Comments on: Locking up Dickens: Why DRM is a lit and biz toxin

By: Robert Nagle

Robert Nagle — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:29:18 +0000

Beautiful find, Garson. Thanks!

By: Garson O'Toole

Garson O'Toole — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:02:46 +0000

In a comment above, the following quote is attributed to Dickens:

Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.

I found the correct version of the Dickens quote. It appeared in the book “The Wreck of the Golden Mary” (Project Gutenberg e-text) and differs slightly from the version above. Unsurprisingly, Dickens was not anachronistically commenting about email, or blogs, or twitter. Instead, a character in his book is commenting on communication via electric telegraph within a ship during a time of peril:

O, what a thing it is, in a time of danger and in the presence of death, the shining of a face upon a face! I have heard it broached that orders should be given in great new ships by electric telegraph. I admire machinery as much is any man, and am as thankful to it as any man can be for what it does for us. But it will never be a substitute for the face of a man, with his soul in it, encouraging another man to be brave and true. Never try it for that. It will break down like a straw.

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:17:53 +0000

Great post, Garson! Totally agree with your cross-promo suggestion. As for that Dickens quote, I’d love for someone to be able to determine if it’s true. Thanks. David

By: Garson O'Toole

Garson O'Toole — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:31:54 +0000

Placing the works of Dickens into a digital lockbox with DRM is self-defeating. Companies that lock up public domain works damage the trust that they should be trying to build. Consumers learn that the company will cynically exploit naïve buyers by charging for content that is free elsewhere. Instead of following a shortsighted strategy that emphasizes a minuscule revenue stream the company should be building goodwill by providing a large free library of high-quality public-domain texts.

The free e-books can be placed on web pages adjacent to companion e-books that are not in the public domain. For example a novel by Dickens could appear adjacent to a recent biography of Dickens; or it might appear near a critical edition of the novel with annotations and commentaries. This would facilitate cross-selling.

Removing DRM from the works of Dickens could also help to resolve a mystery. Consider the following quote attributed to Dickens:

Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.

This quote is understandably popular in books and articles discussing electronic networks, but it does not appear in any of the texts authored by Dickens that have been indexed by Google Book Search at this time. Wikiquote lists it as “unsourced”. Perhaps there is an un-indexed DRM encrusted text that reveals the proper provenance of this quotation. Removing DRM and indexing texts will be a boon to general research and understanding.