eBooks and DRMs

One after the other one, many European editors are starting to sell digital books. I understand their need to protect their intellectual property with DRMs, but the problem is very simple: depending from which store (editor) you are buying the book, you might read the ebook only on the devices that support the editor specific DRM! So, how many devices do I need in the end, one for each publisher? Simply ridiculous.

I am so not ready to move from paper books to their digital counterpart.

For the widest possible use, go with ePub files using Adobe Digital Editions. Generally these can be put on the most devices (Kindle being the big exception, and one reason to not like the Kindle).

Yeah, this is a terrible state of affairs. I'm not entirely against DRM. It makes sense with rentals, for instance. However, for content that you purchase, DRM is evil. As usual it doesn't slow the pirates down (stripping DRM from eBooks basically requires running a Python script), while the legitimate customer is being punished and restricted in ways they should not be. Eventually the book publishers will learn this lesson, and like DRM free music we'll see more and more DRM free eBooks. Can't happen soon enough, if you ask me.

Probably just get an app from the publisher.

23 hours ago, wkempf wrote

For the widest possible use, go with ePub files using Adobe Digital Editions. Generally these can be put on the most devices (Kindle being the big exception, and one reason to not like the Kindle)

I take the opposite view which is that if you're going to suffer DRM, Kindle is the way to go because Kindle apps are available on a number of platforms as well as the Kindle device itself and Amazon I can be reasonably sure isn't going away any time soon.

The main problem I have with Kindle is that there just aren't that many books available, at least to non-US customers. They advertise something like 400,000 which sounds like a lot, but just search the store for anything you're interested in and unless you usually buy all your books at the supermarket, you're tastes are probably not catered for. I wanted a Kindle for a long time when they weren't available in Europe, but then the iPad was announced and I bought one of them instead. Glad I did because at least I can use the iPad for other things.

@magicalclick:Except that not everything is available on apps (cannot purchase weekly and dayly newspapers on the Kindle PC app...

@wkempf: I hope that publishers will learn fast!

@rhm:I can't say i find that.  I have already got well over 20 books for my kindle (and no...i don't think any of them would be found in a supermarket! )  A mixture of development books, graphic design, agile/pm books and forex ones.  I have not had many issues where books i want have not been on amazon.co.uk or i could not get them from the publisher in non-DRM epub formats.

Kinda makes you wonder what DRM they have on printed books?

The publishers are now going into the phase that the music and movie business was in a couple of years ago. Making the same mistakes. If a printed book is $10, why on earth should my e-book be $10? It's just sitting there on a server, doesnt need to get printed, doesnt need to get shipped, doesnt need to get stored in a wearhouse, doesnt need to be displayed in the bookstore and it doesnt need to be sold by a clerck.

Just sell the stuff cheaply, without DRM. It will make you popular and user friendly. And if some people want to share them for free, see it as good advertising. It's not like you couldnt share books in the past. The advantage of the digital age works both ways, content is cheap and widely availible and will cost a fraction of the cost to distribute and the downside is that books get 'lent' with the same ease.

I bought some ePub books recently that didn't have DRM -- I think it was Manning Publishing.  It gave me hope for the future.

Herbie

@Maddus Mattus: To be fair, there are expenses for non physical books too (an online store costs money to maintain, and space on a server, although cheap, does cost money), but I agree with you that overall it should be much cheaper.

@blowdart: Ugh, that sux.

@giovanni: One server with a pre-built webshop, v.s. thousands of stores worldwide, employees and printing presess. Want me to get a calculator?

@Maddus Mattus:

Does it matter? People are buying it.

@magicalclick: errrr,.. no,.. some people are buying it,.. everbody else is downloading it of the pirate bay.

I am not for that, but for each action comes a reaction. High prices -> Many downloads. Low prices -> Less downloads.

And being treated as a criminal for actually buying the product, that's what really bothers me about DRM.

And being treated as a criminal for actually buying the product, that's what really bothers me about DRM.

For me it's the mathematical/cryptographic impossibility of DRM. In a DRM scenario Bob wants to give material to Alice but not Charlie, except that Alice is Charlie; every DRM system is built around some technicality, but will always be broken eventually.

@Maddus Mattus:

I see no problem about that. Looks like "some people" is enough profit for the publishers.

@magicalclick: Actually, they recently complained that since the lauch of the iPad, (not so legal, but still legal in the free parts of the world) downloads of e-books are up!

And they want action taken!

Well, drop your prices you gits!