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More on DRM and ebooks

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Re: More on DRM and ebooks

#11

Post by whatusername »

Of course -- in the comments on the tor.com article: "Worldwide distribution is a much harder problem. Most of our contracts with authors grant us rights only in certain territories; we can't just unilaterally rewrite existing agreements."

I'm really interested to see what they do with a Memory of Light (the final wheel of time book). Brandon Sanderson has been pushing for things like getting a free ebook when you purchase the hardcover, but when I saw him in melb a few weeks ago he was saying those kind of solutions where more for his own books. WoT was too big a deal for TOR to play around with.

Re: More on DRM and ebooks

#12

Post by StavrosK »

so_says wrote: post #10
sheff wrote: post #4

This will definitely make me buy more Tor books. I'm one of the "voracious" readers that Charlie mentions and while I really like the Kindle DX hardware, I'm increasingly concerned at being tied into an Amazon ecosystem long term. Baen, O'Reilly , Pragmatic Programmers and Fictionwise are some of the places I look for new books for my Kindle before Amazon these days, as they have DRM free titles.

I went with a Nook Touch instead of a Kindle, because it is very easy to get your hands on standard epub and load them at will. Loading e-books from outside the Amazon ecosystem can be done, but it is a cumbersome process at best. The Nook feels less tied to the B&N ecosystem than the Kindle is to Amazon. This is true for Sony and possibly Kobo as well, but I prefer the Nook as a device.

Cumbersome? I just select the epub in Calibre and press D. It could hardly be easier, in my opinion. Hell, the kindle doesn't even need to be plugged in...

Re: More on DRM and ebooks

#13

Post by yuhong »

acabal wrote: post #7

I've been saying it for a while: the publishing industry right now is where the music industry was ~3 years ago. The cycle is going to be exactly the same. At one point big music figured out that removing DRM let them sell more songs, and they finally dropped it. It looks like publishers are starting to realize the same thing. About time, too--I have an ereader that I like to use but I refuse to buy DRM ebooks on pri…

So what led MPAA to create and lobby for SOPA?

Re: More on DRM and ebooks

#14

Post by fpgeek »

Has anyone from Tor / Macmillan said anything about what will happen to past purchases? Ideally it would be as simple as re-downloading from Kindle/Nook/etc to get a DRM-free copy, but I worry it won't be.

Re: More on DRM and ebooks

#15

Post by fpgeek »

gamble wrote: post #9

I'm surprised that he doesn't address the effect of DRM on Amazon's infamous $9.99 pricing strategy. Part of the reason the government went after the publishers and Apple rather than Amazon, even though Amazon has a near-monopoly on ebook sales, is the they tend to believe that predatory pricing is inherently self-limiting, whereas cartels directly and immediately harm consumers. No one in the physical book retailing…

Not entirely. There's still plenty of path-dependence in a DRM-free world. For instance, iTunes still dominates digital music despite many things Amazon has tried (exclusive sales, Cloud Player, free credit, ...). Aggressive pricing may still be worth it to entrench Kindle as the default, even if customers can easily leave.

Re: More on DRM and ebooks

#16

Post by ghshephard »

fpgeek wrote: post #14

Has anyone from Tor / Macmillan said anything about what will happen to past purchases? Ideally it would be as simple as re-downloading from Kindle/Nook/etc to get a DRM-free copy, but I worry it won't be.

That's not the publisher's responsibility, but the distributor (Amazon/Apple/B&N). This is how the distributors will win our business - by offering us great services in addition to the actual content.

Think of how Apple will now let you re-download every TV Show you ever purchased from them onto your iPad. Likewise, Amazon will hopefully do a deal with the publishers that will let their customers re-download all the books they've purchased (in DRM-free format)

Re: More on DRM and ebooks

#17

Post by aristus »

As a publisher I am able to opt out of DRM with all the majors like Amazon and Apple, but there is no indication that my book is DRM-free, nor a way to search for DRM-free books on their stores. I wish there were.

I can imagine a scene in the next book about that kind of stuff...

"Here you go," said Count Modulo, "That is the lock, and that is the key."

"So the key opens the lock?" Lauren asked.

"Oh yes, but you can't open it."

"Why not?"

"Because it's locked, dear child. See?" [demonstrates.]

"But you also gave me the key!"

"Well, yes, technically you could use the key, but you mustn't do anything that silly..."

Re: More on DRM and ebooks

#18

Post by fpgeek »

ghshephard wrote: post #16
fpgeek wrote: post #14

Has anyone from Tor / Macmillan said anything about what will happen to past purchases? Ideally it would be as simple as re-downloading from Kindle/Nook/etc to get a DRM-free copy, but I worry it won't be.

That's not the publisher's responsibility, but the distributor (Amazon/Apple/B&N). This is how the distributors will win our business - by offering us great services in addition to the actual content. Think of how Apple will now let you re-download every TV Show you ever purchased from them onto your iPad. Likewise, Amazon will hopefully do a deal with the publishers that will let their customers re-download all the…

In theory, you're right and this is the distributor's responsibility. However, as we've seen with the agency model, even Amazon ends up taking the distribution terms large publishers give them. Most publishers (and, in particular, all of the large publishers) are the ones who insisted on DRM in the first place. They're the ones who are going to end up handling the aftermath.

Speaking of Apple, so far as I know, no one got their DRMed music officially unlocked for free. You either had to pay for an iTunes Plus upgrade or, more recently, subscribe to iTunes Match. That's the sort of thing that I would like to see avoided in the ebook space.

Re: More on DRM and ebooks

#19

Post by cstross »

yuhong wrote: post #13
acabal wrote: post #7

I've been saying it for a while: the publishing industry right now is where the music industry was ~3 years ago. The cycle is going to be exactly the same. At one point big music figured out that removing DRM let them sell more songs, and they finally dropped it. It looks like publishers are starting to realize the same thing. About time, too--I have an ereader that I like to use but I refuse to buy DRM ebooks on pri…

So what led MPAA to create and lobby for SOPA?

MPAA = Motion Picture Association of America.

(Films, in other words.)

RIAA = Recording Industry Association of America.

(Music.)

There's no equivalent that I know of for publishers.

These are all separate industries and organizations, not some kind of multi-headed hydra that acts and thinks in unison. So, in this context, your question makes no sense.

Re: More on DRM and ebooks

#20

Post by yuhong »

cstross wrote: post #19
yuhong wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what led MPAA to create and lobby for SOPA?

MPAA = Motion Picture Association of America. (Films, in other words.) RIAA = Recording Industry Association of America. (Music.) There's no equivalent that I know of for publishers. These are all separate industries and organizations, not some kind of multi-headed hydra that acts and thinks in unison. So, in this context, your question makes no sense.

Referring to this:

"I've been saying it for a while: the publishing industry right now is where the music industry was ~3 years ago. The cycle is going to be exactly the same. At one point big music figured out that removing DRM let them sell more songs, and they finally dropped it. It looks like publishers are starting to realize the same thing. "

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