By Brian Howard

Publishers of e-books have a dilemma: You want readers to find (and purchase) your products. And yet you don’t want pirates making your products available for free. But is digital rights management (DRM) technology, one method publishers use (with questionable success) to combat piracy, a hindrance or even antithetical to content discovery?

At the Publishing Business Virtual Conference and Expo, an expert panel debated this very question. Moderated by the inimitable Christopher Kenneally of the Copyright Clearance CenterPeter McCarthy (Director of McCarthy Digital), Patricia Payton (Senior Director, Publisher Relations & Content Development at Bowker) and Brian O’Leary (Principal at Magellan Media Partners) discussed these very issues.

Will DRM survive? Are we moving from an ownership world to an access world where intellectual property is concerned? How will libraries’ role in discoverability evolve as e-books become more prevalent? Does DRM stop piracy? Is DRM-protected content less valuable to a publisher?

These questions and more are discussed in “Discoverability Vs. DRM,” a webinar that is available on-demand now. (Registration required.)

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R.R. Bowker’s Global eBook Monitor study
From R.R. Bowker’s Global eBook Monitor study

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