DRM free future?

[pwalker8]

Now that the record companies have agreed to allow iTunes to be DRM free, I wonder how long it's going to be before the book publishers start to cave in. One thing that I like about the way Apple is doing it is they allow you to download a drm free version of any song you may have bought previously at just the price difference between what you paid and the drm free price. So far approximately half of the 500+ songs of the drm free songs that I have upgraded were a free upgrade, with the rest being a 30 cent per song upgrade.

My hope is that when the book publishers cave and start having drm free books, that they will follow this model (reasonably priced upgrade for previously purchased books). Of course, there are some publishers who are already on the drm band wagon, Baen books has always been DRM free and rumor has it that Tor will soon be using Baen as their ebook store. Plus on Amazon, a percentage of books are DRM free, either because the book is in public domain, or because the author/publisher wants that particular book to be drm free.

[Abisha]

Though what is occurring with Apple iTunes is encouraging, I think it's important to understand that just because some of Apple's partners agree to strip DRM in favor of inflating their prices by 30% or more on certain songs, this does by no means suggest a DRM future. The fact is, there are hundreds upon thousands of publishing houses of all types. Not until we come together and put in the effort to create legislation that protects consumers from the incessant and intentional vulgar abuses on behest of these corporations will we not truly see a future free from digital restrictions management. I just wonder how much lobbying effort the very same corporations put in to pass legislation such as the repulsive censoring digital millenium act.

[pwalker8]

I don't really think that we need to depend on the government to do anything other than stay out of the way. It will be the consumers and the merchants, such as sony connect and amazon who will push the publishers for drm free content. It was Apple who pushed the record companies into letting them remove the DRM, not the government. Any merchant worths worth his or her salt knows that you want to remove as many barriers to a customer buying your product as you possible can. For the most part, publishers don't sale to individual consumers, they sale to merchants who sale to consumers.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I don't really think that we need to depend on the government to do anything other than stay out of the way.

Sort of like they did with Enron, World Com, AIG, Lheman, etc? Sometimes companies, or the greedy people running them don't always do the right thing (well they do the right thing for themselves).

BOb

[Abisha]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I don't really think that we need to depend on the government to do anything other than stay out of the way.

We the people, are the government. It is our responsibility to participate. It is through our Congress, that corporations have used to introduce perverse and unjust legislation such as the DMA. We have allowed this to occur by failing to hold accountable the very officials we placed in office. If we expect a change to occur in consumer rights, we the people of our government must work to ensure it happens.

Question, how many here have voiced your opinions to the Federal Trade Commission concerning DRM?

[pwalker8]

I see no reason to turn this thread into a political discussion. Those companies committed fraud and paid the price for it. What does energy, telecomm and financial companies committing fraud have to do with the likelihood of DRM free e-books?

[pwalker8]

As far as I know, the government is neutral with regards to whether or not ebooks, records or movies should have DRM or be DRM free. That's totally up to the content providers and the consumers. The only law that the government has with regards to DRM is the DMCA which makes it illegal to bypass DRM. While I may think that the DMCA is a bad idea, that really has nothing to do with whether or not a company releases their copyrighted content in a DRM free format or not.

[astra]

Originally Posted by Abisha

We the people, are the government. It is our responsibility to participate.

I do participate.
I almost never buy DRMed books with a rare exception to MS lit format. I also stopped buying printed books.
Quite a clear message: Want my money? Sell me books in a format I find acceptable.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I see no reason to turn this thread into a political discussion. Those companies committed fraud and paid the price for it. What does energy, telecomm and financial companies committing fraud have to do with the likelihood of DRM free e-books?

I think the point is, that companies can't be relied on to do the right thing for customers.

--
Bill

[pwalker8]

Perhaps, but it's a long stretch from to go from some high ranked people in a few very specific companies committing fraud to the implied no companies can be trusted and thus will not permit DRM free e-books without governmental intervention. To get back to the point of the thread, the mere fact that the record companies caved on the DRM with regards to iTunes, the last major bastion of DRM protected music, proves that governmental intervention is not required.

It appears to me that the basic reason that the record companies caved was the reward of DRM free music final reached a point where it out weighted the risk of DRM free music (i.e. piracy) and the reward of DRM'ed music (control of product and bundling of music into albums). The question in my mind is how long will it take to reach that tipping point with books.

Right now, information seems to be scarce on the ground on what the market is. That is to say, how many e-books have been sold, verse how many books have been sold. We do know that the Kindle has been a top saler for Amazon which would at least imply to me that they also sale quite a few e-books.

[AlexBell]

I wonder if I might dare to mention a small advantage of DRM. I buy almost all my ebooks from Fictionwise. When I have downloaded a book I can go back any time I want to and download it again at no cost and with no fuss.

What do you think the reaction of any print bookseller would be if I said that I'd lost a book I bought from them and would like another copy for free please?

Regards, Alex

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I wonder if I might dare to mention a small advantage of DRM. I buy almost all my ebooks from Fictionwise. When I have downloaded a book I can go back any time I want to and download it again at no cost and with no fuss.

Um... that is an advantage of eBooks, not of DRM. You can also go back to FW and redownload any of the multi-format books. Oh, and you can do it in ANY format. Even those that they didn't support when you initiall bought the book.

BOb

[Amalthia]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I see no reason to turn this thread into a political discussion. Those companies committed fraud and paid the price for it. What does energy, telecomm and financial companies committing fraud have to do with the likelihood of DRM free e-books?

Don't you mean the American Tax-Payers paid the price for those companies crimes?

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

It will be the consumers and the merchants, such as sony connect and amazon who will push the publishers for drm free content.

That may be a misunderstanding. When I was talking to someone at ereads about DRM/nonDRM for my books, he said "All our ebooks are nonDRM. Except in the Sony and Kindle stores, because they require the DRM." Don't assume it's the publishers insisting on the DRM rather than the retailers.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by starrigger

That may be a misunderstanding. When I was talking to someone at ereads about DRM/nonDRM for my books, he said "All our ebooks are nonDRM. Except in the Sony and Kindle stores, because they require the DRM." Don't assume it's the publishers insisting on the DRM rather than the retailers.

"Well actually" there are some ebooks in the Kindle store that don't have DRM on them. Generally, these are the books that don't have samples for them. A small number I admit.

BOb