The beginning of the end for DRM?

[VaporPunk]

The beginning of the end for DRM?

It would be nice if all publishers, online distributors, etc could come up with one universal format, make ebooks cheaper, and distribute DRM free literature that nobody pirates.

[charlesatan]

Amazon has DRM but as others have pointed out, it's opt-in/opt-out by the publishers. In general Amazon is neutral on the matter (neither against or advocates DRM-free books).

I do dislike Amazon for going Mobi instead of ePub, but that's another discussion.

I think slightly more viable for "protection" would be watermarking.

Still, lots of smaller publishers do have DRM-free eBooks like Angry Robot Books or participating publishers at http://weightlessbooks.com/

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by yoho

This DRM-free dream will never come true.

This is most likely the case, unfortunately.

[crossi]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Amazon is no better. They too use DRM. Any publisher/outlet that uses DRM is no better then anyone else.

Unless they go with no DRM, they cannot change the DRM in use as it will screw up many many readers. The reader hardware won't work with a different DRM and the apps won't either. This would mean that the manufacturers would have to redo the DRM for every device they have ever made and every app that's written that has DRM.

I don't like DRM but if I have to have it I want it mediated by the merchant I purchased the file from. I don't want to go to a third party because I can't open my purchase. Amazon at least has live people you can talk with and good customer service. Steam and Adobe are not businesses I would want to try to get help from at two in the morning if I could find a contact number at all.

[Kumabjorn]

Right now I'm reading Den motvillige monarken (The Reluctant Monarch), an unauthorized biography about the Swedish King (such a slut). It was sold DRM free to me from the largest eBook retailer in Sweden, it seems they have decided to go DRM free on all titles, in its place is a watermark, stating where I bought it and what the order number was. Should this end up on someone elses eReader and be discovered, I would have no option but to confess to piracy. This seems pretty fair to me, the responsibility is now mine, not the publishers nor the retailers.

[Zetmolm]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Right now I'm reading Den motvillige monarken (The Reluctant Monarch), an unauthorized biography about the Swedish King (such a slut). It was sold DRM free to me from the largest eBook retailer in Sweden, it seems they have decided to go DRM free on all titles, in its place is a watermark, stating where I bought it and what the order number was. Should this end up on someone elses eReader and be discovered, I would have no option but to confess to piracy. This seems pretty fair to me, the responsibility is now mine, not the publishers nor the retailers.

If someone's copy of an ebook ends up on someone else's reader with the personal watermark still in place, that would not imply piracy but probably only that someone lent/gave the book to a friend or neighbour, the way they would do with a paper book.

If you wanted to pirate your private copy, you'd remove the watermark first, which can be done as easily as removing any other type of DRM.

The whole concept of DRM is flawed. It can always be removed. If a book can be read, it can always be copied in some way or another. If all else fails I could even put my ereader on my scanner and OCR the book page by page.

Publishers should stop wasting money on DRM in any form and instead make ebooks cheaper.

[Kumabjorn]

Still prefer it as an alternative to Amazon and ADE DRM systems.

[jbcohen]

Zetmolom is saying the same thing that the computer security community has been saying for years. No matter what the security officals do to keep information safe there will always be a hacker to find a way around it. Security folks have been saying this for years and suddently publishers are listening, what took them so long.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

And maybe miss out on gaining some authors for their fledgling publishing labels. They've never claimed to be against DRM, just that they give the choice either way.

They would have enough weight now to that if they wanted to. DRM is more the publishers / author problem than shops.

[JoeD]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Zetmolom is saying the same thing that the computer security community has been saying for years. No matter what the security officals do to keep information safe there will always be a hacker to find a way around it. Security folks have been saying this for years and suddently publishers are listening, what took them so long.

The security professions don't know what they're talking about.

DRM works.

DRM will prevent people from copying your books.

We can implement a better DRM solution than all those others made by idiots that were cracked in no time for $$$$.

---

That's how I think the conversation between someone and a manager at the publishers will have gone anyway

What should have been asked is:

So, we're going to encrypt our books with a super secure lock.

Yes.

then we're going to give the super secure lock to the customer

Yes.

Then we're going to give them the key to the super secure lock.

Yes, oh.

[CyGuy]

Encryption of any kind on a product you purchase is not acceptable and should be removed as soon as you buy it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

This is most likely the case, unfortunately.

TOR is going DRM free later this summer. So maybe it's the beginning of the end for DRM.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by crossi

I don't like DRM but if I have to have it I want it mediated by the merchant I purchased the file from. I don't want to go to a third party because I can't open my purchase. Amazon at least has live people you can talk with and good customer service. Steam and Adobe are not businesses I would want to try to get help from at two in the morning if I could find a contact number at all.

Well, in all the time I have been downloading ePub via online stores or libraries, I have only ever had one day where there was an issue. I'm not worried about Adobe's DRM.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Well, in all the time I have been downloading ePub via online stores or libraries, I have only ever had one day where there was an issue. I'm not worried about Adobe's DRM.

Wait until you run out of activations and can't get a response from Adobe. Or 'til they update Content Server and you lose access to any DRM'd content you didn't know you had to update to the newer DRM scheme like they did going from Content Server 3 to 4.

Not saying it's necessarily likely, but it has happened and could happen again.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Wait until you run out of activations and can't get a response from Adobe. Or 'til they update Content Server and you lose access to any DRM'd content you didn't know you had to update to the newer DRM scheme like they did going from Content Server 3 to 4.

Not saying it's necessarily likely, but it has happened and could happen again.

Mobipocket's DRM was even worse. It bases the PID on your computer. So if you upgrade the OS (via a full install), move to a new computer, change the system drive, you lose the ability to open the eBooks as the PID is now different.

I know it can be a pain to have to contact Adobe if you run out of activations, but it can be done. With Mobipocket, your only solution was to try to download all your eBooks again and if the shop you bought any from was gone (aka PagerbackDigital), you are out of luck.