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NPR offers clueful DRM story: Rude surprises ahead for unsuspecting Kindle owners?
March 25, 2009 | 7:47 pm
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By David Rothman
Update, 8:49 p.m.: Also see Chris Meadows’ reaction to the NPR story. Chris felt that NPR should have mentioned Baen’s success in selling books without DRM. That would have been nice. But overall, in my opinion, it was a good story. – D.R.
How to know if DRM is in a book or other item, and what gotchas could be involved? The FTC today held hearings on DRM and disclosure, and Chris Meadows will be along with more commentary for TeleRead.
I still don’t know if the Kindle version of The Solomon Scandals is DRMed. My own novel, would you believe. The latest indication is that it is not "protected." If the file is nakkid—and I hope so!—then how can DRM-lovin’ publishers trust Amazon?
Meanwhile NPR reporter Laura Sydell has done a pretty clueful story that reports the two sides of the controversy, with a pair of familiar names showing up: Evan Schnittman of Oxford University Press (pro DRM) and the ubiquitous Mike Shatzkin (skeptical). That’s Evan in the photo.
The NPR story also carries comments from Naomi Novik, a science fiction author properly appalled by DRM’s interference with the ability to transfer files between devices.
Yep, there’s an Amazon angle:
According to Ian Fried, the vice president of Amazon Kindle, customers don’t seem to mind: "We’ve had very few if any customer responses that the choice we made with DRM was a problem."
But DRM could become a problem if the Kindle goes bust—then all those people who bought Kindle eBooks with DRM will have no way to read them because no other device can open the files.
Exactly. In The Solomon Scandals, as a reviewer for The Washington City Paper has noted, I’m preoccupied with obsolescence. Ironic, if Scandals is "protected." DRM makes books less of a permanent medium, reducing their importance.
A tease: Within the next week if all goes as planned, I’ll almost surely get a definitive answer to my question as to whether Scandals is DRMed.
(Thanks to Kat Meyer for her Tweety tipoff about the NPR story.)
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Comments:
There are two Kindle versions of The Solomon Scandals, search Amazon for B001T4YANY and B001VLXMHU. The former is the one linked to above. It has the best summary at Amazon including a cover image, but the ebook itself does not include a cover image and it does not have DRM. The latter has a less complete page at Amazon, but the ebook is larger because it does include a cover image and this version has DRM. Neither one has a table of contents.
It is easy to tell if a AZW ebook has DRM by the way, just rename it .mobi on a PC and try to open it with any MOBI reader.
DRM shouldn’t be a problem if digital book purchases are set up similar to Audible’s online library and the DRM system incorporates multiple devices for a ‘single’ user.
You can’t take a SINGLE ‘real’ book and spread it out among several readers at one time why should this be allowed with a digital book?
DRM will protect authors from a single digital purchase turning into a thousand digital non-purchases; a state currently impossible with physical books.
Unless you care absolutely nothing for profit all authors would do well to investigate the benefit of some measure of copy protection for their digital assets in the online world. DRM contains a measure of usefulness in this regard.
Thanks, Alan. That’s a perfectly valid way of determining if a Kindle book is DRMed. Yep, I’ve already noted to Twilight Times the existence of two versions of the same book. The interesting thing is that the default for Amazon DTP, at least as mentioned here earlier by someone else, might be no DRM. But maybe not. The suspense builds. Is there a switch somewhere that would turn DRM on or off? Or did TTB simply fail to go through all the steps with one of the files? If that happened, then Amazon would do well to improve its interface. Thanks. – David
“DRM shouldn’t be a problem if digital book purchases are set up similar to Audible’s online library and the DRM system incorporates multiple devices for a ’single’ user.”
But Agile, things don’t stay still in the e-book world and tech in general. Mobi users still lack a DRM-capable client for the iPhone. And if Amazon won’t let Mobi do one? Yet another argument against DRM and eBabel in general! Users want genuine multidevice capability across different brands.
Thanks,
David
Agile Cyborg says “Unless you care absolutely nothing for profit all authors would do well to investigate the benefit of some measure of copy protection for their digital assets in the online world. DRM contains a measure of usefulness in this regard.”
You might want to keep in mind that Baen Books e-books contain absolutely no DRM, not even social DRM, and yet manage to make a profit for Baen and the authors, and have done for years.
So authors don’t actually need DRM to make a profit.
Alas, Agile Cyborg, DRM is especially useLESS for me from a biz perspective. It makes The Solomon Scandals HARDER to own and enjoy. I want people to be able to read my novel on ALL their devices. Yep, there may be some piracy. But I doubt it’ll occur among honest people inclined to buy the book.
Thanks,
David
David, I specifically stated that I support DRM for multiple registered devices for a single user.
Audible.com currently allows for this. The Audible system is very flexible and I have used the service for over five years utilizing several different devices and have not had one single problem with DRM resisting my portable lifestyle.
It isn’t as if real books are the most flexible items on the planet.
Methinks you are bit naive concerning the incredibly destructive capacity of digital piracy. I apologize in advance if you actually aren’t but I see resistance to DRM as more of an irrational populist fear than an honest-2-goodness issue that will freeze communication freedom.
If you produce a real page-flipper that gains mass appeal the stark realities of a book torrent being created that could siphon off many thousands of dollars in sales is more real than fiction.
And I don’t buy into the concept that this type of activity ‘promotes’ creativity. No more than people who steal bananas from Walmart promote Dole.
Agile, I’ve been reading ebooks for years. If I had to reregister all of my ebooks every time I changed the device I was reading on, I’d be spending an enormous amount of time doing so. All the use of DRMM (Doen’t Receive My Money) achieves is to keep authors whose ebook publishers use DRMM from receiving royalties from me. It does no harm to me – I enjoy the $500 worth of DRMMless ebooks (including, now, The Solomon Scandals) on my Kindle, along with those which are legitimately freely available.
Oh,
Sten and Agile:
S: Thanks for reading the nonDRMed version of The Solomon Scandals. Psst! Spread the word about nonDRMed Kindle books. Let’s hope that Amazon will start specifying which Kindle books are DRMed and which are not.
A: “All my devices” means exactly that–not just the devices for which Amazon has gotten around to doing ports. The whole world isn’t Kindle-ized. Furthermore, even now, Amazon doesn’t have a Mobi client for the iPhone. Can you explain that? Technical challenges? Or does Amazon want people to buy their locked Mobi books all over again?
And the Audible model? Far from perfect. Remember, that’s just one brand, and it isn’t a true nonproprietary standard.
Regarding for losses to piracy, I think they’re less than losses due to the inconvenience that DRM inflicts on users. I’m not just a writer–I’m also user. And I hate the way DRM has deprived me of access to books bought in the past. Nor do I want the problem solved by letting Amazon monopolize everything–which would mean less leverage for publishers and writers. Please, let me own books for real without linking access to a particular company or companies.
Sorry we disagree so passionately on the above, Agile, but it’s great to have your perspective. Keep posting. I am wondering if you have any professional or business relationships that would influence your opinions. But that’s fine, just so the general nature of them is in the open.
Meanwhile, Agile, I’m curious what you think about Amazon giving publishers the clear-cut ability to use or not use DRM–via just a simple toggle. And what do you think of the idea of identifying files as DRMed or not? Fictionwise does that beautifully.
Thanks,
David
Interesting and current news piece relating to this topic:
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article5998918.ece
Yes, David, publishers should be allowed to choose whether or not to apply DRM to their media property.
My thoughts on DRM solely stem from a real concern about the future of creative profitability in the digital arena.
My view is that you are requesting an unrealistic amount of flexibility from digital media ownership. Actual books purchased from a brick-and-mortar contain many inherent limitations on par with some of the issues you present. For example, you can’t just transfer your Penguin-printed Atlas Shrugged to an alternate form simply because the damn thing is so thick.
I just don’t believe that DRM should be completely rejected for a total abandon that serves the whim of ever-changing technology.
I understand your concerns, David, but the future holds some pretty stark realities that, unless addressed, hold few benefits for the professional creative.