One author's pledge on DRM

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by sabredog

I am going to buy a couple more of your Chaos Chronicles ebooks now.

That is very kind of you.

[neilmarr]

I've passed your idea by my partners, co-workers and several of our authors, Starrigger and everyone's in enthusiastic accord. I'll draft something over the weekend and tech partner, Tony Szmuk in Canada, will place it wherever's best all over our website next week. Thanks again for an idea I'm ashamed to admit I never had myself. Simple, honest -- and another wee kick in the ass for DRM. Cheers. Neil

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by avantman42

Ah, fair enough. I know nothing about publishing contracts, but I was under the impression that it was common in all the creative industries for the creator to sign over copyright when signing a deal.

No. In most book contracts, the author holds the rights, and the contract licenses the publisher to produce an edition of the book in exchange for consideration. Exactly what rights the publisher gets and what the consideration is is a matter for negotiation. Hardcover and paperback rights are separate, as are ebook rights, foreign rights and subsidiary rights (like adaptation into a movie or TV show.)

The publisher will hold the rights in work-for-hire contracts. A good example is novelizations of media properties, like Pocket Books Star Trek line. Paramount owns the property and holds the rights (and has final approval over the books). Writers doing Trek books are on work-for-hire contracts for specified fees. They'll get advances and royalties, but have no rights in the finished product. Similar rules hold for things like comics and games. The writers, artists, et al are are playing in someone else's sandbox. They get paid for what they do, but do not own the properties they are working on, and aren't likely to get a piece of the action.
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by sabredog

I am going to buy a couple more of your Chaos Chronicles ebooks now.

They are very much worth buying. I believe the first time I met Jeff was at a convention, when I asked him when the next one (which became _Sunborn_) would come out.

Thanks for your trust in us, the reading masses.

You have my respect.

That "trust in us, the reading masses" is the key.

When I encounter someone who thinks DRM is a good idea to prevent piracy, I always want to ask "Why? Do you think everyone will cheerfully copy and give out the book to everyone, depriving the writer of sales, because it's what you would do, and you think everyone else is just like you?"

I may be an optimist, but ultimately, I think most people are willing to pay for value. The key isn't preventing piracy. It's providing value people are willing to pay for, and making it as easy as possible for them to give you money.

Jeff is certainly providing value worth paying for.
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Dennis

[nohmi2]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Ditto.

Cheers

[Blue Tyson]

Nice work.

Looks like some of these are next!

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

When I encounter someone who thinks DRM is a good idea to prevent piracy, I always want to ask "Why? Do you think everyone will cheerfully copy and give out the book to everyone, depriving the writer of sales, because it's what you would do, and you think everyone else is just like you?"


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Dennis

I can't say I'm particularly fond of DRM, but at the same time I can understand that publishers - having paid someone for a manuscript and invested in that manuscript to make it into a book - feel a need to protect that investment. With P-books the prolification of copiers initially had them just as scarred. It never took off because it was too much of a hassle. I believe the publishing industry is viewing DRM in the same light. They just want to make it into too much of a hassle for people to just give away a copy of an E-book.

Say you meet a friend while holding your Kindle/Nook/Sony and are asked what you are reading. "Ohh, it is this great book by Jeffrey Carver", you say. "Yeah, can I borrow it", you are asked. Being a friendly person you agree and out comes the laptop and USB cable. Now you can't actually lend the book to the recipient, you can only giver her a copy of it. A few weeks later you talk to someone else about the book and are again asked about borrowing a copy, and having entered middle-age your short term memory isn't what it used to be, you simply forget that you have already "lent" it someone else. Hence, another copy is on the run. No malicious intent, just a V6 memory.

The publishing industry is smart enough to know that they can never stop the hard core hackers, every new DRM scheme is just another intellectual challenge. We, let's call us ardent readers - a smart enough to know that unless authors are paid for their efforts, the publishing industry is going down the same creativity stifling path of the music industry, cover albums and rap. It is that large silent majority that carelessly listen to mind numbing covers and rap they are worried about. Just as an MP3 player was a key to free downloaded music, Kindle/Nook/Sony is - from the publishing industry's vantage point - the key to a Pandora's Box they are desperately trying to close.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

...Say you meet a friend while holding your Kindle/Nook/Sony and are asked what you are reading. "Ohh, it is this great book by Jeffrey Carver", you say. "Yeah, can I borrow it", you are asked. Being a friendly person you agree and out comes the laptop and USB cable. Now you can't actually lend the book to the recipient, you can only giver her a copy of it. A few weeks later you talk to someone else about the book and are again asked about borrowing a copy, and having entered middle-age your short term memory isn't what it used to be, you simply forget that you have already "lent" it someone else. Hence, another copy is on the run. No malicious intent, just a V6 memory...

Actually, you could lend the e-book without giving out a copy. Just give them your actual file. Of course, you run the same risk doing so that you would if you loaned out a p-book; you may never see it again. Also, the person you lent it to could always make a copy for themselves.

I made up mind several years ago after losing a couple of loaned books, including an autographed copy, to never loan them out again. And since e-books can be copied once out of my control, that is just more incentive to never loan them out either.

Btw, I'm long past the middle age, short term memory!

[Patricia Ryan]

(Cross-posted from the Backlist Ebooks thread.)

I feel much the same as you on the subject of DRM, Jeffrey. My view: Book piracy is loathsome but probably not too detrimental to sales. Most people aren't inherently larcenous, and people who download books illegally probably wouldn't have bought them anyway. To combat piracy by alienating honest customers is a bad idea. I unfortunately allowed my Kindle books to be DRM-protected before the issue was fully on my radar, and now I regret it, because it can't be undone. But Smashwords sells them in all formats (even .mobi, for the Kindle) without DRM. I'm not sure about Apple, Sony, Kobo, Diesel, etc.

Pat

[Vintage Season]

Originally Posted by starrigger

I'd be interested in hearing how other writers (or publishers) on the board feel about it.

Speaking as another writer, I wholeheartedly applaud and approve your efforts.

- M.

[Doranna Durgin]

Originally Posted by starrigger

Neill and KC, yes, of course you may use the text and adapt it in whatever way works for you. It's not like the idea's original with me. I just thought it should be stated outright.

I'd be interested in hearing how other writers (or publishers) on the board feel about it.

I'm new to this process and just learning the issues... I like what you say about it, and although my first couple of backlist ebooks are up at Kindle with DRM (but DRM free at Smashwords), I think I'll make a different choice in the future--and keep reading here so I can better understand the big picture of things.

--Doranna

[JSWolf]

A lot of us already know how to strip off the DRM. So what we will end up with is a DRM free copy. But the problem is that the cost of adding that DRM will get passed onto us. That is what's annoying. The DRM on most eBooks is not a lock to keep me out. It's an expense so I end up paying more. The only eBook DRM I cannot remove is that from Apple via iBooks. But then, I would not ever want to give even a penny to Apple for eBooks as it is Apple's fault we have thw Agency 5 in the US.

Anyway, to get back on topic, I do applaud Jeffrey for his stance on DRM.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

A lot of us already know how to strip off the DRM. So what we will end up with is a DRM free copy. But the problem is that the cost of adding that DRM will get passed onto us. That is what's annoying. The DRM on most eBooks is not a lock to keep me out. It's an expense so I end up paying more. The only eBook DRM I cannot remove is that from Apple via iBooks. But then, I would not ever want to give even a penny to Apple for eBooks as it is Apple's fault we have thw Agency 5 in the US.

Anyway, to get back on topic, I do applaud Jeffrey for his stance on DRM.

There's a million other things who's cost get passed on to the consumer as well. If only we could choose what to leave in, what to leave out.

[Oldpilot]

Originally Posted by starrigger

Anyway, can't I give a copy of my book to a reader if I want to?

Well, not if you expect the book to sell on Amazon.com. Amazon will match the price of a book at any competing retailer, and if the price is zero, it can and at least sometimes has de-listed the book.

I fail to understand the dislike of DRM on this board. All my books are DRM-protected, to the extent that it provides any protection at all, and I can't image why any author wouldn't protect his literary rights to the best of his ability. DRM-free is the equivalent of publishing in a world where machine copying was free and instantaneous. In such a word, nobody would publish anything worth reading, because it would all be stolen without recompense; the only books available would be propaganda and special pleading.

Art is not free. Even journalism--at least, journalism worth reading--is not free. Get over it.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Doranna Durgin

I'm new to this process and just learning the issues... I like what you say about it, and although my first couple of backlist ebooks are up at Kindle with DRM (but DRM free at Smashwords), I think I'll make a different choice in the future--and keep reading here so I can better understand the big picture of things.

I think the vast majority of folks on MR are opposed to DRM, but we're aware that at least for the moment, we're stuck with it.

DRM exists for two main reasons:

1. To lock you into a vendor. This is the case with what Amazon does. They use a proprietary form of DRM, and if you want to read a purchased, commercial title on a Kindle or with the Kindle app for various platforms, you have to buy it from Amazon. Amazon wants to sell you ebooks, and wants to be the only source from which you can buy them. Their pricing, selection, service and convenience is such that most Kindle owners don't see this as an issue, but it is lock-in, and the point of the exercise.

2. To prevent piracy. This is a lot thornier, and comes down to perceptions about the market.

I side with Cory Doctorow, who commented "A writer's biggest problem isn't piracy, it's obscurity." As a mid-list writer, your biggest challenge is simply reaching the audience who might like your work and letting them know you and your books exist.

Yes, piracy exists. Yes, there are people who will cheerfully copy and share your copyrighted books with all and sundry. Just how big an issue is this? What are you actually losing in lost sales because someone could get a pirate copy instead of buying one? You don't know, and you can't know. Sure, you can create an account on a file sharing site and monitor things like bit torrent files for ebooks to see how many seeds and how many peers there are. But that just tells you approximately how many illegal copies have been downloaded. It does not tell you how many of those pirated books were actually read instead of buying a legitimate one.

And it requires savvy and effort on the part of the downloader to locate and get the files, possibly installing software to let them do so. Only a small part of the market is likely to have the knowledge or take the trouble.

I worked in retail, a long time ago, and we called it "shrinkage". Stock would be missing from the shelf, without a sales receipt to account for it. My employer spent a fair bit of time and trouble considering the best ways to counter the problem, from store layout to whether you used uniformed or plain clothes security staff, but ultimately, it would happen, was a cost of doing business, and somehow, we survived. It was a nuisance, not a disaster.

I may be an optimist, but my feeling is that the majority of the market is willing to pay for value. Your challenge is to provide value, price fairly, and make it as easy as possible for people to give you money.

Amazon excels at the last: Whispernet on the Kindle means instant gratification. You can select, pay for, and download a Kindle edition at any time, day or night. Why go through the time and trouble required to locate and get a pirate copy?

The same holds true elsewhere. One inconclusive example is Baen Books. They offer ebook versions of everything in their catalog, plus ebooks from other publishers. Their ebooks are high quality, without the formatting and production issues others complain about from other vendors. They price very reasonably, and don't apply DRM. They're doing fine, thank you. Out of curiosity, I looked at various pirate sites. I could find all sorts of other stuff, but couldn't find Baen's selections, even though they have no DRM and would be trivial to pirate.

Baen trusts their readers, and the readers repay that trust with their dollars. I don't think it would occur to the vast majority of Baen customers to pirate a Baen title, and they would probably be offended at the idea.

Too much of DRM appears to me to stem from a a negative view of the market: "They're all a bunch of dirty so-and-sos who will rip us off unless we Take Steps to prevent it!" I reject that viewpoint. I think the majority of the market is willing to pay for what it wants. There will be exceptions, but there always are. The exceptions won't be enough to to cause problems for the legitimate readers who just want to buy your book and read it, and not have to jump through DRM hoops or be restricted in where they can buy to do so.
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Dennis