Comments on: Study shows 99% of BitTorrent content infringing; Ars Technica blames DRM

By: ferridder

ferridder — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 10:42:40 +0000

The iTunes store’s main benefit was that it gave the average person a convenient way to buy from a large collection of music (all major labels), that was guaranteed to play on your computer. Once that is in place, competition will focus on price and openness.

So I’d agree with Marilynn that DRM is a second order concern when it comes to e-book piracy – it only hurts the legitimate buyer.

In my view, availability is the major issue, because of territorial rights and format confusion (esp. DRM).

E.g., if I’m in Turkey, where would I be able to find a large collection of e-books (say, 90% of sales-weighted titles) in format Y (which is the only DRM format that my e-reader accepts)?

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:41:59 +0000

I’ll back up your statement “downloading TV shows because they can’t afford TiVos or don’t get the cable channels on which those shows air”. Right now, I live in Japan, so I can’t watch the few tv shows from the US that I like. Obviously, that leaves downloading as my only choice. Even if I was in the US, I’d still download because I don’t have a DVR or media center, and likely wouldn’t even have a TV. (Why have one just to watch a handful of shows?) From any angle, it’s much more convenient to download a show when I want to watch it.

By: Marilynn Byerly

Marilynn Byerly — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:06:29 +0000

Blaming DRM is just a standard “blame the victim” tactic.

Ebooks with DRM are pirated, ebooks with no DRM are pirated, ebooks with low and high prices are pirated, and digital copies of paper books are pirated. The only true variable is how much people want the specific books.

Anyone who looks at the number of downloads at the pirate sites can see this, and many, many authors of my acquaintance certainly see this.

Publishing has a very low margin of profit, and authors an even lower one, if they see a profit at all.

One percent seems small unless you are part of that percent.

By: Richard Askenase

Richard Askenase — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:51:49 +0000

No surprise here. Book piracy is really really minor. The DRM effectively protects the ebooks as most pirated books are pdf scans or audio books.

So don’t buy the publishers jive about piracy. NOT a factor.