How do you write a book in lrx format

[p3aul]

I am not a troll. I have read every one of your arguments and they are full of obvious flaws. I consider them invalid. You forget that I'm not the one writing the book. But if I were than I would certainly want copy protection. If you were writing books you would think so too. Or are you just an idealist? You can't argue with success and so far copy protection has been very successful. I too like open source. I admire those who write programs like Kovid who wrote Calibre, but unlike you, it wouldn't disappoint me or make me angry if he started charging for it. I would just pay him and thank him again for writing such a good program.

[pepak]

My last word on the topic. Maybe you will benefit from it:

Unlike you, I do not consider a copy protection the only thing that prevents me from copying other people's works. Unlike you, I hold to a certain moral standard and wouldn't do things I consider wrong just because I can. Simply put, unlike you I am not a thief but a moral creature.

See how easy it is? I can simply attribute some characteristic to you, no matter how stupid or invalid it is, then bash you for holding that characteristic. If someone points out that I am wrong and you never said the things I accuse you of, I can always shrug that off and give you another label, just as derrogatory. But, surprise surprise, with intelligent people such kind of "argumentation" will only bring hartred on myself, not on you. You may want to reflect on this. Good day to you.

[p3aul]

Thank you! I'm glad it's your last word. Even though you chose to ignore my last post and didn't rebut. I, however will reply to yours. It's what I am that's important to me, not what others think. I have laid out my case plainly and logically for future readers, not for the present ones...

[deltop]

There are many authors out there selling their novels drm free.

Baen is a publisher which is making money selling ALL their books without drm. If this didn't work why would they still be doing it? Why would authors use them?

You say you consider all our augments invalid.

If people are willing to scan in hardback and paperback copies and distribute them, then how does drm work? It is just being bypassed. Legitimate purchases will buy the drm version but pirates will just download the non-drm'ed scanned copy. DRM didn't help here.

If a drm method requires the content to be decrypted at some point (which of course they all do, otherwise you couldn't read the book!) then there will always be a way to crack it.

Look at authors like Jeffrey A. Carver and Simon Hayes, they are selling ebooks without drm.

http://www.starrigger.net/
http://www.spacejock.com.au/

If it was such a terrible idea why would people who make their money from books do this? I bought all of Simon Hayes novels without even reading the first one he gave away free, just so I could show my support! He doesn't believe his customers are thieves.

I understand your argument about hardback and paperback books. In years gone past your right you would have had to go out and buy the paperback version as well as the hardback if you wanted a more portable copy. But electronic media is viewed differently by the public. The music industry has had to accept that the vast majority of people do not want to be told how and where they can play their music. Music they have paid money for. If I've worked a 50 hour week and spent my hard earned cash on a book/album I don't take kindly to being told I can only listen/read on only 1 of my devices. They have HAD to embrace drm free downloads. The same will happen with ebooks. If a person buys an ebook and you try and tell them they have to buy another copy just to read on a different device they will just get upset.

This is an artificial restriction. It's not a restriction based on how difficult it is to physically copy the books, like it is trying to convert a hardback to a paperback.

When you introduce artificial restrictions like drm, your customers get annoyed. It happened with the music industry why would it not happen with the ebook industry?

[p3aul]

My answer to this got clobbered by my computer somehow. I'm tired of the shortcommings of these so called forum editors. From now on I will copy and paste with notepad!

I'm tired of this anyway. I started out by asking a polite question about writing a book with copy-protection and got lambasted by a bunch of fanatics with faulty logic and impossible conclusions. National and international commerce and law dictate wether there will be DRM or not DRM, not some people with axes to grind on a forum somewhere. I prefer DRM. You don't. Just go your happy and blissfull way and I will go mine. The only conclusion one can draw from all this is that a handful of people on mobileread forums won't buy DRM books. Most will. so keep Mobileread forums to your selves. I can do without it!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by p3aul

Why would you be for DRM free books and music if you weren't planning on copying it at some point and giving it to some one else?

Here is a true situation where DRM has come along and bitten people on the ass big time.

Let's say you own a Kindle. Now you've purchased a subscription to some newspapers and blogs. Current issues do expire after a while and are not longer able to be downloaded from Amazon. You archive the issues you want to keep on your computer. That's all well and good so you can reread them any time you want. Your Kindle develops a fault while still under warranty. Amazon sends you another Kindle. This other Kindle has a different PID. All that subscribed content you've purchased and saved so you can access when you want is not totally useless as the PID of those files will not work with the replacement Kindle and because they are no longer available at Amazon, you'll never be able to read them again.

Does this sound like a good thing? It's not. It's all the fault of DRM. If they had been files without DRM, they would have worked on the replacement Kindle. This is just one situation that has happened to people and none of these people were going to share the files, they just wanted to be able to access them on their Kindle which they now no longer can do.

Ok, here is another scenario. You have say a Gen3 that happily displays Mobipocket format files. You accidentally break the screen and on top of that, it is no longer under warranty. So instead of sending it in for repair, you decide to see what other devices are out there. You decide you want a device that supports ePub so you decide to purchase a Cool-er. The Cool-er does not support Mobipocket. No problem you think. I'll just use Calibre to convert my legally purchased content to ePub and I can then have my content back. Wrong, DRM is in the way and prevents this from happening. All that unread legal content is now just wasted money. Why? BECAUSE OF DRM.

Here's yet a third situation. I have a Palm device that is using eReader. No eink devices support eReader. So I decide I want a larger screen eink device to use to read books with. Does this mean that because of the DRM, I cannot convert my content to work on my new device?

And in neither of these examples was DRM in the way so the files could be shared on the net. The DRM was in the way to allow people to read the files they legally purchased. Now can you see why DRM is bad?

[deltop]

Originally Posted by p3aul

My answer to this got clobbered by my computer somehow. I'm tired of the shortcommings of these so called forum editors. From now on I will copy and paste with notepad!

I'm tired of this anyway. I started out by asking a polite question about writing a book with copy-protection and got lambasted by a bunch of fanatics with faulty logic and impossible conclusions. National and international commerce and law dictate wether there will be DRM or not DRM, not some people with axes to grind on a forum somewhere. I prefer DRM. You don't. Just go your happy and blissfull way and I will go mine. The only conclusion one can draw from all this is that a handful of people on mobileread forums won't buy DRM books. Most will. so keep Mobileread forums to your selves. I can do without it!

Your the one who started the name calling. All we are trying to do is get you to is debate the points being raised.

You've yet to explain why our logic is faulty and why our conclusions are impossible. We've given you reasonable explanations and conclusions based on our own experience as to why drm is bad.

I've yet to see you explain why any of what we are saying is wrong.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by p3aul

Well, I guess your minds made up so I'll stop trying to confuse you with the facts. As I said before, your conclusion about DRMless books being good for the publisher is just mindset, it's not logical. Your concept is like me buying a hardback book; reading it, then taking it back to the dealer and saying "Here is this hardback book. I'm not giving it back to you but, because I've bought it, now I want the paperback version for free.
Can't you understand *that* bit of logic?

When we find out about a publisher and/or author releasing eBooks without DRM, it gets more of us to go check out the eBooks then it would had hey had DRM. This is a fact. And for an unknown author, this is a good thing. Then all it takes it one person to purchase, read, and post a positive review on MR. Then you'll find sales rising based on that. And this all started because there is no DRM.

What facts have you provided us with? The only "facts" as I see it are that we are all thieves and without DRM we WILL steal. That is an asinine assumption that has no facts associated with it.

I will give you a fact you will find (I hope) interesting. Most of the DRM free eBooks out there are not actually pirated as must as eBooks with DRM. That is the truth. Now what do you have to say about DRM?

I know some people who will take a CD that has copy protection and pirate the hell out of it on general principle. But if the CD doesn't have copy protection, they will not steal it. So the copy protection is working in reveres there.

Why are you so bitter? Why do you think we are all crooks? Do you know that reasonable prices and no DRM work better for having your work less distributed all over the net?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by p3aul

Everyone has a right to an opinion. But I would like for someone to comment on this simile. >>Your concept is like me buying a hardback book; reading it, then taking it back to the dealer and saying "Here is this hardback book. I'm not giving it back to you but, because I've bought it, now I want the paperback version for free.<<

Then I'll shut up. Any takers?

Do you have a portable music player? Have you ever converted a CD into digital music file such as mp3 for this music player? All we are waning to be able to do with eBooks is the same sort of thing.

[Riocaz]

People, don't feed the troll. Particularly a troll who can't even grasp basic facts (like say that DRM is not a form of copy protection but rather a catch-all phrase which essentially boils down to "copy protection").

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Do you have a portable music player? Have you ever converted a CD into digital music file such as mp3 for this music player? All we are waning to be able to do with eBooks is the same sort of thing.

He's apparantly a very old troll (given his comments about "before you were born") better to ask if he remembers copying that LP to cassette (though even that may be a bit new for him).

Actually how about this: DRM is like buying sheet music but being told that it was only playable by their approved musician. And should that musician meet with an unfortunate accident it can never be played for you again.

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by p3aul

The first case or the second? Which Publisher is going to continue making money and which author will make money enabling him to write more good books?

How about Baen & John Ringo or David Drake, for example? :-)

[maggotb0y]

I'll answer your simile with another one. Let's say that the hardback book you bought could only be read with a certain type of lightbulb. The market for these special lightbulbs is growing fast, and the manufacturers aren't making that much money on them. Different publishers have selected different types of lightbulbs that will make their book viewable.

Would you buy a book that could only be read with a special light bulb or pass for one of the millions and millions of books that can be read under good old fashioned sunlight?

Everyone in this discussion is saying that they'd rather pass than buy such a book, and your response is to call them thieves. If you yourself are interested in seeing the other side of your position, I'd urge you to take a look at the successes of Cory Doctorow, who has gained a book purchasing audience by not only distributing DRM free electronic books, but by doing so for FREE! The truth is that there is plenty of free competition out there for an author's books, most of which are perfectly legal - getting lost in the argument of whether people will choose the illegal thing is not going to get you anywhere. The real question is, "how do I get my product into the hands of as many paying customers as possible?" If releasing your wife's book with DRM forces some people to pass altogether on your wife's book, or encourages pirates to crack the DRM or scan the pbook and post it to scribd, the net result is that there are sales lost as a result.

The "proof" or statistics for either side of this argument regarding ebooks simply doesn't exist, because ebooks and book piracy are still relatively new and the numbers are small (hey, the number of peoples who even read books, pirated or not is pretty small). The music industry has been largely destroyed by DRM, and is just now getting around to acknowledging that, and switching to DRM free distribution models. Seems to me a pretty good admission from the music industry that DRM was a failure. Perhaps book publishers (and authors) should try to learn from this history.

[ChaosInc]

Originally Posted by p3aul

I'm tired of the shortcommings of these so called forum editors.

I'm tired of this anyway. I started out by asking a polite question about writing a book with copy-protection and got lambasted by a bunch of fanatics with faulty logic and impossible conclusions. National and international commerce and law dictate wether there will be DRM or not DRM, not some people with axes to grind on a forum somewhere. I prefer DRM. You don't. Just go your happy and blissfull way and I will go mine. The only conclusion one can draw from all this is that a handful of people on mobileread forums won't buy DRM books. Most will. so keep Mobileread forums to your selves. I can do without it!

You sound like my father when he was alive, very opinionated and unable to have an open mind. I am sorry for you that you will not even look into any suggestions these kind people have given you.

So your wife is writing the book but it's your baby?

Talk to those authors that were mentioned, you have the links to them in this thread. These are NOT fly-by-night-and-first-timer-or-just-beginning-authors, they are respected in their field over years and years of time and one was on the panel to choose the best of the best for the year in their field.

I buy my ebooks, thank you very much in ONLY DRM-free, and I do not take being called a thief very well. None of us do and yet you have persisted in saying so. There are legal torrents and illegal ones. I choose the legal ones. And who gave you the right to say you were older than me anyway? I am retired and loving it! (Do you personally remember when gas was only 12 cents a gallon?)

The reason I have chosen to have only DRM free books to buy is simple.

1. When I first bought an eBook, it was with Adobe Ebook, when my computer crashed, I couldn't down it again, and my 'permissions' were gone. I lost a book that I had just downloaded and hadn't even opened yet!

2. When I tried mobipocket and/or ereader, the first time the reader software(s) had to be updated, the PID numbers changed and I lost all my books until I could a) redownload them with the proper PID, or 2) rebuy something I already owned, which I refused to do.

3. I have not yet found new reader software for some formats that will work on an older PPC operating system with these newer ebooks. It is only 10 years old, and from the time that you were born, most things were really made to last a long time, not like today. Wouldn't you at least agree with that statement?

Since I know that you will not read the entire posting, let me say this: With your attitude about being like my late father, I wish you well in finding a forum that agrees with you, as that is what you are looking for, not to have an open discussion and possibly learn something new.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by p3aul

With that kind of thinking, I'm wondering if you are all from Somalia! Just like the CD generation! You think nobody should keep you from owning any kind of computer file you want. What kind of distorted thinking is it that "If you can get it for free, you're going to run out and purchase it!" Just like the signature say's in one of Mobilereads' members " If you don't pay authors, soon you won't have any books!" And I doubt very seriously that pirated books are increasing J.K. Rowlings sales. What kind of logic is that? Before most of you were born, probably, J.R.R. Tolkien had a blurb in his books that said" This publisher, only, has the write to print these books in America. Those who have respect for living authors will buy this book and no other" He did this for the obvious reason we are discussing now. But no, I bow to your superior knowledge. The financial departments of all these publishing houses have concluded that copying books in digital format hurts their sales and hurts the authors, but what do they know? Do you think that, knowing it would increase their sales, that they would forbid it?

Don't you think it a bit selfish to want authors to write for the sheer love of writing. I think that's a bit idealistic. Experiments have shown that websites who cater to budding writers, who sell their books for little or no cost, soon fold. The writers who don't write well would never even get published in the big publishing houses. That's just how the system works. If all you want is quanity, not quality, then by all means continue to support free books, but please give recompense to authors who request it.

You are not reading the replies or you are missing the point. DRM doesn't prevent piracy, so what's the use of it?. With DRM you just piss off your paying customers while your pirate readers laugh at you and at the people who paid for an ebook and cannot do what they want with it (for example, moving them from their old reader to a different make new one). When you write a book and sell it in paper format, you no longer control what the user does with it. You would never dream of telling a reader "Not to be read in bed" or "You are not allowed to carry this book to the bathroom" or "It is forbidden to write in the margins" or "Not to be re-sold".
So publish your book in paper format and give nearly all your effort to the publishing industry. Someone will scan and OCR it and make it available for download, because there is no DRM for paper books.

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by p3aul

My answer to this got clobbered by my computer somehow. I'm tired of the shortcommings of these so called forum editors. From now on I will copy and paste with notepad!

I'm tired of this anyway. I started out by asking a polite question about writing a book with copy-protection and got lambasted by a bunch of fanatics with faulty logic and impossible conclusions. National and international commerce and law dictate wether there will be DRM or not DRM, not some people with axes to grind on a forum somewhere. I prefer DRM. You don't. Just go your happy and blissfull way and I will go mine. The only conclusion one can draw from all this is that a handful of people on mobileread forums won't buy DRM books. Most will. so keep Mobileread forums to your selves. I can do without it!

Somewhere earlier in this thread you asked "Which Publisher is going to continue making money and which author will make money enabling him to write more good books?"

The reason a poster referred you to Eric Flint's essays on Copyright and DRM is that he publishes through a mainstream publisher (Baen Books) whose books can be found in most bookstores in the US. And the publisher issues its eBooks without DRM because they believe that they make more money that way.

I repeat: They publish DRM-free because it makes them more money! And they do it with very low prices for eBooks as well. AND they're pulling in more money from eSales than from all non-US sales combined (around 20% of gross, and rising).

They have the numbers to show it, too. And before you dismiss Flint and Baen as being "niche" publisher and author, please note that Baen has shown these results on books ranging from poor sellers to NYT-best-sellers (even top-5 best-sellers in many cases). The majority of Flint's recent books have all hit the best-seller lists. And he has no problem with piracy either (that's not "he approves" but rather "his work largely isn't pirated" because there's no point -- it's available for a fair price on fair terms).

Far from "faulty logic and impossible conclusions" you're seeing posts from people with real data and real examples. Please go read Flint's essays on the subject. They contain actual sales and royalty data. Really. Not "faulty logic and impossible conclusions" but real hard data from the real world. Really.

Xenophon