Comments on: Could bad times be GOOD for the e-book biz in some cases, including Kindle sales? http://www.teleread.org/2008/04/27/could-bad-times-be-good-for-e-books-in-some-cases-including-the-kindle/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:49:34 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: David Rothman http://www.teleread.org/2008/04/27/could-bad-times-be-good-for-e-books-in-some-cases-including-the-kindle/comment-page-1/#comment-777613 David Rothman Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:25:03 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/04/27/could-bad-times-be-good-for-e-books-in-some-cases-including-the-kindle/#comment-777613 You're very welcome, Josh, and I'm happy to see that in the above note and elsewhere you've clarified your stand on DRM. As I see it, no discussion of the value of E is complete without mention of DRM as a value-subtracter. DRM hurts even publishers, by making e-purchases less attractive; <em>that</em> is why I think Amazon could make powers case to them for dropping "protection." If nothing else, look at Amazon's DRMless MP3 store. Furthermore, bear in mind that Amazon imposes DRM even on publishers who don't want it. Thanks for your note, and I hope you'll hang around TeleRead and perhaps even consider becoming a contributor to the main part of the site. David You’re very welcome, Josh, and I’m happy to see that in the above note and elsewhere you’ve clarified your stand on DRM. As I see it, no discussion of the value of E is complete without mention of DRM as a value-subtracter. DRM hurts even publishers, by making e-purchases less attractive; that is why I think Amazon could make powers case to them for dropping “protection.” If nothing else, look at Amazon’s DRMless MP3 store. Furthermore, bear in mind that Amazon imposes DRM even on publishers who don’t want it. Thanks for your note, and I hope you’ll hang around TeleRead and perhaps even consider becoming a contributor to the main part of the site. David

]]> By: Josh Bancroft http://www.teleread.org/2008/04/27/could-bad-times-be-good-for-e-books-in-some-cases-including-the-kindle/comment-page-1/#comment-777433 Josh Bancroft Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:24:04 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/04/27/could-bad-times-be-good-for-e-books-in-some-cases-including-the-kindle/#comment-777433 Thanks for the link and the thoughts. You make some very good points. For the record, I'm anti-DRM, in any form. I'm just not hardcore enough about it to abstain from partaking in digital content that has DRM, as long as it's not too restrictive (examples being Kindle books and iTunes music, though lately I buy all of my music from AmazonMP3, with no DRM, or just buy the CD). I wrote a post a few months ago, that touched a little more deeply on how I feel about the Kindle's DRM. Basically, it's like this. Does DRM suck completely? Yes. Should it die a horrible death, and never infect another piece of digital media? Absolutely. Do I realistically expect the death of DRM to happen anytime soon? No. But there's hope. Look at what Apple managed to do to all 5 of the U.S. recording companies (you know, the companies that make up the RIAA). They introduced the iTunes Music Store with DRM years ago, in order to get the record companies to even consider digital music. There's no way Apple would have become the #1 music retailer (not just digital music, but ALL music in the U.S.) without that DRM. But starting last year, Steve Jobs or whoever was able to get the record companies to accept the idea of DRM-free music, and now, all five record labels have at least said that they'll release DRM free music. We're still not all the way there yet, but we're making progress. Baby steps, right? ;-) I think the Kindle store and Amazon are going to have to do the same thing with ebooks and publishers. There's no way that any of the publishers would make their content available right now without DRM. But hopefully, in the future, just like Apple and others showed that there ARE successful business models around digital content that don't involve Draconian DRM, I look forward to the day where the same happens for books (and movies and TV shows, too, but that's another rant). DRM sucks, and should die. Period. But I believe that Amazon has a better chance of making that happen by getting ebooks out there any way they can, than the rest of us do by ranting and railing against DRM and voting with our wallets. Just like the music companies, the "old school" analog folks in the publishing companies need to be shown that we are willing to pay a fair price for digital content. Get them into the game, help them relax and open up a bit, and THEN get them to dump DRM. Thanks for the link and the thoughts. You make some very good points.

For the record, I’m anti-DRM, in any form. I’m just not hardcore enough about it to abstain from partaking in digital content that has DRM, as long as it’s not too restrictive (examples being Kindle books and iTunes music, though lately I buy all of my music from AmazonMP3, with no DRM, or just buy the CD).

I wrote a post a few months ago, that touched a little more deeply on how I feel about the Kindle’s DRM. Basically, it’s like this. Does DRM suck completely? Yes. Should it die a horrible death, and never infect another piece of digital media? Absolutely. Do I realistically expect the death of DRM to happen anytime soon? No.

But there’s hope. Look at what Apple managed to do to all 5 of the U.S. recording companies (you know, the companies that make up the RIAA). They introduced the iTunes Music Store with DRM years ago, in order to get the record companies to even consider digital music. There’s no way Apple would have become the #1 music retailer (not just digital music, but ALL music in the U.S.) without that DRM. But starting last year, Steve Jobs or whoever was able to get the record companies to accept the idea of DRM-free music, and now, all five record labels have at least said that they’ll release DRM free music. We’re still not all the way there yet, but we’re making progress. Baby steps, right? ;-)

I think the Kindle store and Amazon are going to have to do the same thing with ebooks and publishers. There’s no way that any of the publishers would make their content available right now without DRM. But hopefully, in the future, just like Apple and others showed that there ARE successful business models around digital content that don’t involve Draconian DRM, I look forward to the day where the same happens for books (and movies and TV shows, too, but that’s another rant).

DRM sucks, and should die. Period. But I believe that Amazon has a better chance of making that happen by getting ebooks out there any way they can, than the rest of us do by ranting and railing against DRM and voting with our wallets.

Just like the music companies, the “old school” analog folks in the publishing companies need to be shown that we are willing to pay a fair price for digital content. Get them into the game, help them relax and open up a bit, and THEN get them to dump DRM.

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