padlock[1] Katie Gatto at our sister blog Appletell has made a post explaining how to determine which e-books in your iTunes listing are DRM-protected and which are DRM-free. It is a useful little tutorial for those who are not sure (or, for that matter, bother to purchase iBooks titles in the first place).

However, annoyingly, Gatto repeatedly conflates DRM with copyright. She begins the article with “If you want to know which of your ebooks are DRM free and which have been protected by copyright,” then mentions that this process “will let you know if a book has DRM protections or if you’re free to share it with others,” and says that if a book is listed as protected, “it has a copyright attached.” She then concludes, “Use accordingly to avoid lawsuits.”

Of course, if you use according to her advice, you probably won’t be avoiding lawsuits. It should be needless to say that plenty of non-DRM-protected e-books (such as those sold by Baen, or posted online by Cory Doctorow) are fully copyright-protected—meaning that while you might be able to share them with friends, you are not necessarily legally free to unless the holder of the copyright allows it.

Might a decreased understanding of copyright be one of the casualties of the media industry’s reliance on DRM? I didn’t think the fact that everything is copyrighted under current copyright law (including books, e-books, Internet posts, and even scribblings on the backs of napkins) was that hard to understand, let alone that foregoing DRM does not mean you are foregoing your right to protection under the law.

Or perhaps peer-to-peer is to blame for this “anything not strictly forbidden must be permitted” attitude. It seems to be very much of a piece with the “innocent infringement” defense that one target of a RIAA lawsuit is assaying:

Whitney admitted to using KaZaA as well as downloading and sharing music over the P2P network, but said she didn’t realize what she was doing was wrong. Her technological illiteracy and age [of 16 years] made her incapable of intentionally infringing the record labels’ copyrights, she argued.

Either way, that a technology blogger should make the same mistake is irritating both from a standpoint of lacking accuracy in reporting, and because it gives more ammunition to the proponents of DRM: “If we don’t protect it, they’ll think they’re permitted to pirate it.” That kind of confusion we can do without.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

9 COMMENTS

  2. yep. all permutations are possible: DRM-polluted and copyright protected (stieg larsson); DRM-free and copyright protected (baen books as noted above, but also o’reilly publications, and the writings of cory doctorow); DRM-polluted and out of copyright (some amazon editions of dickens, austen, melville, etc. are out of copyright — unless they are new *editions*, in which case the value added by editors make those versions copyright protected); and DRM-free and out of copyright (anything found at Project Gutenberg).

    less confusing than one might think, but still confusing — and gatto’s conflations muddy the waters. somebody, quick! venn diagrams! we need venn diagrams!

  3. It’s no wonder the torrent sites are catching fire.

    Btw I was in my cousin’s house two nights ago and he was torrenting a list of books by a mega successful writer. I sat with him and it all took about 10 minutes. We had a chat and basically everything we discuss here on Teleread came up as reasons for his decision. At the end of day I had no problem with him. In my world the writer has earned enough so it doesn’t bother me that he is losing out on a few quid. Same reason I myself downloaded five Beatles Albums on Limewire about two years ago. My cousin earns about 80k euros a year so he couldn’t care about the money, it is the inconvenience and ridiculous prices that motivated him.

  7. “Did someone say my name?” Marilynn the cat said.

    All the mice squeal and scurry from the room.

    All I can say is that if I and most other writers I know made 1% of what people think we make on our books, we’d be rich instead of p*ss poor and struggling to break even on our writing.

    Better yet, I’d like a percentage of that cousin’s 80K which is a heck of a lot more than any but the most successful author makes in their lifetime, let alone a year.

  9. Howard, part of the cost of starting a career is spending money on education and services.

    For example, the average romance writers has spent thousands of dollars on her career long before she sells her first book, if she ever sells her first book. We’re talking membership in Romance Writers of America, education courses, subscriptions to a number of review and writing magazines, attendance at writers’ conferences, etc.

    Some opt to use a trained editor instead of learning it themselves through education courses.

    You’ve got to spend money to make money, and, despite all those stories to the contrary, writing a professionally written book and selling it requires education and lots of butt-to-seat time getting it right.

    What is not mentioned in those JKR stories of the welfare-mom makes good, is that JKR had a first-rate college education and training in writing. She wasn’t some high-school dropout who wrote a book so anyone can write a bestselling book, too.

    These days, most writers-in-training have full-time jobs or a spouse who making a really nice salary, and they keep that job because they will never make enough to survive on.

    They consider the cash for the education part of paying for the dream of being a pro writer, and most believe that eventually they will make it big enough to write full time. A vast majority don’t.

The TeleRead community values your civil and thoughtful comments. We use a cache, so expect a delay. Problems? E-mail newteleread@gmail.com.