STUDY SHOWS: Ditching DRM could reduce piracy, prices

[teh603]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

I think that publishers have been doing a very poor job of winning over consumers. A lot of people see ebooks as being as expensive as print books, very low quality, and having too many restrictions. While these restrictions may be implemented through DRM, that doesn't mean that DRM must be restrictive. (For example: publishers can focus upon using 'watermarks' to identify the source of pirated books and place minimal restrictions upon how you read the book.)

You actually just hit on a form of "DRM" that I have no issues with at all. My books from DriveThruRPG are all watermarked, and its never caused an issue with my being able to read it

Course I don't go around putting my ebooks up on torrents or anything like that, either.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I am doubtful, however, that his current marketing model would work in a purely eBook situation. That's not to say that he's doing anything "wrong" of course; just that he'd probably need to re-think things if his primary market was not paper books, which it is at present.

Why not? I don't think the pbook/ebook distinction has anything to do with it. It's not like his for-sale books are ONLY pbooks.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Why not? I don't think the pbook/ebook distinction has anything to do with it. It's not like his for-sale books are ONLY pbooks.

Because MOST of what he current sells are paper books. I don't know how many eBooks he sells, but I suspect (and I may of course be completely wrong!) that relatively few people will choose to buy what's available for free.

Time will, of course, be the judge of what marketing strategies do or don't work in this "brave new world".

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Because MOST of what he current sells are paper books. I don't know how many eBooks he sells, but I suspect (and I may of course be completely wrong!) that relatively few people will choose to buy what's available for free.

Time will, of course, be the judge of what marketing strategies do or don't work in this "brave new world".

True, but it's not like he's giving away the same book he is selling. They are different. It's more like getting a free sample or first chapter in order to see the book or other books by the same author.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Because MOST of what he current sells are paper books. I don't know how many eBooks he sells, but I suspect (and I may of course be completely wrong!) that relatively few people will choose to buy what's available for free.

Time will, of course, be the judge of what marketing strategies do or don't work in this "brave new world".

Doctorow is also an unusual case in that he owns BoingBoing, one of the top ten visited websites on the net, which he also uses to discuss his work. There's not anything wrong with this, of course, but what CD does is not necessarily replicable by other authors.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Doctorow is also an unusual case in that he owns BoingBoing, one of the top ten visited websites on the net, which he also uses to discuss his work. There's not anything wrong with this, of course, but what CD does is not necessarily replicable by other authors.

Very true!

[HarryT]

He also has the same initials as Charles Dickens. That's got to help.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HarryT

He also has the same initials as Charles Dickens. That's got to help.

and the same last name as E.L. another famous writer.

I think it's a conspiracy!

[Sil_liS]

I don't know why some people think that DRM would be effective in any way. Different people have different views on sharing, but I don't see how DRM would keep more people honest.

A person buys an ebook. They want to share it with the world. If they are tech savvy enough to share it, they are tech savvy enough to find the tools to break DRM, so DRM is ineffective.

A person buys an ebook. They want to share it with a friend. If there is no DRM, that is easy to do. If there is DRM and the buyer knows how to remove it, it is easy to do. If there is DRM and the buyer doesn't know how to remove it, but the friend does, the buyer will learn how to remove it. If neither knows how, but another friend does, then two people will learn how to remove DRM, and the other friend will probably get the book as well. If the buyer has a friend, or friend of a friend, or internet friend that knows how to remove DRM, then many more people will learn about DRM, and probably more will get the book. If the buyer is too lazy for this, the friend will probably find a sharing site and get the book from there, instructing the buyer on where to find free books next time. One way or another, DRM doesn't work, but in the removal process more people might get access to a free book.

A person buys an ebook. They don't want to share it with anybody. DRM isn't necessary.


I was amused by the locked door analogy. I lived in a student house two years ago where everybody got what amounted to single room apartments, and where all the doors were locked with electronic keys. I do mean all the doors, even the fire safety doors on the hallways. Even with the keys, we only had access to the hallways leading to our rooms and to the laundry rooms on our floor. As a result, trying to visit somebody in the same building meant going outside, ringing the other person's room (the intercom wasn't working so this would have to be planned, otherwise they wouldn't know who was calling), waiting for them to come down and being led to their room. I heard that other buildings had it worse, because at least we could go out without needing a key, but others needed keys to get out as well. The result? Fire safety was traded off for ease of movement on the hallways. Sure, the sheets of paper keeping the doors from locking could be easily removed, but they could be easily replaced as well.

[afa]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Doctorow is also an unusual case in that he owns BoingBoing, one of the top ten visited websites on the net,

Er, no. I just checked Alexa (because I was stunned by the Top Ten claim and wanted to confirm) and Boing Boing is ranked 891 in US and 2,029 globally.

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

I don't know why some people think that DRM would be effective in any way. Different people have different views on sharing, but I don't see how DRM would keep more people honest.

At this point, I think that DRM is driving people in one of two directions. They either refuse to use the product, as a matter of principle or because they have been bitten by overly restrictive DRM; or they bypass the DRM altogether, either for reasons that should be legal (the ability to use a product they purchased how they wish) or for reasons that shouldn't be legal (the piracy angle).

But I think that's a product of poorly implemented DRM. A lot of people buy and sell books on the used market, or they donate books to libraries and charities for fund raising; or they lend books to friends, textbooks for studying or novels for discussing. I believe that part of the reason for this is because noone knows how to handle these usage scenarios in a medium where copying data is easier than moving data from place to place, yet there is also an undeniable desire from at least some publishers and authors to move to a one-book, one-reader model (that is especially true for textbook publishing).

Over all, I think that DRM is a good idea in the sense that locked doors are a good idea. They allow people to trust each other because there is a token barrier. Yet I don't think that the current models for DRM are a good idea because there are too many restrictions and there are too many pitfalls. Current DRM models are more about distrust than establishing mutually agreeable boundaries.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

At this point, I think that DRM is driving people in one of two directions. They either refuse to use the product, as a matter of principle or because they have been bitten by overly restrictive DRM; or they bypass the DRM altogether

... or they don't give a damn about it - which I strongly suspect, based on my interactions with "normal" eBook owners, is the case for the typical user, who buys books in the store that's linked to his reader, and has never even heard of "DRM".

[kjk]

Originally Posted by HarryT

... or they don't give a damn about it - which I strongly suspect, based on my interactions with "normal" eBook owners, is the case for the typical user, who buys books in the store that's linked to his reader, and has never even heard of "DRM".

And Amazon has probably been the most proactive of large corporations in working hard to ensure that "DRM" isn't an issue that comes up for "normal" eBook owners-by providing seamless access on a lot of different devices-computers, smart phones, tablets, and the web, along with their own eReader devices.

[SmokeAndMirrors]

Originally Posted by HarryT

... or they don't give a damn about it - which I strongly suspect, based on my interactions with "normal" eBook owners, is the case for the typical user, who buys books in the store that's linked to his reader, and has never even heard of "DRM".

Until they get an email that they're about to lose support for their books. Which they don't have backed up anywhere because they're not allowed to make copies. Or until they get an ereader that won't read that DRM. But they can't convert the file. Then they care.

I won't say most people I know who use ebooks know about DRM because most people I know don't use ebooks. But most people I know DO know about DRM on music, movies, and/or games. The only reason that's not as true for ebooks is because they're not as ubiquitous yet. Compare the percentage of the population who uses digital music vs. the percentage who use digital books. and how long those respective technologies have been mainstream, and you've accounted for most of the difference.

Why do you think people care in the first place? If DRM were such an inert thing, no one would care, even here, but the geekiest of geeks who like the play around with things for the sake of it. People know because they've gotten burned by it.

Watermarks were mentioned above. How many people care about that? How much coverage do watermarks get vs. DRM? Hardly any, because you're far less likely to notice a watermark, and a watermark doesn't stop you from doing reasonable things with your own content.

I don't think watermarks are a perfect solution and I have some issues with it. But I'm far less bothered by it than I am by DRM. There's at least a discussion to be had about watermarks and how to implement them. DRM is just a bad solution any way you look at it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by SmokeAndMirrors

I won't say most people I know who use ebooks know about DRM because most people I know don't use ebooks. But most people I know DO know about DRM on music, movies, and/or games.

I know half a dozen people who've bought Kindles in the last year. They buy books from the Kindle bookstore. They read them. They've probably never heard the word "DRM" and wouldn't know what it meant if they did.

"Being burned in the future" is only an issue if you re-read books. My experience is that most people don't. They buy a book, read it, and never read it again. They aren't buying books to keep, or to collect; they're buying them as a form of ephemeral entertainment.