“The music industry appears to be figuring out that consumers want to download tracks free of digital rights management restrictions, if for no other reason than to freely make copies for their own use. Book publishers, who don’t appear to face the same threat from file-sharing, also need to realize that consumers will be more likely to purchase their product, not less, when it comes in a format they want.” – Just an Online Minute blog at MediaPost.
The TeleRead take: May the anti-DRM movement grow. As we’ve noted, eMusic is doing just great with sales of nonDRMed audiobooks—and meanwhle Random House’s audio side doesn’t report a piracy threat. Why aren’t the big publishers at least experimenting with unshackled books? I take it for granted there’ll be “leakage.” But for now, Random House is faring better than I suspected in that department. What’s more important? Some DRM doctrine? Or sales growth—more than enough to balance out piracy? Remember, most downloaders of pirated content aren’t potential customers anyway. And the harder the book industry makes it to buy and use legal books, the more demand for the pirates’ wares. Who knows? DRM in some cases just could be the pirates’ best friend.
David,
I posted my DRM comments to the previous article, so I hadn’t read your thoughts here yet. It seems that you and I are in agreement about the interrelationship between DRM, sales, piracy and customer satisfaction.
And yes, DRM and high prices do indeed drive customers to sample “unofficial” copies. This sentiment has been expressed many times before on various web sites. In some cases, people wanted to purchase an ebook, but couldn’t, either because it wasn’t available as an ebook from the publisher (H. Potter), or it was in a format that they couldn’t use (eBabel again). It is a fact that in many of these cases, the potential customer wound up with an “unofficial” copy, since they couldn’t buy an official one.
Consumers are like junkies. If they can’t feed their habit through legitimate means, they’ll do so “on the street”. DRM, high prices and even laws written by bought-and-paid-for Congressmen aren’t going to change human nature.
If the publishers aren’t going to scrap DRM, then it should be made as painless for the consumer as possible. There is only one format I know of that is doing this and that’s ereader (aka Palm Reader). Want to put a copy of your newly purchased ebook on all 53 of your devices? No problem at all. But opening it on that device after you install it requires you to key in the unlock code, which is the bill to name and the number of the credit card you used to purchase the ebook. Neat, simple, not much of a pain in the backside for the buyer, and also not a code that the buyer will be eager to shotgun all over the internet. If all the DRM schemes worked this way, you’d probably hear a lot less grousing about DRM. I purchase my ebooks in ereader format whenever possible; of the secured formats, it’s the most user-friendly of the bunch.
Bests to all,
–tr
Tony,
Although your example of how eReader does things is a bit more flexible than other DRM schemes, it still puts unreasonable restrictions on the consumer. First, what if every device I want to read on can’t handle that particular format (eBabel again)? Related to this, what if the ebook I want can’t be had in the eReader format? One solution to both of these problems is for me to convert one ebook format that I can’t use to another format that I can. As far as I can see, this is fair use, as long as I bought the ebook in the first place. A better solution is for there to be only one ebook format that everyone can use (ok, two at the most).
Another issue that is seldom discussed is my right to sell or give away an ebook that I purchased (without retaining a copy, of course). This is known as the First Sale Doctrine. The WikiPedia has a good explaination, which I partially quote here: “a copyright holder’s rights to control the distribution of a particular copy end once that copy is sold.” When I buy a book, I can later give or sell that copy to someone else. Just because that same book is rendered into an electronic form doesn’t mean that my rights as a consumer, under copyright law have diminished. The DRM proponents want you to think they have, so they can sell you the same ebook multiple times.
Are you aware that the vast majority of ebooks with DRM don’t allow you to print or copy even a single word of text? I bought a PDF of a book for a college course a while back, thinking that I could read and annotate it on my Tablet PC. After spending my money, I found out that I wasn’t even allowed to annotate the darn thing! And of course, I couldn’t return the ebook for a refund. I can’t even give that useless, paid-for ebook to anyone else, because of DRM.
Tony, what are you going to do with all those ebooks you bought if some day you buy an reading device that can’t display them? Or perhaps the eReader people go out of business? Are you going to just buy all of those books over again? Some people have hundreds and even thousands of dollars tied up in ebooks.
If you think any of these worst-case scenarios can’t happen, think Gemstar, Google Video and the recent, weeks-long outage of the MobiPocket servers (just to name a few). I don’t like being at the mercy of the whims of fate and bad business decisions.
DRM restricts the consumers right to fully use or transfer something that they have paid for, no matter how much of a spin others try to put on it.
The recent embrace of DRM-free music by several companies shows two things – that consumers don’t like DRM and that they are willing to buy their digital goods if the price is fair. Similar statistics in the ebook world show the same thing. I think David has mentioned how well Fictionwise does with their DRM-free titles.
Sorry to be so long winded, but I think DRM in any form is a “bad thing” and needs to disappear. As long as people keep accepting DRM and the restrictions it imposes, DRM will survive. We all need to vote with our wallets and only buy DRM-free digital goods, until DRM dies. Consumers can make a difference with their purchases. I remember about 20 years ago, when most software came on copy-protected floppy disks. Consumer action and the support problems related to copy-protection made that practice change.
Ok, I’ll step down from my soap box now 🙂
With respect to eBooks, the first sale doctrine has been superceded by the digital millenium act. With electronic material delivered without a physical package, you no longer have a right to resale. And let’s get real–the whole issue of reselling books is a joke. Paper books have close to zero resale value. eBooks have just slightly less.
I have problems with DRM, but my problems aren’t that it makes it difficult for customers to resell or give away my content. My problem is that it makes it more difficult for legitimate (paying) customers to get and enjoy my content.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
Joseph,
Yep, I’m aware that most DRMd ebooks can’t be printed/resold/given away. And I know full well what would happen if ereader.com went out of business tomorrow, or if I bought a device that won’t read the format.
As to printing it out — and in my comments here and above, I’m just looking at my own situation and aware that your mileage may vary — don’t care. If I wanted a hard copy, I’d buy a hard copy in the first place (and for some titles, I’ve bought both e and print).
Giving it away or reselling it? This is a minor annoyance at best for me — I’d like to be able to do so in some cases, but the folks I’d give the books away to aren’t into ebooks anyway. An annoyance, but not something that would keep me from buying a book.
Can’t be read on every device? Ereader going out of business? That’s getting into more serious territory — I’ve not bought a dedicated book reader because of the eBabel problem. But I can read them on the devices I use (desktop PC, Palm OS PDAs); and in a desk drawer I’ve got a couple of no-longer-used Palms, a IIIxe and an M125, either of which will run on AAA batteries and will read the files just fine. I expect to have devices on hand that will read my ebooks for a good many years to come. Ereader going out of business will still leave me with my files and my copies of the software (all backed up to CD as well).
And assuming that something happened to wipe my copies and devices and I could no longer download them — would I buy them again? Some of ’em no, and some of ’em, yes, in a heartbeat, just as I would a number of my printed books if a fire or flood took out my bookshelves. Crud happens. And yep, I’m aware that some people have hundreds or thousands of dollars tied up in ebooks; I’m one of those folks myself.
All this isn’t to say that I’m a fan of DRM, because I’m not — I prefer my music and ebooks DRM-free. What I’m saying is that I won’t refuse to buy an ebook simply because it has DRM, and that given my druthers I want the DRM to be as hassle-free as possible. If I’m going to buy a DRMd title, it’ll be in ereader format whenever possible, because that’s the DRM implementation that’s easiest on the consumer. Refusing to buy ebooks because of DRM just lets the publishers think there’s no money in ebooks — let them understand there is money there, and let them follow in the footsteps of the music business, which is finally starting to ease up a bit on DRM. Baen already has the right idea, the others will follow eventually, and we’ve got time.
Bests,
–tr