Why O'Reilly Media doesn't use DRM

#1

Post by rnicholson » Fri, Mar 25, 2011, 2:28 PM UTC

Why O'Reilly Media doesn't use DRM
forbes.com

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

#2

Post by pmjordan » Fri, Mar 25, 2011, 2:52 PM UTC

None of the DRM-related revelations in the article should be overly shocking to the HN crowd. For me, the most interesting nugget of info was that e-books now account for a quarter of O'Reilly's revenue. (top of the second page)

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

#3

Post by cpr » Fri, Mar 25, 2011, 2:57 PM UTC

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.

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

#4

Post by dutchrapley » Fri, Mar 25, 2011, 3:20 PM UTC

Tim gets it. Those who can pay, will.

Those who can't pay, this time: 1) benefit from the information and 2) may pay for a book in the future when they can afford it. 10k in circulation is free advertising, to some extent.

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

#5

Post by generalk » Fri, Mar 25, 2011, 3:21 PM UTC

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.

Which is the right way to discourage large-scale piracy.

If I put my copy of an O'Reilly ebook online for anyone to grab, it's obvious the copy floating around is mine and I'm a jerk. But I can still give a copy of the PDF to a few friends and encourage them to buy a copy if they like it.

And, there's absolutely no way this is going to somehow bone me in the future. The authentication server isn't going to go down, it's not going to mistakenly think I lent out my "last copy" or lock me out of my purchase because I don't have internet access.

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

#6

Post by pmjordan » Fri, Mar 25, 2011, 3:22 PM UTC

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.

The digital versions of the German c't magazine (archives and iPad version) have similar visible and possibly some invisible watermarking features. Music downloaded from iTunes has your name in the Metadata. Personally, I'm fine with this, but then I was never going to offer the files on Bittorrent or whatever. I don't think you could have any serious moral qualms with this kind of soft DRM.

I certainly do share music with my girlfriend, which presumably is considered piracy by the RIAA, etc., along with ripping the CDs I bought before DRM-free music was widely available.

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

#7

Post by generalk » Fri, Mar 25, 2011, 3:23 PM UTC

pmjordan wrote: post #2

None of the DRM-related revelations in the article should be overly shocking to the HN crowd. For me, the most interesting nugget of info was that e-books now account for a quarter of O'Reilly's revenue. (top of the second page)

Of course, but this is printed in Forbes. The more that the non-tech crowed sees that publishers can succeed without customer-screwing DRM, the better chance other publishers will follow suit.

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

#8

Post by pmjordan » Fri, Mar 25, 2011, 3:27 PM UTC

generalk wrote: post #7

pmjordan wrote: post #2

None of the DRM-related revelations in the article should be overly shocking to the HN crowd. For me, the most interesting nugget of info was that e-books now account for a quarter of O'Reilly's revenue. (top of the second page)

Of course, but this is printed in Forbes. The more that the non-tech crowed sees that publishers can succeed without customer-screwing DRM, the better chance other publishers will follow suit.

I know, I guess I was just pointing out that this was hardly news for hackers, and potentially saving others the time of reading all of it, looking for the newsworthy bits.

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

#9

Post by RyanMcGreal » Fri, Mar 25, 2011, 3:29 PM UTC

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.

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

#10

Post by pmjordan » Fri, Mar 25, 2011, 3:30 PM UTC

generalk wrote: post #5

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.

Which is the right way to discourage large-scale piracy. If I put my copy of an O'Reilly ebook online for anyone to grab, it's obvious the copy floating around is mine and I'm a jerk. But I can still give a copy of the PDF to a few friends and encourage them to buy a copy if they like it. And, there's absolutely no way this is going to somehow bone me in the future. The authentication server isn't going to go down, i…

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.