!

Whoops, Now is now then....

Okay, Now!...blast, it's already then again. Looks like we need some more work...

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by MrPLD

Might be a good idea if authors, when they go out on tours or have a captive audience to start informing people of the risks of DRM, or rather, the positives of not having DRM.

That is an excellent idea. It reminds me of a recent experience I had, when vacationing in Mexico: On every tour, in many shops, and on the streets, I was reminded by Mexicans that most of them are not salaried, they live on tips, so please be generous, etc, etc. It was often a boilerplate statement, but being repeated over and over, it sunk in.

If ebook authors had a boilerplate statement, something short and to the point, that they could throw in at any public appearance or speech, they could begin to spread the word to the reading public about DRM.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

DRM cannot work, for two reasons :
- No security is bullet proof. Everything can and will be cracked.
- Software is buggy. You will always find cases where the drm locks out the legit user.

Security doesn't have to be bulletproof to be effective.

Software gets better.

Don't assume that things will never get better than they are right now. Technologically- and historically-speaking, that's a losing bet.

[MrPLD]

Steven,

It's quite probable though that a lot of authors with extremely large captive audiences might not have that ability due to their tie-in with their publishers - however, for the rest of us I think it's a worthy thing to push for.

I can imagine if the likes of J.K.R. and S.Meyer suddenly sprouted some non-DRM rhetoric it would become a very interesting environment very quickly.

Paul (who should be sleeping by now!)

[Doranna Durgin]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

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.

Such as it is with my writing, about which I am passionate enough to have devoted my life (well, since I was 12).

However, I do also need to eat. And I do think that I deserve to be paid for my work just as everyone else is, and not to apologize for preferring not to live in poverty (not that anyone has suggested I should, but I feel an implication in the conversation as a whole). So I don't have any embarrassment about my concerns for finding the right balance when it comes to finding the best approach for getting paid for what of mine is being read, whatever it might turn out to be... If I'm uncertain about DRM issues, it's with good reason: my personal stakes are pretty large.

I hope to continue learning here, so I can be wiser about it all.

[MrPLD]

Doranna,

Simply put - even with DRM your books will get onto the torrents, it's inevitable.

DRM is a way of ultimately alienating the very people you're trying to draw money from - or worse, peeving them off after they've given you the money.

If you let go of the concern and just focus on writing, publishing and marketing the books you'll find it's one less thing you have to care about.

Paul.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Don't assume that things will never get better than they are right now. Technologically- and historically-speaking, that's a losing bet.

I'm perfectly willing to assume that things will get "better". But what is better depends upon who you are and what you are doing. I'm not willing to assume the new state will be better for me.
______
Dennis

[markbond1007]

The problem isn't really someone like Amazon going under and "releasing" the DRM source for you to unlock it yourself. Most of the DRM "formats" (Adobe ePub/Mobipocket/Amazon) rely on retailer servers to authenticate your book (the exception that I'm aware of is eReader that uses a credit card). The problem is more a retailer/publisher using one of these formats. Lets take fictionwise as a really good example, to read one of their Mobipocket encrypted books you have to enter your device PID into their server, which then calls the mobipocket servers (well actually I believe its a third party distributer but that adds even more fragility) and you get to read it on your device (PC/ebook reader/laptop/etc.). If you want to read it on a new device you need to re-log into Fictionwise and add a new PID and re-download the book. Should Fictionwise ever shut up shop, you will be unable to read your book on any new devices (think replacing your PC/ebook reader etc) ever again (without certain DRM stripping tools of course). Even should fictionwise ever decide to stop supporting Mobipocket this will happen. Now fictionwise do not own the mobipocket encryption "rights" so cannot release it. So you are stuck basically!

The theory behind so called DRM is basically flawed anyway and has been ever since they started putting loader protection on old 8 bit tape loading games and macrovision on VHS. Why? because every one of these pieces of Media are designed to be watched/listened to/read/etc. and once out of the control of the encryptor someone will be able to copy/unlock it because they are designed to be unlocked (so you can actually consume them), taking this into account someone will always be able to reverse engineer the unlocking process given sufficient time and will, I mean look at the time and effort people go to, for copying paper based books and uploading them for no apparent reason (I mean by the time they have scanned each page, OCR'd and error corrected them they have read the book several times already).

Mark

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Security doesn't have to be bulletproof to be effective.

It does in this case. It only takes one person to crack/bypass the DRM for the content to appear all over the filesharing networks. The average person does not defeat their own DRM, they don't need to. They just get a copy from someone else who already has.

Software gets better.

It isn't a software problem. The concept of DRM is impossible to enforce. It has nothing to do with how good the software is.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

It does in this case. It only takes one person to crack/bypass the DRM for the content to appear all over the filesharing networks. The average person does not defeat their own DRM, they don't need to. They just get a copy from someone else who already has.



It isn't a software problem. The concept of DRM is impossible to enforce. It has nothing to do with how good the software is.

Doesn't have to be perfect, just has to be good enough to prevent the majority from attempting to get it for free .... of course this plays in with the pricing as well.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Doranna Durgin

However, I do also need to eat. And I do think that I deserve to be paid for my work just as everyone else is, and not to apologize for preferring not to live in poverty (not that anyone has suggested I should, but I feel an implication in the conversation as a whole). So I don't have any embarrassment about my concerns for finding the right balance when it comes to finding the best approach for getting paid for what of mine is being read, whatever it might turn out to be... If I'm uncertain about DRM issues, it's with good reason: my personal stakes are pretty large.

Doranna, there are two basic issues:

First, does DRM help prevent piracy of your work? The answer is "almost certainly not". I don't know of any DRM system that has not been cracked almost immediately after release. And once one copy is cracked and the DRM removed, the floodgates are opened. The person who cracks it can upload it to file sharing sites, and it might as well not have had DRM at all.

DRM is about as effective at preventing piracy as the average door lock is at stopping a burglar who is a skilled lock picker. The good ones will go through the door without breaking stride.

DRM is effective at pissing off the customer. I have a simple desire. I want to download electronic content once, and read it on whatever I happen to have. That may be a desktop PC, a laptop, a netbook, a tablet, a smartphone, a PDA - for that matter, there a ebook viewer app for Nintendo DS handheld gaming devices. I want it in a format I can convert, if necessary, if the format it is delivered in if one I can't read on the device I want to use. (For example, my usual ebook reader is a PDA that handles everything expect ePub. No problem if there's no DRM in the way: I can convert the ePub to something I can read.) DRM schemes usually work by locking the content to authorized devices, and may not let me read the content on everything I have. It will certainly prevent me from format shifting to accommodate devices that don't have native support for a particular format.

Most folks I know on MobileRead immediately strip the DRM from content they purchase to avoid such issues. I take it one step further, I simply refuse to purchase DRM protected content.

Second, you got pirated. So what?

Sure, there's a nasty feeling of violation and outrage. You're upset, and I don't blame you. But what have you actually lost? How many potential sales did you lose because your work got pirated? How much money did you not get because someone downloaded and read a pirated copy of your work instead of purchasing a legitimate one? You don't know, and you can't know. You can to some extent track the number of illegal downloads, by creating an account on file sharing sites and watching the activity, but all that tells you is that someone downloaded a file. It doesn't tell you what they did with it afterward.

For example, I found a torrent file that had links to 13,000 SF/Fantasy titles. Do you think anyone who downloads the torrent will actually read more than a tiny fraction of the total?

It all comes down to your feelings about the market.

Mine is that piracy is like shoplifting of physical goods at a retailer - a nuisance, not a disaster. Yes, there are pirates. Yes, there are people who will happily benefit from the pirate's labors, and grab a pirated copy instead of buying one.

But while I may be a starry-eyed optimist, I think that the majority of the market is honest. They are willing to pay for value. Your challenge is to provide value they find worth paying for, price appropriately, and make it as easy as possible for them to find your content and give you money.

Instead of worrying about and trying to take measures to prevent piracy, invest the time and effort into letting the folks who might like your work know that you and it exist, and grow your readership. The more people who read your stuff and want more, the more who will pay you for it, pirates or no.
______
Dennis

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

DRM is about as effective at preventing piracy as the average door lock is at stopping a burglar who is a skilled lock picker. The good ones will go through the door without breaking stride.

It's worse than that. Imagine a whole line of burglars standing outside your door. Only one of them needs to be a skilled lock picker. Once that one burglar opens the lock, the rest of them can just walk right in and take whatever they want.

Instead of worrying about and trying to take measures to prevent piracy, invest the time and effort into letting the folks who might like your work know that you and it exist, and grow your readership. The more people who read your stuff and want more, the more who will pay you for it, pirates or no.

Exactly. Worry about making your product a better value for your customers. Pirates are not your customers.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Security doesn't have to be bulletproof to be effective.

Software gets better.

Don't assume that things will never get better than they are right now. Technologically- and historically-speaking, that's a losing bet.

Technology to make drm gets better, but so the does technology to crack drm.
The only reason i buy books with drm is because I can strip them off. Publisher own the author of indept a lot for fixing their crap. Else, i would have lived without the book, or gotten the totally drm-free pbook.

I understand the desire from authors to get paid. But as a customer, piracy is not my problem. I'm not the one pirating books, i don't give a damm others do. I just want to read ! Why should I be restricted because of some idiots ? Why should I pay, when all I get in return is restrictions that the people who got the book for free don't have ? The paid for book must be of better quality, not lesser quality.