DRM poll: How do you deal with it.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Would you buy from Amazon if you could not strip the DRM of most of their eBooks knowing their past history with eBooks?

Bit of a red herring that ... or a red HarryT if you like.

Nobody in the UK can buy Kindle books at all, so it's kinda academic.

But since I'm not in the UK, I'll say that this concern would probably be enough by itself to keep me from buying a Kindle at all.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Would you buy from Amazon if you could not strip the DRM of most of their eBooks knowing their past history with eBooks?

Today? Yes, because I believe that with the Kindle, and their enormous investment in MobiPocket, Amazon have demonstrated their real committment to the eBook business. The past is the past - the eBook market was very different when Amazon made their abandoned experiment in selling PDF-format books.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Would you buy from Amazon if you could not strip the DRM of most of their eBooks knowing their past history with eBooks?

As I've said before. Stuff happens. The odds that Amazon will do this are no more or less than loosing your pbook collection for some reason. Actually, I would be less concerned about Amazon and Sony than fictionwise/BoB/Diesel, etc.

BOb

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

As I've said before. Stuff happens. The odds that Amazon will do this are no more or less than loosing your pbook collection for some reason. Actually, I would be less concerned about Amazon and Sony than fictionwise/BoB/Diesel, etc.

BOb

Totally agree, Bob. As I've said before, I've never considered an eBook to be a "lifetime investment" any more than I consider a paperback book to be. I've bought several different paper versions of my favourite pBooks over the years (about 6 different versions of "The Lord of the Rings", for example!). If I have to buy a different eBook version in 20 years time, because the format I bought it in before is no longer supported, it's not the end of the world.

An eBook is generally cheaper than a takeaway pizza. I don't stress about whether or not a pizza is "worth" buying because of its "restrictions" (what? I can only eat it ONCE? What sort of a rip-off is that?); I don't stress about eBooks either .

[bill_mchale]

Cool,
Thanks everyone for the feedback so far.

My personal choice is to not buy books with DRM, though I might, if it was supported by a dedicated reader, buy books with ereader style DRM.

My general thoughts about buying books with DRM and stripping it later is that it does not, ultimately, impact the bottom line of the publishers. I want publishers like Baen that publish non-DRM'd books to experience much larger growth than those who publish DRM'd books; ultimately that might convince the others to stop requiring DRM as well.

Of course that being said, there are quite a few books in the Public Domain I want to read as well .

--
Bill

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

Cool,
Thanks everyone for the feedback so far.

My personal choice is to not buy books with DRM, though I might, if it was supported by a dedicated reader, buy books with ereader style DRM.

My general thoughts about buying books with DRM and stripping it later is that it does not, ultimately, impact the bottom line of the publishers. I want publishers like Baen that publish non-DRM'd books to experience much larger growth than those who publish DRM'd books; ultimately that might convince the others to stop requiring DRM as well.

Of course that being said, there are quite a few books in the Public Domain I want to read as well .

--
Bill

i feel the same way, which is why i try to avoid drm-ed books as much as possible (sadly, i'm not a big fan of science fiction, so there's not much to tempt me at baen, which i regret, because i thoroughly approve of their policies and want to support them). and luckily there is also a lot in the PD that i want to read too, so i tend to give this preference while waiting for the publishers to finally figure things out (as i am sure they will, eventually).

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

OK... I think I might have hinted that I liberate ebooks.. but you want me to go on record with an official poll? My RIAA/MPAA warning horn is going off.

BOb

I run a utility that does a data integrity check on the file and removes some instances of data corruption that could cause me from being unable to read it in the future.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Barcey

I run a utility that does a data integrity check on the file and removes some instances of data corruption that could cause me from being unable to read it in the future.

nicely said.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Barcey

I run a utility that does a data integrity check on the file and removes some instances of data corruption that could cause me from being unable to read it in the future.

Heh. Pretty sure it wouldn't hold up in court... but cute, nevertheless!

[pdurrant]

If this poll had been set six months ago my answer would have been different - a plain "I don't buy books with DRM". I even sent email to the most appropriate contact at publishers, mentioning that they'd lost sales through DRM when I came across books that I would have liked to buy, but that I wouldn't because of the DRM.

Then a way to strip DRM became available. . . .

I still mostly buy non-DRM books, but I do now also have a couple of hundred ex-DRMed eBooks.

[Gibbo]

I have to vote for "other" cos I mostly buy DRM ebooks and also free ebooks from baen.com

[tompe]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

As I've said before. Stuff happens. The odds that Amazon will do this are no more or less than loosing your pbook collection for some reason. Actually, I would be less concerned about Amazon and Sony than fictionwise/BoB/Diesel, etc.

BOb

But if you loose you p-book collection it is just one collection that is lost. In the case of Amazon all peoples collections are lost. The reduction of happiness is much bigger in this case.

[Lemurion]

I look for what I like in non-DRM first, and spend most of my money at Fictionwise and Baen precisely because they do offer non-DRM books. Even if a book does have DRM I prefer to spend at FW because they offer a DRM-free alternative when possible.

When I do buy DRM I prefer eReader because I think it's a better scheme and want to support it with dollars, though I will buy Mobi if eReader is unavailable. I don't strip the DRM (I've done so once with each format to make sure I know how to do it) unless I have to. I've stopped buying secure .lit because my Palm doesn't support the format.

With Mobi, I'm also going to avoid buying from anywhere that doesn't let me enter the PID manually- as that's caused me problems.

In short, I live with DRM when I have to, avoid it when I can, and remove it when I must.

[JSWolf]

There is no reason to think Sony will pull out of the eBook market and if for some reason they did, the readers out there would still be ok as it's easy to strip DRM and convert content. But I think Sony is in it for the long haul. At least I hope so. The more players, the better it will be in the long run (IMH). I'd like to see more readers for sale in the uSA in shops where people can actually try them.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There is no reason to think Sony will pull out of the eBook market and if for some reason they did, the readers out there would still be ok as it's easy to strip DRM and convert content.

But people wouldn't be able to take content they'd bought FOR their Sony elsewhere - that was the point that I was making. The two DRM formats that Sony supports - their own LRX format and ePub with Adobe Digital Editions DRM - are both (currently) only supported on Sony Readers.

That's what I meant - if Sony were to pull out of the eBook market, peoples' libraries of eBooks would become worthless once their current devices "died" - there would be no way to move the content to other devices.

If you choose formats like LIT and Mobi, those can easily be converted to other reading platforms, but I'm certain that the overwhelming majority of Sony owners only buy their eBooks from "official" sources such as the Sony eBook store. We, in this forum, who are happy to do format conversions, don't represent the "typical" owner by any stretch of the imagination.