DRM on my eBookwise: A deterrent to piracy, or a deterrent to purchasing?
By Ficbot
Now that I have settled in with my eBookwise e-book reader, I have started to think about future books for it. I have a good stash for the time being, but when I am ready to buy new stuff, what will I do?
Entry point number one will be Internet freebies, of course, from places like Munseys and Manybooks. There are so many classics I haven’t read, and so many trashy pulp fiction hits from yesteryear. But eBookwise and its parent company. Fictionwise, both have on-line stores which can be used with the device. Do I, as a reasonably tech-capable and fairly careful and educated consumer, plan to use these?
What “secure” means in Fictionwise Land
I’ll start with Fictionwise. I won’t buy secure e-books from it. In Fictionwise Land, “secure†means “only available in certain formats,†and most of the time, that means eReader. eReader files are not readable on the eBookwise. I can read them on my Dana, if I have it with me, or on my MacBook, but that’s it. I like that you can download them again if you need to down the road, and eReader seems like the best of the DRM schemes, if one must suffer with DRM. But I enjoy reading on the eBookwise and will try not to buy something that can’t go on there.
How about the non-secure Fictionwise titles? I would buy those, absolutely. Non-secure means you can download them in your pick of formats, and one of those is the eBookwise-compatible .rb format. I would but at Fictionwise before I would buy at eBookwise because with Fictionwise multi-format titles, I would have the option to download a backup directly to my computer. eBookwise does not allow this capability; its on-line bookshelf only allows you to transfer onto your device. If you want to back up those files, you need to copy them off your memory card, and even then, that file is in the proprietary .imp format and not readable on other devices the way .rb files are. So, if the book I want is available at both sites, I would buy from Fictionwise.
Fair use violation
The eBookwise site, too, offers two kinds of files available—secure and regular. Regular files can, as I said, be backed up using your memory card, but they can’t be directly downloaded to your computer for a backup. Secure files can only be downloaded onto the device you purchase it for. I bought one book of this type because I was very interested in the title, but I would not buy this type of file again. I enjoy the eBookwise product. If mine were lost or stolen, I would buy another. If the company came out with a next generation, I would buy it. And I would be able in theory to plug in my memory card and access all my past purchases—except that secure one. It’s only readable on the specific machine I have now. That, to me, violates my fair use of the book I have legally paid for.
I am not sinking any more money into something I can’t use if I ever change devices! As for the regular files, I still dislike the inability to download a backup to my computer, but as I can use my memory card to theoretically transfer it to a new future device, I can live with that. I do prefer more open formats though, as I don’t know what kind of future the .imp format has. So for eBookwise, I would say that if it is inexpensive enough that I am prepared to read it once and live with it should it stop being available after that point, I would buy it. But I will not buy any secure formats from eBookwise.
Why DRM isn’t even necessary on eBookwise
As a final note, I will add that I don’t see why DRM on a site like eBookwise is even necessary. Is there really such a network of pirated .imp files that they have to tie my purchase to one physical device owned by me at this precise moment, and bar me from using it again on future devices I might buy—from them? Anyone buying e-books from the eBookwise Web site has already bought a device. They have already proven themselves as customers willing to pay for things.
So why unreasonably bar customers from enjoying their purchases on any e-book devices they might buy in the future from the same people? It just is not necessary and makes no logical sense. And it inhibits purchasing. What if I spend $100 on secure e-books from them and then my device gets stolen? I can’t ever read them again, in any way. Why would a sensible person who understands this detail ever buy such a thing? Just who do they think they are ‘protecting’ with this foolish DRM? Not the authors, who are losing potential paying customers over this. Not readers like me, as I will be bypassing this silly system by choosing not to buy.
No winners with DRM
Who wins? Nobody. Who loses? Everybody. So why are the publishers still so gung-ho about DRM, especially on a system like this one which is already protected in some fashion by people needing a device to get on board? It defies logic and reason. I’ll stick to freebies and multi-format Fictionwise reads.
February 6th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I agree with you 100% in everything you say. A couple of months ago I bought one of these. It was cheap enough that I thought it was worth a try. Also the backlit screen could be useful in certain situations.
While I am a rabid Fictionwise supporter and have bought hundreds of books from them, the DRM setup surrounding the eBoowise caused me to relegate it to the shelf - even before doing a review for TeleRead. Just wasn’t worth my time. The annoying part is that Fictionwise doesn’t make this whole schema really clear on their site so I hadn’t realized how truly restrictive their setup is until I actually had time to play with the unit. Thanks for taking the time to do this review. Fictionwise dropped the ball on this one.
February 6th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Paul, you can get your multi-format fictionwise titles onto the ebookwise quite easily, and you can get hundreds of thousands of manybooks and munseys freebies on it too. The ’secure’ ebookwise books are totally useless though, and I would not recommend them at all
Nobody is going to find any ebookwise titles, secure or otherwise, even remotely useable unless they have already shelled out the $100 and change for the reader, so I really don’t see how such an audience is really the type the publishing world needs to be ‘protecting’ itself from. If I knock my ebookwise off the table tomorrow and it shatters into a million pieces, I would have to re-buy my three-day-old ’secure’ title again to finish reading it. Insane! Ridiculous! I know that if any fictionwise people are reading this, they will say the publishers insist on it. I understand that, so I won’t blame them for it. But I do continue to very strongly feel like they have dropped the ball—badly—by not providing desktop software for anyone other than PC users. If people (rightly) decide they don’t want to buy into a ridiculous DRM scheme that restricts their fair and reasonable use of ebooks they legally acquire, their only options are uploading their own content which they buy at fictionwise in .rb format, or download elsewhere. It is imperative that fictionwise therefore provide these users with a simple way to get it onto their devices. That personal content server works, but is buggy as anything. I have had to upload some of my files 3 or 4 times before they load.