Shall I wait for 2021?

[binaryhermit]

Originally Posted by Quoth

That's why we will never use DRM.

I assume "we" is Corvid's Press?

I mean, DRM is futile.

Remember when an unofficial ebook of the 7th Harry Potter book came out before the paper book because someone got a paper copy, uploaded pictures of the pages to the internet, and the internet did their thing?

(Plus, all it takes is one person with the ability to bypass the DRM and upload it where one would upload pirated ebooks)

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

I mean, DRM is futile.

No. DRM is important for lending libraries and the associated end of lending.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

No. DRM is important for lending libraries and the associated end of lending.

They and the publishers think it is. In reality it's purely political. It's futile and simply adds a barrier compared to paper loans.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by Quoth

They and the publishers think it is. In reality it's purely political. It's futile and simply adds a barrier compared to paper loans.

And how else can you guarantee that an ebook can only be borrowed for a certain period of time?

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

And how else can you guarantee that an ebook can only be borrowed for a certain period of time?

You cannot. While you have the book you can make a copy of it. Than you can do what you want with it.

You can also keep your reader in airplane mode and the book never goes away.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

You cannot. While you have the book you can make a copy of it. Than you can do what you want with it.

Yes, but with DRM it becomes illegible after the specified time.

You can also keep your reader in airplane mode and the book never goes away.

That is also of no use.
And when you think of ALF, there is also DRM other than Adobe's.

[binaryhermit]

that said, DRM usually ends up getting broken fairly quickly.

All the streaming services are DRMed, but almost anything culturally relevant on those services ends up available unofficially/illegally elsewhere practically upon release.

Or look at the BluRay AACS debacle, I think they eventually just gave up on it after trying to fix it after keys leaked multiple times...

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

that said, DRM usually ends up getting broken fairly quickly.

That only depends on how great the effort is compared to a benefit or how great the interest in it is.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

And how else can you guarantee that an ebook can only be borrowed for a certain period of time?

It doesn't work. ALL DRM has the flaw that you have to see and hear it.
Absolutely NO DRM does what it claims. Not even Streaming, it's the easiest to circumvent.

At the ultimate you photo or scan each page using a cheap lego robot to turn the page and OCR.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by Quoth

At the ultimate you photo or scan each page using a cheap lego robot to turn the page and OCR.

That is a lot of work and is it worthwhile for an e-book from a lending library?
You can also do that with a paper book.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

That is a lot of work and is it worthwhile for an e-book from a lending library?
You can also do that with a paper book.

One can get an ebook by scanning any paper book. There are services where you send them the paper book and they scan it for you. Back in the old days, before Kindle, people would scan books and put them on various newsgroups on usenet. It wasn't uncommon for groups of people to split up chapters of a book so it could be scanned quicker. Pretty much any book of any popularity at all was scanned and available. No one made money, it was just a bunch of people who were into art of scanning and editing books, much like the free library here. The difference is they ignored copyright laws.

Anytime you have a dead tree copy of a book, then DRM for the ebook doesn't prevent piracy. It makes the copyright holder and publisher feel better perhaps and it discourages Aunt Martha from loaning her ebook to her friends, but that's pretty much it. Before J.K. Rowling decided to release the Harry Potter books as ebooks, they were widely available for free on the darknet. Heck, the last Harry Potter book was available on usenet before the book was actually released. As far as I know, it didn't hurt sales in the slightest.

[Quoth]

Google playstore is full of scanned books of dubious provenance. For years their default upload type was PDF.

I'm 100% against copyright violation, piracy. But the USA sponsored DRM and increasing copyright duration (mostly for the benefit of Corporations like Disney) is not about protecting creators rights. It's about commercial control of consumers. DRM has almost no impact on piracy, but for consumers runs contrary to the intentions of the Berne Conventions on Copyright.

DRM is more evil than piracy.

DRM for the ebook doesn't prevent piracy

even if there is NO paper version.

[binaryhermit]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

As far as I know, it didn't hurt sales in the slightest.

It's hard to know if this is true or not, but given that JK Rowling is at least a multihectomilliomaire and possiblly a billionaire pretty much all on the back of the Harry Potter books...

(hecto is the SI prefix for hundred)

[ottischwenk]

I am not defending DRM.
In my opinion, there is only one reasonable reason for this - automatic temporary lending in libraries.

[jago25_98]

Can I have my thread back? ;

I've owned this eInk phone and Kindle for a few months now. I prefer the phone because:

1) The phone Kindle app can do Immersion reading (Audible synced to kindle books). The Kindle can't.

2) The Kindle is smaller than I realised but the phone is still more pocketable.

The phone's Chinese though, loaded with spyware. Blockable with a firewall but not to be relied on so I can't use it for much phone stuff.

However, after using this for a while I've noticed that I don't need to use my glasses with it, so long as the backlight is off. IS THIS NORMAL?! I don't have this experience with standard print size books.