10-05-2012, 09:50 AM | #1 |
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Setting user permissions with Sigil?
Hi all,
Totally new to the world of creating epubs, but I've had a good time learning Sigil this week! I was just previewing my epub with ADE and with Bluefire on an iPad, and in both instances, when I check the metadata/info on my epub, it says that the permissions for viewing, copying and printing my epub across all devices is basically completely unlimited. Of course, that's not exactly what I want! Is there a place in Sigil where I would modify those permissions, or do those permissions get set when I actually post the epub up for sale? Many thanks for your help on this very basic question |
10-05-2012, 09:59 AM | #2 | |
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The sell you the DRM controls. For the self-publishing Author the $$$ for this service is . You need to use a Publishing house that provides this as part of the contract. |
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10-05-2012, 07:39 PM | #3 | |
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I'll also state, utterly apart from DRM issues, that having books downloadable/for sale/whatever on your own site creates a massive customer service burden. If your clientele is sophisticated, in a techhie way, great. If they're not--if they're typical end-users--prepare yourself for the onslaught of people who, apparently, have never downloaded anything from a browser who will call you in a snit because they can't figure out how to load a book in ADE. Trust me, the CSR burden alone is worth paying Nook or iBooks or Kindle to do. Just my $.02, and not worth what you just paid for it, Hitch |
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10-05-2012, 09:02 PM | #4 | |
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There is once in a while the defiantly, willfully ignorant customer who refuses to follow directions to learn how to open a pdf file, but for them we have print books. I guess it takes all kinds... |
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10-06-2012, 04:22 AM | #5 |
Wizard
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i thought that self-publishing on Amazon, in Kindle format, was v cheap & simple, and that Amazon add their DRM for you. In fact, though I could well be wrong, I think Amazon just take a royalty - there is no up-front cost.
so you may be better advised to convert your finished product to .mobi ( use Calibre) & take it there |
10-06-2012, 02:18 PM | #6 | |
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Yes, that's right. All the majors (Amazon, B&N, iBooks & Kobo) allow the publisher to add DRM, optionally. It's not merely cheap, it's free, if we're simply discussing the publishing/uploading process. Amazon's DRM mechanism is proprietary, so unlike Adobe's option, there isn't a private-sector or independent MOBI DRM scheme, of which I'm aware. (Unless the mobiunpackers here are planning to create a repack w/DRM, but, somehow, I just don't see that happening! ;-) My comprehension of the OP's original post was about DRM in general, for ePUBs, so...it was to that, that I responded. I actually get this question 2-3x a week, about selling from a website of their own, so I made an assumption. I could have jumped the gun. ;-) Hitch |
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10-07-2012, 06:19 AM | #7 |
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out of curiosity - how easy would it be to build a pottermore type solution i.e. don't try to add any DRM but instead add some unique seller info to each copy sold. could that be a simple scripted process with the right tools ?
i would guess that the sort of folks who will honestly purchase a self published book from an author's own site are not the sort of folks who will then upload it to a torrents site or send copies to everyone in their address book so I would question the need for drm anyway - but I suppose it only takes one bad apple... Last edited by cybmole; 10-07-2012 at 06:22 AM. |
10-07-2012, 07:24 PM | #8 | |
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There is also the issue that a user can "legitimately" lose his file, for instance I've had my reader stolen on one occasion. |
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10-08-2012, 04:20 AM | #9 |
frumious Bandersnatch
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And while a user might not willingly distribute the file to millions of people, he might give it to a friend, the friend will store it in his/her large library, copy the library for other colleagues next week and in a blink the file appears in the net for anyone to download.
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10-08-2012, 05:19 AM | #10 | |
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It's the same problem that drove software companies to licensing and keycodes, etc., back in the floppy days, etc. John Doe would take home a copy of Lotus 1-2-3, from his office, which had purchased it, and install it on HIS home computer. Then he'd load the disk to his buddy, who'd lend it to his wife, who'd lend it to her nephew, and his best friend, and, and and. That's the casual theft problem in a nutshell, and it doesn't get the respect, from the anti-DRM folks, that it deserves as a genuine problem for the copyright holders. We're not even talking about people who would think of themselves as thieves or pirates; they simply do it because they're "helping a friend," or "read a cool book," etc. Don't give it a moment's thought, and the spread tends to be geometric. I truly do wish some type of efficient digital watermarking could indeed come to the fore. I'd support an effort, but I just don't see the technology lending itself to it at this time--maybe never. Just my $.02 Hitch |
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10-08-2012, 01:16 PM | #11 |
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all I can suggest is press peoples honesty / guilt buttons.
a preface page saying if you like this book please buy a copy + a similar appeal on the author's web site.. DRM is demonstrably ineffective anyway - although removal discussion is not permitted here there are thousands of de-drmed books on net, same as for music, movies, sofware.... if it's digitlal it is probably out there already. the other route is the sigil / calibre route, we cant MAKE you pay so it's free if you don't want to, but donations to the cause are encouraged / accepted. if digital IP is doomed you just have to sell physical accesories ( AKA you can steal the book but you still have to pay for the t-shirt / mug/ bumper sticker/autographed picture...) PS I maybe need some mental re-programming, but 50 years of reading books for free, via public libraries, makes it hard to grasp that e-books should be paid for, especially as they are now also slowly making their way into libraries worldwide. I googled this & it seems that in the UK, authors do get 6p per library book loan but in the good ole USA they get nothing ??? PS I confess to nowadays lurking a lot on Kindle top 100 free list at amazon. There's more than enough well written free stuff to feed my habit & I've sussed how to get those into epub for my sony reader PPS my previous question about "pottermore" style watermaking was not "is it secure" but "how easy is it for an author to do" Last edited by cybmole; 10-08-2012 at 01:28 PM. |
10-08-2012, 01:31 PM | #12 | |
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An interesting issue is that if John Doe pays more for a file than for a paperback (which might have a higher perceived value) he might reasonably expect to be able to do at least as much with it as with the paperback. You could call everyone and his grandmother "thieves" and try to prosecute them, but if this does not fit with the public conception of what reasonable uses for your purchases are you have a very real PR problem on your hands. This is certainly a thorny problem, and no-one has a solution which would satisfy all parties as far as I know. And - <slashdot>it's not "theft", it's copyright infringement *ducks* </slashdot> |
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10-08-2012, 01:45 PM | #13 | |
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The coding itself might be very simple, provided that you don't demand that it be very difficult to remove. Something like adding a personalised line to the legal page could be done by a simple script which searches for placeholders in your file and replaces them with the customer's name, for instance. You could also add steganography to images, encode stuff in whitespace, and do all sorts of tricks which might be more difficult to remove (but never impossible). The problem is that this necessarily needs to be done at the point of sale (download), which likely means that *you* would have to administer customer sales/support, and probably all infrastructure like payment systems, servers, security, and so on. This is fairly complex, and probably not feasible to do for a private individual. That is where distributors come in, they can usually handle watermarking as well as technical DRM, but at a price. |
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10-08-2012, 02:00 PM | #14 |
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Hitch I'm with you on that.
+1 to cybmole too. Cultivation of problem awareness is the only key. Altough I don't count myself as one of the dreamers believing that all humans are good if you only dig deep enough, I firmly believe that putting a finger stright on the issue belps a lot. Natively playable Linux games are a positive proof of that. |
10-08-2012, 02:04 PM | #15 | |
Wizard
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OK so we can't simultaneously read the paperback, unless we sit real close! , but concurrent usage is not really the issue. We can't legally share , even if we promise to only have one reader at any one time. - well I suppose we can if we pass the e-reader around but that is messy. Yet we can legally, AFAIK, share DVDs, CDs... it is an anomaly |
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