Digital Rights Management encourages piracy.
I realize that’s a sensational statement to lead off with, but hear me out for at least the length of this column so you can understand where I’m coming from. The entire concept of Digital Rights Management, or DRM, is to prevent unlicensed copying of copyrighted material. This can be a song, a television show, a movie on DVD, an eBook, and so on and so forth. Taken at face value, without any thought to the consequences, DRM sounds like a good idea in order to make sure copyright owners continue to make money off their product. So far so good, right?
Wrong.
DRM on a file is the digital equivalent of a big red button that must never, ever be pressed. It’s human nature that someone will try cracking your DRM for any number of reasons, even ignoring the “for the hell of it” factor. These reasons can include license limits on an eBook preventing the reader from downloading the book to more than one device, the loss of documentation that says a license is owned, or even wanting to read or listen to something on a device of you the consumer’s choosing instead of the creator’s choosing.
As I revealed last month, I’m an independent publisher of eBook originals. None of those eBooks are restricted by DRM when I put them up for sale in the Kindle store. The reasons for this are numerous, but the primary one is that DRM seems to me a practice whereby the copyright owners of a creative work restrict the way consumers can enjoy their product. This makes precisely zero economic sense to me. As a publisher, I want the products I release to be enjoyed by the purchaser. Why in the world would I restrict how they can enjoy the product I’m selling?
Read the rest at Independent Publisher magazine’s website.
From the Tech Desk: The Idiocy of Digital Rights Management
Digital Rights Management encourages piracy.
I realize that’s a sensational statement to lead off with, but hear me out for at least the length of this column so you can understand where I’m coming from. The entire concept of Digital Rights Management, or DRM, is to prevent unlicensed copying of copyrighted material. This can be a song, a television show, a movie on DVD, an eBook, and so on and so forth. Taken at face value, without any thought to the consequences, DRM sounds like a good idea in order to make sure copyright owners continue to make money off their product. So far so good, right?
Wrong.
DRM on a file is the digital equivalent of a big red button that must never, ever be pressed. It’s human nature that someone will try cracking your DRM for any number of reasons, even ignoring the “for the hell of it” factor. These reasons can include license limits on an eBook preventing the reader from downloading the book to more than one device, the loss of documentation that says a license is owned, or even wanting to read or listen to something on a device of you the consumer’s choosing instead of the creator’s choosing.
As I revealed last month, I’m an independent publisher of eBook originals. None of those eBooks are restricted by DRM when I put them up for sale in the Kindle store. The reasons for this are numerous, but the primary one is that DRM seems to me a practice whereby the copyright owners of a creative work restrict the way consumers can enjoy their product. This makes precisely zero economic sense to me. As a publisher, I want the products I release to be enjoyed by the purchaser. Why in the world would I restrict how they can enjoy the product I’m selling?
Read the rest at Independent Publisher magazine’s website.