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Why O'Reilly Media doesn't use DRM

forbes.com

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Re: Why O'Reilly Media doesn't use DRM

#41

Post by knshaum »

cpr wrote: post #21
zosi wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

O'Reilly doesn't seem to do that, unless it's embedded in the PDF in a way which doesn't show up in simple viewers. Pragmatic Bookshelf, Manning and Packt (out of the e-books I have handy for quick checking) do put your name/address on the bottom of every page to discourage piracy. Edit: Specifics for each publisher, for anyone who's curious: Manning - Name and email address on each page Pragmatic Bookshelf - Name on…

My pre-release copy of Javascript: The Definitive Reference (perhaps because it's pre-release) does have personalization on every page. The other (regular, relased) books from ORA don't.

Downloads from O'Reilly's Safari Bookshelf, at least those in PDF format, have the account holder's name at the bottom of each page. If that's changed, it must have happened recently.

Re: Why O'Reilly Media doesn't use DRM

#42

Post by rakkhi »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #9

I'm really gratified that the guy who once wrote, "Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy" has built his business successfully on this same principle.

Agreed nice to see someone walked the talk. Its interesting whether DRM is broken as a concept or just implementation. For books and songs I can see where people like Tim will accept that the people who were going to pay for his books will pay rather than go mucking through the torrent heap to find the free version. Quote on Techcrunch last month: "Most adults do not want to steal intellectual property if there’s an affordable alternative to doing so" http://tcrn.ch/eywL2E

Still though from a security perspective moving security from the network and infrastructure and to the information is highly desiarable. In this, DRM as a concept is not flawed but the implementation. I wrote some ways this could be fixed last year: http://rakkhi.blogspot.com/2010/08/making-drm-practical.html

Re: Why O'Reilly Media doesn't use DRM

#43

Post by ams6110 »

cpr wrote: post #22

Little-known fact that shows just how enlightened ORA is: you can go to https://members.oreilly.com/account/benefits , and buy any ebook upgrade from a physical book for $4.99. They don't even check--they just take your word for it. I just hope people don't abuse it, but, as Tim says, they'd rather have 100K books floating around and 10K books sold, than just 10K books sold. Can't help but improve their visibility an…

The ebook revenue is nearly 100% profit; the marginal cost of selling ebooks has got to be near zero. So if more people buy ebook "upgrades" by falsely claiming they bought the book, that's better for O'Reilly than making them prove it.

Re: Why O'Reilly Media doesn't use DRM

#45

Post by almost »

rakkhi wrote: post #42
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #9

I'm really gratified that the guy who once wrote, "Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy" has built his business successfully on this same principle.

Agreed nice to see someone walked the talk. Its interesting whether DRM is broken as a concept or just implementation. For books and songs I can see where people like Tim will accept that the people who were going to pay for his books will pay rather than go mucking through the torrent heap to find the free version. Quote on Techcrunch last month: "Most adults do not want to steal intellectual property if there’s an…

I'm sorry, but your blog post really and truly makes no sense whatsoever. You identify what you consider the "problems" with DRM (while omitting the actual problems) and your "solution" is just statement of the properties you'd like it to have, not any idea of how those properties could be achieved (they can't, at least not without draconian "trusted hardware" across the board)

Re: Why O'Reilly Media doesn't use DRM

#46

Post by derleth »

sethg wrote: post #24

To be fair, the vast majority of people who live in a First World country and who have an interest in getting an O’Reilly ebook also have the means to easily pay for one—or to put it on their employer’s expense account.

I think you may be underestimating the number of poor students in the First World.

Re: Why O'Reilly Media doesn't use DRM

#47

Post by adulau »

cpr wrote: post #3

Of course, they put your name & other info on every page of the PDF generated for you. That probably works as a general "shaming" mechanism, such that most folks won't share indiscriminately.

Maybe there is a misunderstanding in the services proposed by O'Reilley Media. On their eBooks offer (available via their main website - oreilly.com), They don't put your name or any other info on the purchased eBooks. There are no DRMs and you can get the books in many format. That's the services mentioned in the Forbes article.

The "Safari Books Online" is another services with many DRM-like techniques but this was a previous services where O'Reilley Media is member along with other book editors. I used it in the past but that was a pain to use it.

I suppose O'Reilly now focus on the first service only as this is the one generating revenue without DRMs or watermarking techniques or additional limitations. I buy much more from their non-DRM offer (it's convenient, low-cost and many formats are available).

Re: Why O'Reilly Media doesn't use DRM

#48

Post by pmjordan »

kragen wrote: post #27
pmjordan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if there's any legal precedent for a friend being the jerk in a scenario like this. "Friend" uploads ebook/music track/magazine I bought and "lent" him/her to file sharing site or whatever. It's my name in there, so I'm going to be the one who's going to be sued.

Yes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Caridi#Piracy_incident

Interesting. Pre-release screener copies, which you're presumably not even allowed to show friends, would seem like a different kettle of fish than files which are publicly available for purchase.

Re: Why O'Reilly Media doesn't use DRM

#49

Post by HelloBeautiful »

ams6110 wrote: post #43
cpr wrote: post #22

Little-known fact that shows just how enlightened ORA is: you can go to https://members.oreilly.com/account/benefits , and buy any ebook upgrade from a physical book for $4.99. They don't even check--they just take your word for it. I just hope people don't abuse it, but, as Tim says, they'd rather have 100K books floating around and 10K books sold, than just 10K books sold. Can't help but improve their visibility an…

The ebook revenue is nearly 100% profit; the marginal cost of selling ebooks has got to be near zero. So if more people buy ebook "upgrades" by falsely claiming they bought the book, that's better for O'Reilly than making them prove it.

Are you kidding? Once more ppl get to know about the $5 books, OR will have to start verifying ownership or take a huge hit on sales.

Re: Why O'Reilly Media doesn't use DRM

#50

Post by rmc »

Another factor that makes O'Reilly different: Lots of their customers are open source / Linux users, who are usually opposed to drm, have the technical knowledge to break drm, and are used to standing up for what they believe to be digital rights.

This means if they used DRM, it would likely be broken, openly, by their target users

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