STUDY SHOWS: Ditching DRM could reduce piracy, prices

[VydorScope]

(SRC: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/09/d...inconvenience/ )

This may run counter to what your common sense tells you but, a new paper out of Duke and Rice University says that ditching DRM could actually reduce piracy. The study, which relied on analytical modeling, showed that while copy protection made illegally sharing content more difficult it had a significantly negative impact on legal users. In fact, the researchers say, "only the legal users pay the price and suffer from the restrictions [of DRM]." Many consumers simply choose to pirate music and movies because doing simple things, like backing up a media collection, is difficult with DRMed content. Even the most effective DRM is eventually broken, and fails to deter those already determined to steal. Meanwhile, abandoning these restrictions could increase competition and drive down prices (as well as remove a serious inconvenience), encouraging more people to legitimately purchase content. You can check out the November-December issue of Marketing Science for more details.

Follow source link for link to the full study.

[MeiLin]

This completely does not surprise me. DRM moves me to such gnashing of teeth I'm unwilling to buy DRM'ed materials. Look at music. They had to take DRM off eventually.

[SmokeAndMirrors]

Also unsurprised. People simply aren't going to buy products that they aren't allowed to use in basic, reasonable ways. It's like buying a cell phone that makes calls, but only during the hours of 11am to 3pm Mon-Wed, won't save numbers, won't let you call anyone outside your network, and every now and then, they issue a complete recall of a model and staff of the company go door-to-door and break everyone's phones. And no, they won't replace it with something else should they break it. You have to buy a new one. And it's completely incompatible with anything that worked with your previous phone.

If most cell phones were like that, I'm sure there's be a large black market for cell phones. Obviously a lot of people wouldn't actually PAY MONEY to be treated that badly. This should shock no one.

Even now (where cell phones are, of course, nothing close to that bad) there's still circumvention techniques for phones. Because in the technology age, telling people what to do with their own stuff just doesn't fly anymore.

I get that the book world is getting scared, as the latest form to media to start feeling real pressure from the internet. But how many times do defensive industries have to try and fail with DRM before they learn?

Customers have rights, too. And businesses will have to get used to the idea that in the digital world, you can't make people pay to be treated badly - there's a way around everything, your would-be customers will find it, and ultimately you'll just cost yourself money.

[RainingLemur]

I really don't think that no DRM would reduce piracy THAT much. If it's easy to get something for free, people are going to get it for free.

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

I really don't think that no DRM would reduce piracy THAT much. If it's easy to get something for free, people are going to get it for free.

it's easy to get things for free now but nobody is going bankrupt from it. ebook sales keep going up despite ebook piracy being mind-bendingly easy to do. video games have record year after record year despite being (i assume) easy to pirate. people still go to the movies, people still buy dvds, etc.


these books/games/movies don't exist in a vaccuum, drm is cracked so easily that it may as well not even exist.

there are ALWAYS going to be thieves. always. just as there are honest people who will always pay for things. personally i don't appreciate things i get for free. yes i've dabbled in "the 7 seas" but have since had a change of heart. i enjoy paying for the things i want because i end up appreciating them more and i've come to realize that i truly do respect the people behind the products i enjoy.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

I really don't think that no DRM would reduce piracy THAT much. If it's easy to get something for free, people are going to get it for free.

I think it will, to a point.

Eliminating casual piracy would be the big result of removing DRM universally.

Readers wanting an ebook can be free to purchase full well knowing that if they change their ereader at some point in the future they can easily format change without having to buy the same book again.

Removing geographic restrictions would be another BIG step in the right direction and that would have a much bigger impact on casual piracy.

I doubt that piracy of music, movies, TV shows, software and ebooks will ever be eliminated, no matter how much is done to try and stop it.

[Ken Maltby]

Publishers and Authors seem to equate breaking DRM with "theft" of their product.
Almost all of the breaking of ebook DRM is by those who have purchased the ebook,
and just want to use it on the device/s of their choice and have a more secure book
that will not be subject to obsolescence.

DRM has nothing to do with "Pirating", popular books get Pirated before the ebook
version is released. (In the case of Harry Potter, years before.)

Removing the DRM from the ebooks that you buy, does not make you a thief, nor is
there a loss for the author or publisher.

Having DRM on an ebook, has no impact on the priates, at all.

Luck;
Ken

[toddos]

This is information the music industry already learned years ago. It's pretty much a "duh!" moment to realize that it applies equally well to ebooks and TV/movies.

Hopefully the DRM-free release of the Harry Potter books next year will be the catalyst needed to get the rest of the industry moving.

[J. Strnad]

I'm happy to see that my gut reaction against DRM is getting some verification.

[wannabee]

I thought I'd have a read of the article.

Pay per Article - You may access this article (from the computer you are currently using) for 2 days for US$30.00.
Regain Access - You can regain access to a recent Pay per Article purchase if your access period has not yet expired.

Anyone got a pirated copy?

[frahse]

---
Copy protect on digital. -O.K.
---

((Ken, there is your DRM hook))

[ImogenRose]

Interesting. Thanks for the link.

[toddos]

Originally Posted by frahse

I see a lot of misunderstanding where people don't know how and why things are done in the book world. People, whether authors, publishers, sellers, buyers, robbers, legitimate borrowers, resellers, lenders, all have their reasons for doing what they do, and many times resent others who aren't sympathetic to their decisions.

I just saw an article about cell phones, texting, and new methods of avoiding the high texting charges which had a quote worth repeating here.

"Zero is a really compelling price point."

I dare say that there are few people that will turn down something free, or even very cheap if they don't personally have to take a risk to steal it.

Others will glory in their successes at thwarting the rules and the laws.

All will give excuses, and find reasons for their actions, and among their peers or co-conspirators will find ready acceptance and even applause.

Years ago, when I thought to see if some work I had been dabbling in since middle school would be accepted by a Publisher ... <snippity snip snip>

SMS/cell phone texting is a super bad example if you want to talk about what something's worth. SMS by definition should be free. It only exists because there were a few unused corners of the GSM specification that could be leveraged to store ~160 characters of 7-bit-encoded, packed text. Thus as long as there's still GSM phone service available, texting is available without any other expense to the carrier. Most of Europe historically has free texting because the cell phone companies didn't figure out that texting was actually worth something until it was too late. When GSM made its way outside of Europe, carriers started charging for SMS texts (and ridiculous rates -- $0.10/text for something that costs the carriers nothing is insane). They can't really take that away from Europeans anymore, but they set the precedent with Americans and others that "SMS is expensive".

As for the rest, it has nothing to do with DRM, other than the very bit at the end where you say you generally do whatever your publisher tells you to (Publisher says we'll use DRM: OK).

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by frahse

I see a lot of misunderstanding where people don't know how and why things are done in the book world. People, whether authors, publishers, sellers, buyers, robbers, legitimate borrowers, resellers, lenders, all have their reasons for doing what they do, and many times resent others who aren't sympathetic to their decisions.

I just saw an article about cell phones, texting, and new methods of avoiding the high texting charges which had a quote worth repeating here.

"Zero is a really compelling price point."

I dare say that there are few people that will turn down something free, or even very cheap if they don't personally have to take a risk to steal it.

Others will glory in their successes at thwarting the rules and the laws.

All will give excuses, and find reasons for their actions, and among their peers or co-conspirators will find ready acceptance and even applause.

Years ago, when I thought to see if some work I had been dabbling in since middle school would be accepted by a Publisher, and finally talked to a Rep, she said 1 of the 5 books I had submitted would be printed and they wanted a hold on 2 others that related to the first 1. The other 2 they had no real interest in but they did reserve a right (for a period of time) to pick them up. (Of course that was in case I sold like hotcakes.)
She had some changes in mind for the book and we discussed them, and then some art work.

We then talked about how the books would be merchandised. I was familiar with hard bound and mass market paper bound, MMPB, which was what I usually bought, but I was told they wanted to put the 1st book of these three into a Trade Paperback form, and afterwards into MMPB.

Now days of course there is the digital form as well.

I am just a small part-time (occasional) author with a few published books, and stories, and when my Publisher and the Seller says ""This is what we want to do," I usually say O.K.

Straight to MMPB. -O.K.
Copy protect on digital. -O.K.
Change the story. -O.K.
Add a type of character. -O.K.
Add a kid. -O.K.
Less Killing, more sex. -O.K.
Less sex, more killing -O.K.
Nobody understands this. Simplify. -O.K.
We will pay you this much. -What?

Simply put, I have a theory that my time is worth something. Starting out you take what you can get, and then you can say, "Hey Mom, I published a book, and get a smile and a hug or pat on the head, just like when you made an A or the President's List." But these days mom is gone and so I have to have something else.

I recall a story I read about the shortest interchange ever in the literary world, at the time at least.

Victor Hugo was curious about how his latest book "Les Misérables" was doing, so he sent his publisher a note which had only a ? question mark in it. The publisher sent back his own note which had only a ! exclamation mark in it.

I send a lot of those ? notes and I keep track of the !'s. If I don't get enough, I will pick another way to pass my spare time. Perhaps I will go and take a couple of my super duper metal detectors and hunt for gold jewelry. The price is really high these days.

(Or maybe I will write "the better" book about metal detecting and treasure hunting.)

What does any of this have to do with DRM?

Luck;
Ken

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

I really don't think that no DRM would reduce piracy THAT much. If it's easy to get something for free, people are going to get it for free.

When ADE says you "No, you can't download your books" , it's kind of inciting to piracy. Or your reader telling it can't read the book.
And affter DRM slapped you in the face a few times, you're more hesitant to buy.

An other thing is the "You're not is the right country to buy this book". Oh, whatever. getTorrent();