Comments on: Will Hachette Be The First Big-6 Publisher To Drop DRM On E-Books? http://paidcontent.org/2012/03/31/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/ The economics of digital content Sun, 19 May 2013 22:28:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Macmillan’s Tor/Forge goes DRM-free — paidContent http://paidcontent.org/2012/03/31/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-91585 Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:16:35 +0000 http://gostage.paidcontent.org/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-91585 [...] Thomas, VP of digital for Hachette, recently described DRM as “a speedbump” that “doesn’t stop anyone from pirating.” [...]

]]> By: Wolf Baginski http://paidcontent.org/2012/03/31/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-90035 Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:17:16 +0000 http://gostage.paidcontent.org/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-90035 People do sell on physical books they have read, but I never saw much point. The return per book is real, but pretty meagre. The last time I moved, a stack of books went to Oxfam to sell. It’s better than a rubbish tip.

I think it is a bit of a red herring, but it does show a difference between ebooks and physical books. It’s the sort of thing which changes what ownership means.

]]> By: review:ed #23 From the Frontlines of E-Textbook Wars http://paidcontent.org/2012/03/31/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-89456 Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:36:21 +0000 http://gostage.paidcontent.org/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-89456 [...] [14:23] Hachette to drop DRM? Source: Paid Content [...]

]]> By: Ebook Access | Pearltrees http://paidcontent.org/2012/03/31/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-88922 Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:01:50 +0000 http://gostage.paidcontent.org/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-88922 [...] DRM “doesn’t stop anyone from pirating,” Hachette SVP digital Thomas said in a publishing panel at Copyright Clearance Center’s OnCopyright 2012 . Will Hachette Be The First Big-6 Publisher To Drop DRM On E-Books? — paidContent [...]

]]> By: Ray Charbonneau http://paidcontent.org/2012/03/31/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-88737 Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:00:11 +0000 http://gostage.paidcontent.org/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-88737 This “used ebook resale” idea is just the latest strawman. How, exactly, do they make money trapped between the original publisher (corporate or indy), who never has to let a book go out of “print”, and the pirates?

]]> By: Ian Taylor http://paidcontent.org/2012/03/31/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-88396 Tue, 03 Apr 2012 02:53:16 +0000 http://gostage.paidcontent.org/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-88396 If we look at what lies behind DRM – protection of copyright and the appropriate payment of royalties to authors, we need to keep a sense of proportion. The copyright (and patent) laws are stuck in the 19th century, when distribution and reproduction were more onerous than today. The old formula used to determine authors’ reward when only a few thousand copies of a novel might be sold becomes excessive if millions are sold and the customer knows this. By selling many copies at a low price with the high percentage royalties enabled by current technology, the author can be rewarded, the customer is happy to pay purchase price, the pirate copier has no incentive and the publisher can make an honest living.  BookLode.com works on this basis and does not include DRM while selling 3 popular file formats at a price around the same as a newspaper. Throwaway prices and internet technology enable this model of selling novels.

]]> By: Michael Covington http://paidcontent.org/2012/03/31/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-88395 Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:25:03 +0000 http://gostage.paidcontent.org/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-88395 I don’t think anyone is arguing that DRM is an effective tool against piracy, and piracy in-and-of itself, is not what publishers have to fear.  Rather, the big challenge long term could be downstream resale of “used” ebooks, for which neither publisher, nor author will be compensated.  Due diligence on the front end (e.g., protective measures) will ensure legal remedies in the future.  Sending out a DRM free file without language relating to the licensing of content by the end user makes a case that the eBook file rightly belongs to the reader to do with as they please.  In such a case, selling ones’ eBooks in a secondary marketplace will become a reality.

]]> By: Tina Folsom http://paidcontent.org/2012/03/31/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-88394 Fri, 30 Mar 2012 22:50:24 +0000 http://gostage.paidcontent.org/419-will-hachette-be-the-first-big-6-publisher-to-drop-drm/#comment-88394 It’s a difficult decision to make. I still have DRM on my ebooks, but nevertheless they get pirated. While I’m not too concerned about all those torrent sites where my books are listed for free download (after all, you’ll probably get a virus with it and those people who download from there are probably not my customers anyway), I do get annoyed when somebody tries to re-sell (multiple times!) one of my e-books. Unfortunately I’ve seen that happening on a used-book site. And this wasn’t one of the usual pirates but a reader who got a DRM-free copy when I still sold them through Smashwords. She just figured she could make some money by re-selling my books on a used book site.

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