January 29th, 2007
We have all heard the arguments before in video, music and print both pro and con Digital Rights Management. Content creators like DRM because it helps prevent users from stealing their work. Consumers hate DRM because it prevents them from moving the content they have purchased to other devices. There is one specific market I would like to touch on: eBooks.
I have a Sony Reader. This is a really cool device that makes it super easy to read my books wherever I am. Paper books can be large and a pain in the butt. The Sony Reader is sexy, elegant and goes with my just about everywhere now. Some of the books I would like to read are available on the Sony Connect eBooks site, but many are not. An example of a book I would like to get for my Sony Reader but have been unable to is Naked Conversations.
Naked Conversations is available in encrypted PDF form which means it’s riddled with DRM. I can’t print it, I can’t copy/paste from it, I really can’t do anything but read it on my computer. Unfortunately this also means that I can not read it on my Sony Reader since the reader won’t decrypt DRM protected PDFs. End result: I won’t buy the book in either paper or digital format, I’ll just borrow it from a friend. Did DRM help the content creators here or did it hurt them? How many copies of the book were stolen vs. how many were lost due to the DRM in the PDF?
That brings me to eBooks in general. Most eBooks have DRM of some form and there are many different types. It’s extremely difficult to move eBooks from one system to another. In the music realm Apple came in with FairPlay and created a DRM system that’s out of the way for most users. No one has done this in the eBook space. I’m not saying that eBooks have to be DRM free, but it should be loose enough that I can move my books from eReader to eReader and I should be able to read my eBooks on different computers easily.
There’s the bigger picture here too. How much money are these corporations losing in developing DRM that’s cracked before it hits the streets, implementing the DRM, taking support calls on DRM based material and lost sales because users would not tolerate the DRM? Is it really worth all the headache to stop a few pirates? Won’t the pirates find a way to steal the content anyhow? Why not allow the law abiding consumer to do with the media as they please? Seems to me that it’s just as easy to steal a paper book as it is to steal a digital book. Now rather than protecting assets, DRM seems to be pissing people off while the content is still stolen. It appears to me to be a lose-lose situation.
Who will be our savior? Who will come in with a large collection of eBooks that can be used on eReaders and/or computers? Who will fix the horrid DRM that we have in this space today? Will it be Google, Apple or Sony? Is there someone who does this already? How can I get my copy of Naked Conversations on to my Sony Reader legally without jumping through hoops?
Maybe I’m just too early to the market, and want to much of my technology. You know, being able to actually use it and all.
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Posted by:
Shannon on
January 29th, 2007 8:05 pm
As founder of PayLoadz.com, a leading eBook marketplace, I can say without reservation that DRM only increases costs and support time and lowers sales dramatically vs. non-DRM products. We have piles upon piles of data supporting this.
Posted by:
Michael Brown on
January 30th, 2007 6:10 am
Obviously major problem with conflicting goals. But you’re drawing a parallel between some stealing a paperback book and someone hacking DRM protected content is missing an important point. The person stealing the book knows he is stealing someone else’s property and that he is a thief. Most people illegally copying content believe that it should be free and is actually theirs so they are content liberators not thieves.
I also question your point that if their were no DRM the number of illegal copies made would not change because they are being hacked anyway I think there are probably many people that would not hack protected copy but if they purchased a good unprotected ebook might be tempted to distribute to their email list.
Posted by:
Benjamin J. Higginbotham on
January 30th, 2007 9:39 am
Michael, good points. I think Apple did a good job here with FairPlay. They made the DRM loose enough so that a legal user will probably not bump in to the DRM but strict enough so that it’s hard to steal work. If they lost the DRM completely I’m not sure how many sales they would lose, but I would be curious to see the numbers. If I remember correctly (and I may not) when the RIAA was in the midst of lawsuits over MP3 sharing users and sites (before iTMS) the numbers of CDs being sold was still increasing, not decreasing. If that’s true (and that’s a big IF) then that would say that there’s a possibility that most users actually play by the rules and know right from wrong. I don’t think anyone has data good enough to say yea or nay in either direction, or if they do I have yet to see or hear of it.
We can argue DRM all day long. The point is, I want a product, DRM is preventing me from using said product, so I won’t buy it. This has been fixed in music, it’s still being worked out in movies… But no one seems to have it fixed with eBooks just yet.
Posted by:
Memphis Z on
January 30th, 2007 11:47 pm
I wasn’t aware that eBook readers were available already. They’ve been “coming soon” for awhile and I sort of stopped paying attention. It seems to me that someone will come through with a better DRM scheme (one closer to Apple’s) when they know there is a viable market for eBooks. It was proven that the downloaded music indsutry was large enough for Apple to bother, same with movies. How many people have eBook readers? How many people have iPods/Zunes etc? When it makes economic sense for a company to create a better DRM environment for eBooks, one will come about. Of course, this is kind of a chicken or the egg situation. If a company comes along and creates a better DRM environment for eBooks, then the market might take off, much as downloaded music did with iTunes. I like the idea of the eBook, so I hope this better DRM scheme isn’t “coming soon” for too long.
Posted by:
Love Ask on
February 6th, 2007 2:59 am
Agree with Memphis!
Posted by:
Michael Jahn on
February 8th, 2007 11:55 am
I am confused by argument, as you use Naked Conversations eBook incompatibility with your Sony Reader as an example - this is not a PDF problem - this is this vendor(s) doing something ignorant and incompatible.
Once can blame eBooks.com for not making a compatible reader and giving it to Sony - one might blame Sony for not supporting the eb20 file format. This is less a DRM issue and more about companies not being compatible.
Posted by:
Benjamin J. Higginbotham on
February 8th, 2007 4:38 pm
Michael, the problem is inherent with DRM. Lets use FairPlay as an example again. If I purchase a song from the iTunes music store because that’s the only place I can find it and want to move it to my Zune, it’s not going to happen. Same thing would happen in reverse. We can look at the problem from either side, the device does not support DRM or the music itself is not open enough to run on all devices.
In the eBooks realm there are so many different versions of DRM that will and won’t work on different devices. Heck, even some of the built in PDF stuff won’t work in version 8, so you have to keep 7 around to read your books. The problem is the DRM itself. We need to either strip the eBooks of all DRM or we need to have a standard built that any device manufacturer can build upon.
In my opinion, the moment DRM gets in the way it becomes a cost to the companies trying to protect their assets. It’s not the Sony Reader’s fault that the content creator/distributor decided to build DRM into their product. That was a bad move on the distribution side.
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