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Cory Doctorow rails against DRM at Tools of Change conference
February 10, 2009 | 10:50 am
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By Chris Meadows
“#toc Cory “Doctorow’s Law:” if somebody puts a lock on something you own and doesn’t give you the key, it’s not to your benefit” —@joebachana on Twitter
One nice thing about a widely-attended technology event these days is enough people tweet about enough points of what was said and done that it is possible to get a pretty good idea of what went on just by following the Twitter stream..
“Fireworks at Doctorow’s DRM show at TOC. Audible walks out.” —@mageier on Twitter [Note: This tweet later proved to be based on a misunderstanding of a joke.]
According to the stream, Cory Doctorow has just given a keynote invoking the evils of Digital Rights Management. Of course, Doctorow has beaten the drum on the evils of DRM for quite some time, but this time two special targets of his disdain were Amazon, for insisting that all Kindle books be DRM’d even if the publisher does not wish them to be, and the Amazon-owned Audible audiobook publisher for insisting its audiobooks carry DRM.
“Random House audio wanted to sell mp3 of Little Brother, Amazon said only through Audible, which requires DRM – Doctorow” —@sljournal on Twitter
In addition to pointing out the general brokenness of DRM, Doctorow urges publishers to refuse to license any more content to Amazon (or anyone else) unless they give the publishers the right to decide whether they want DRM.
“Cory’s call to action was publishers calling Amazon tomorrow and remind them who dictates the terms about how their materials are sold #toc” —@tsattersten on Twitter
Twitterer @jasonboog points out “an interesting footnote” to Doctorow’s talk: an article in the Wall Street Journal in which a member of the Author’s Guild complains that Amazon is overstepping its legal authority with the Kindle’s new read-out-loud feature.
“They don’t have the right to read a book out loud,” said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. “That’s an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.”
It also repeats a suggestion that has been cropping up from time to time since the Kindle first came out—that Amazon may seek to use its leverage to try to pay publishers less for the e-books it purchases from them. But publishers will be reluctant to let Amazon get away with that.
However, as Doctorow points out, it remains to be seen just how much publishers will let Amazon get away with.
Related: TOC blog on Doctorow’s keynote.
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See my post from a few years ago “DRM sucks, but do we really want devices without it?”
Thanks for the report. This is especially interesting:
“They don’t have the right to read a book out loud,” said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. “That’s an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.”
I’ve been watching Amazon chucking their weight around for some time now, and do believe this time they may have gone too far. Suppose this read-aloud feature is the subject of a court case, which they lose — by then they’ll have shipped an awful lot of Kindles Mk 2.0. Will they have to recall them? What if owners don’t play along and refuse to send them back? If some unmodified Kindles remain out there with the read-aloud feature intact, will the owners be in contempt of court if they use it? Or will Amazon be in contempt for continuing to sell them fresh e-books?
Generally I’m in favour of anything that promotes e-reading, but I don’t include in that some of Amazon’s tactics.
I’m sure that, legally speaking, you could argue anything. However, Amazon isn’t producing or selling an audio recording of the book. They are selling the book as their rights allow and providing the readers with the tools to transform the book. I already have that ability today with a paperback and my vocal chords, but I don’t see the Author’s Guild going after the parents of young children.
And I have to applaud Cory for going after Amazon’s stance of forced DRM. It’s clear that Amazon isn’t interested in expanding the market for electronic media (which may help drive their business) and concerned only with building its own market which doesn’t play well with others.
(It may also be interesting to note that Cory won’t accept donations for his freely-available books because he doesn’t wish to cut his publisher out of the loop.)