How Publishers Are Cutting Their Own Throats With eBook DRM 355
An anonymous reader writes "Sci-fi author Charlie Stross has written a post about how the Big Six book publishing companies have painted themselves into a corner in the rapidly growing ebook industry. Between user-unfriendly DRM and the Amazon juggernaut, they're slowly pushing themselves out of business. Quoting: 'Until 2008, ebooks were a tiny market segment, under 1% and easily overlooked; but in 2009 ebook sales began to rise exponentially, and ebooks now account for over 20% of all fiction sales. In some areas ebooks are up to 40% of the market and rising rapidly. (I am not making that last figure up: I'm speaking from my own sales figures.) And Amazon have got 80% of the ebook retail market. ... the Big Six's pig-headed insistence on DRM on ebooks is handing Amazon a stick with which to beat them harder. DRM on ebooks gives Amazon a great tool for locking ebook customers into the Kindle platform.'"
I hate DRM. (Score:5, Insightful)
DRM on ebooks gives Amazon a great tool for locking ebook customers into the Kindle platform.'"
Which is why I'm not buying books from Amazon or B&N at this point. Either it's without DRM, or I'm not buying it. Baen's Webscriptions for me, at least at the moment.
Re:I hate DRM. (Score:5, Interesting)
At least a lot of non-Big6 writers are publishing without DRM on Amazon (and other platforms).
There's a new thread almost weekly on places like Kindleboards.com about DRM and it still always goes the same way though, lots of arguing on either side. In the end at least, more and more writers are explicitly choosing NOT to DRM.
We have several books out under a few pen-names, none of them are DRM'd and we're not the only ones ( http://elitadaniels.com/ [elitadaniels.com] ).
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Re:I hate DRM. (Score:5, Insightful)
What I don't understand about the whole DRM mess is this: Why hasn't somebody brought up the bigger question which is why force a tech THAT DOES NOT WORK and ONLY pisses off the people PAYING you?
You must be new here. Some of us have been saying it for 30 years, going back to "copy protected" floppy disks... and our voices are hoarse by now.
Now get off my lawn...
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Publishers are following in the footsteps of all the other content providers and making exactly the same mistakes.
First it was the audio industry that whined cassette tapes would destroy the industry... instead people found new uses for music - portable, in their car (yes, they had eight track... I won't go there). The music industry thrived despite the predictions of death by the RIAA.
Then it was the MPAA's turn... video tape would destroy the film industry. Instead, it opened up new revenue streams and
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My opinion on pirates is that, right or wrong, they are simply unstoppable and see ANY form of copy protection as a challenge. They crack stuff just for fun.
Using DRM to stop a pirate is like using a stinkbomb to blow up a castle. No damage except to the noses of innocent bystanders.
Pirate's gonna pirate no matter what you do. It's time for publishers to accept that as reality and quit fighting a battle they can't win, and start worrying about giving its customers a better deal than the cheapskate pirate
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We are moving down that road with movies. Instead of paying $20 for a DVD you can now watch 100 movies on Netflix all month long for $8. This means the cost (or value) of the movie isn't really much more than $0.08 instead of $20. Between Netflix and piracy, all we are waiting for is the last bit to go away and we will see movies have $0 value.
You are confusing the concept of owning and renting. When you watch a movie on Netflix, you don't get to keep it. Before netflix, movie rentals were a couple bucks tops, so the difference isn't nearly what you are making it out to be.
With Movie tickets right around $12 before popcorn or soda, I'd say the worth of watching a movie 1 time is still $12. I doubt the major movie studios would be pulling in record profits if a movie had a $0 value.
Ebooks are going to be going that way soon as well. You can now find poor copies of newly released books downloadable within days. Better quality content is coming, just as it did with music and movies. The revenue from ebooks will be destroyed just as certainly as it was for other digital items.
Do you know what pirates did before the invent
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Can someone explain why locking you into a platform you have no control over is NOT DRM?
(I have a Kindle, and I can't take a book off it and do what I wish with it.... or can I?)
After my wife bought a Kindle, I looked into this a little bit. There is an open source eBook reader that will also convert from one format to another -- assuming that the original is not locked up with DRM. You can get a Kindle reader from Amazon for Android, so in theory (haven't done it, wouldn't swear to it) you could read your Kindle eBooks on an Nook.
For me, I looked at my favorite authors and what books were available as ebooks -- and looked at the cost. On the one hand, I would really like to
Re:I hate DRM. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I hate DRM. (Score:5, Informative)
Since you're familiar with Calibre [calibre-ebook.com], why aren't you familiar with Unswindle [blogspot.com]? There's even a plugin for Calibre to link the two.
I rarely *buy* my ebooks. There's just too much good stuff out there that's price-free, DRM-free, or both.
When I *do* buy an ebook, I buy from Amazon, run it through unswindle+Calibre, and have the text, formatted, with pictures, table of contents, etc, exactly as purchased, in the format(s) I choose, with no DRM.
It's entirely possible to work within the system and still get an officially forbidden result.
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My primary platform is a mac, so I didn't know about the plug in, but my process is to look for the book on baen.com or in a "multiformat" (non-drm'd) at fictionwise.com, and if it's not there, then I get it from amazon (if it's not available as an ebook, then I don't get it - I'm tired of moving boxes of paper around) and the first thing I do is strip the drm in a windoze vm. I'm not going to be locked into a proprietary format or have the book "disappear" on me. If the rumored new kindle format can't be
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Re:I hate DRM. (Score:5, Informative)
Most of my eBook purchases are from Baen. Cheap prices, free books, any format you could want, and no DRM? What's not to like?
For those who are curious about the "free books" part, Jim Baen and his authors discovered that giving away the first book or two in a series actually increased sales, and ended up putting a huge number of their books up for free download. And by "free" I mean "just like ones you pay for, DRM-free in all formats." Their free library's site can be found here:
http://www.baen.com/library/default.asp [baen.com]
And the books themselves can be downloaded from here (and also indirectly at the above link):
http://www.webscription.net/c-1-free-library.aspx [webscription.net]
This sort of behaviour from content creators and publishers should be rewarded, so go check out some of the free books. There's so many to choose from, from so many authors, you're bound to find something you like! And if this post reads like an advertisement, well, I think they deserve it.
Re:I hate DRM. (Score:5, Interesting)
Seconding that.
I got onto the 1632/Ring of Fire [webscription.net] series, and the Honor Harrington [webscription.net] series through the Baen free library.
As validation of their model, I've since bought all of both series as ebooks from them (actually under the webscription model: 5-6 books, including the one I was looking for, for $15). I've also bought half of the Honor Harrington series as audio books through Audible, all through a couple of $5 loss-leaders.
Re:I hate DRM. (Score:4, Insightful)
WHOOT!! The model works.
My history with the Baen books is quite different from your own. But, I've been an avid reader, all my life. I exhausted my elementary school's library, then my junior high school's library, and then got a library card at the city library. It took years, but I finally read everything there, that I wanted to read. In the meantime, I read everything in my high school's library.
When I couldn't find FREE reading material, quite naturally I started BUYING books. Of course, a number of trilogies and anthologies were missing parts in the various libraries, so I had already bought those. Most of which, I donated to the city library when I was finished with them!
Yes, the model works.
If an author wants to be read, he must have an audience which loves to read. You can't capture an audience if you are not willing to give them good introductory material. The average school kid can't afford to buy books, and when he can afford to buy a book, he isn't going to UNLESS you've already taught him the value of reading.
Authors should look at Bill Gates for inspiration. Gates put his operating system within reach of every school kid in America for FREE. That is exactly why Microsoft has a monopoly today!
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> The average school kid can't afford to buy books
As a parent, I have to say that I believe, in the case that economics enables it, that's exactly one of the things a parent is for.
(I have to admit feeling a bit like a drug dealer, however, since I instituted a "first N books fully subsidized, all books afterwards X% subsidized" strategy --- I feel it's important that a child who's old enough can get experience planning how he spends the pocket money he has).
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I don't think the comparison is fair. Because subsidies for behaviour seen as useful, is common all trough life, including as an adult. The thing with "first hit is free" for drugs is that's it's subsidising *bad* behaviour.
The government has multiple ways of making wanted behaviour cheaper, and/or making unwanted behaviour more expensive. Thus if I buy a book as an adult, it's VAT-free, whereas if I buy alcohol as an adult it's 25%VAT and carries an additional alcohol-tax.
These, and other strategies, chang
Large free selection if you look for it (Score:4, Informative)
I checked out their site; not much selection and a VERY limited selection of "free" ebooks.
Baen frequently releases CDROMs with specific hardcovers that contain near-complete back catalogs of that author, which can then be redistributed freely.
Check out the Annotated Baen Free Listing [allensmith.net] or the Fifth Imperium [thefifthimperium.com].
Re:Large free selection if you look for it (Score:5, Informative)
And to clarify the "can then be redistributed freely" bit, the license on the CDs specifically says that they can be copied and distributed freely so long as they're not sold. Hence why the Fifth Imperium site has all the CDs available for download.
In actual fact, a large percentage of Baen's catalog is available legally for free download because of those CDs. Almost all of the Baen books by David Weber, Eric Flint, Mercedes Lackey, Lois McMaster Bujold, John Ringo, and David Drake, and then various other books and stories by other authors. Except books published since the respective CDs were...
My Favorite eBook source... (Score:4, Informative)
I was informed of the Baen Books website about 9-10 years ago. [here on /., actually] :-)
The 'Baen_Library'[sub-folder' of my ''eBooks' folder] takes up around 15-16 GB's of my back-up drive.
The Fifth Imperium [thefifthimperium.com] website is about half of the aforementioned 15-16 GB's., the rest I've bought from the webscriptions [webscription.net] site.[1]
As a side note, my 'eBooks' folder is about 21 GB's currently. It's size and contents change a lot.
I am an insatiable reader. Really.
[1]Real easy, and they do not spam your inbox, or anything else.
a. create account and log on info
(non intrusive)
b. log in, set up your pref's and info
c. browse and purchase, read the first part of the book as 'sample chapters', or what ever.
d. The webscriptions site keeps track of the books you have purchased, so you can access those books to re-download from any PC you can log into the website from.
What's not to like?
My historic 'travel habits' were to pack my bags, go to the airport early, browse the bookstands, and buy a book or two fr the flight[s].
I now find myself looking exclusively for books by authors I have been exposed to from Baen Books.
(but, I don't travel air anymore because of the TSA BS., but was true for the past 5-6 years)
I know that I may sound like a Baen shill, but I am not...I am just that much of a fanboy. :-)
*credits to 'Guspaz (556486)' who started this thread. [slashdot.org]*
Re:Large free selection if you look for it (Score:5, Informative)
Weber's a skilful writer of page-turners (though a horrible, horrible, horrible writer of dialogue), whatever you think of his politics. Bujold is just flat out a great writer; I don't know why she gets so much love and so little respect, but by any reasonable measure she's one of the great writers of the last 50 years. And that's coming from someone who reads a hell of a wide range of fiction.
Re:I hate DRM. (Score:4, Interesting)
> VERY limited selection of "free" ebooks.
So they're to be hated so they don't give EVERYTHING away?
Also, what they have available is really good quality, no crap.
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Thanks for jostling my memory, I had forgotten to donate to Project Gutenberg in a while.
This, instead of a retail purchase, oh mighty purveyors of bill C-11.
Re:I hate DRM. (Score:4, Informative)
I post this link at every opportunity. All authors and publishers should read this, and give it serious thought. DRM is the stupidest thing since the square wheel!
http://www.baen.com/library/default.asp [baen.com]
Re:I hate DRM. (Score:5, Insightful)
industry standard DRM
Meaning Adobe's proprietary DRM, instead of Amazon's?
Re:I hate DRM. (Score:5, Interesting)
You do realize that B&N uses the industry standard DRM, right? No lock involved, in fact you can open the books on any computer that supports Adobe Editions
In other words, they tie you into using one of the worst pieces of crap software since Adobe Flash Player.
I just don't buy e-books with DRM, it's much simpler.
"Industry Standard DRM" (Score:5, Insightful)
"Industry standard DRM" is an oxymoron. If you can't implement it, then it's not a standard. You're locked into the sole supplier of the trade secret. When you mentioned that everyone has to run Wine just to be able to read the book, didn't that clue you into how ridiculous you must have sounded? How about the part when you mentioned a .. I don't know what to call it .. a "spec"(?!) that has one particular companies' name in it. Seriously, you might as well say the XBox is an industry standard; that wouldn't be any sillier.
You know what's an industry standard? You're reading it right now. HTML. (And that's a fragmented and contentious one!) You would never even be able to guess which browser I'm using because it doesn't matter. HTML just works, with more programs than you can shake a stick at. And if you don't like any of them, you can even write your own. Text. RTF. Even PDF -- it's hard to say this with a straight face -- but even PDF is standard compared to that other Adobe thing you just mention that nobody else in the world has ever heard of, which probably explains why nobody ever makes readers for it.
Re:I hate DRM. (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no such thing as industry-wide-standard DRM that has any use. It's self-defeating. Well DRM is in itself self-defeating anyway.
First of all, remember that the R has to do with Restrictions, no more no less. Just that, restrictions in what you can do with a file. Now if all devices all over the industry use the exact same DRM, that means all these devices can decode all materials just fine. All resellers incorporate it in their media, all reader software and devices incorporate it, and the end user basically never sees any restrictions. So why add it to begin with? If DRM doesn't get in the way of the end user, it's not doing anything, and you'd just as well not have it at all and save money in the process (as in: the work to implement the restriction scheme on both the media and the reader sides).
Of course it's used to prevent copying, including making backups for oneself. But with all those devices out there it will be cracked, and cracked fast. There may also be devices that simply ignore the DRM - to make it industry standard it means you need wide adoption, and control of who has the keys is getting more and more difficult.
It won't prevent copying either: one would just copy the complete file DRM and all. It's an industry-wide standard so anyone can read it anyway, DRMed or not. If it works on device A it works on device B. For books requiring on-line verification is troublesome as books are often read off-line and out of reach of a network, e.g. on the bus or on the train.
And by restricting your DRM to a single vendor, that's self-defeating. Amazon has now something like 80% of the e-book market, so if you want to use DRM on your book media you're kinda obliged to at least use Amazon's system. Otherwise you lose out on most of the market. This gives Amazon a huge market power: it can dictate prices, refund policies, their commissions, being exclusive reseller of the book, whatnot. They are in control of the whole process, and by the publisher's decision to require DRM the publisher also completely locks out any competition between resellers.
And to see a classic example on how that works out: iTunes. Music industry demands DRM on music sales, Apple owns well 80-90% of the market or so (not just the retail side, but also the player side) and offers DRM, and as a result Apple has enormous power to set prices - like the $0.99 per song demand. And this DRMed iTunes music is restricted to Apple's devices only to boot. The only way for the music industry to get back their pricing power and control over the sales of their music, was to drop DRM, which in the end they did.
Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment... (Score:5, Insightful)
... pricing an e-book $13 when the paperback is $6 is a much more visible issue for the average e-book buyer, at least judging from the various comments on amazon's message boards.
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The price is too high.
I can't lend it to somebody.
Re:Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment (Score:5, Interesting)
It all ties together. Booksellers, whether retail outlets like Amazon or the publishers themselves, want to charge paper-book prices for e-books. They see DRM as a mechanism to enable them to do that. The alternative, which is to sell e-books for reasonable prices (i.e., prices which reflect the fact that printing and distribution costs for e-books are effectively zero) and thereby sell more books, is so far mostly the domain of the self-publishing and small-press world.
Re:Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment (Score:5, Insightful)
This pricing system is nothing new. All the modern Call of Duty games stay at $60 on Steam. The latest version rarely goes on sale, if so it's only like $10 off. Publishers of any sort only want to be paid what they think customers should pay.
Then, some indie mucky-muck makes something like Minecraft, Angry Birds, etc, charges so little, and sells millions. It's not fair!
Re:Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment (Score:5, Interesting)
Valve gets it because they've seen the data to back it up: 10% drop in price? Expect a 35% increase in revenue. Not sales, revenue. 25% discount, 245% increase. 50% discount, 320% increase. Crazy 75% discount? 1450% increase in revenue. Valve's own record, AFAIK, was when they dropped L4D by half and saw a THREE THOUSAND PERCENT increase in sales. And apparently the best sales bump ever was a third party game that went on discount and saw a 36,000% increase in sales over the weekend. These are numbers that bean counters would drag their dicks through a mile of broken glass just to LOOK at, much less claim. Yet out there in digital land the average product is priced equal to (if not more than) it's meatspace counterpart.
Insanity.
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I think the problem is probably that the legacy MBAs think they can get even more profit by using artificial scarcity to hike prices. In fact, I think the legacy MBA culture of greed is closely related to rent-seeking.
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When it comes to discounting, psychology plays a role too.
I recall my brother-in-law once tried to run a small shoe shop. You know such a 3x3m shop in a mall stocking mostly cheap shoes, the low-to-mid end $150-250 a pair made-in-China stuff they bought on the wholesale markets across the border in mainland.
They were selling shoes at well about $180 a pair, but sales were not good enough, and they found their margin too small. So what did they do? They discounted the shoes: "30% discount! Original price $
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Hehe. You said "logic".
This is valid when we're talking about a manufactured good with a material production cost. The manufacturing cost of a single copy of a console game, sold in a store, shrinkwrap and all, is pretty small. I don't know the exact numbers, but it can't be much more than a couple of bucks, especially with the cheap 2-3 page black and white manuals that have shown up in the game boxes lately. The manufacturing cost of a digitally distributed game is zero. In both cases, there is a fra
Re:Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment (Score:5, Informative)
Courtesy of the author of the original post is this nifty article [antipope.org]. Note especially the comments in point one:
Now, you might argue that lower prices would lead to more sales and hence greater overall profit - but that's a very different thing to arguing that "printing and distribution costs for e-books are effectively zero", and hence implying that they're a significant chunk of the cost for the dead tree version ...
Re:Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment (Score:5, Interesting)
In particular, about 80-90% of the cover price of a book has nothing to do with the paper and ink object you buy in a shop; indeed, using current production standards, ebook production requires nearly as much work as paper book production. (Paper and ink are dirt cheap; proofreaders and marketing teams aren't.)
Didn't the publishing industry nearly double paperback prices just a few years ago citing increases in paper costs?
Re:Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment (Score:5, Interesting)
And weren't they saying recently that profits are up despite a decline in sales because e-books are far more profitable than paper books?
Re:Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment (Score:5, Insightful)
Along with paper and ink, shipping cartons, shipping costs, inventory management, retail floor space costs (IOW retail markup), damaged and unsold merchandise, etc. All essentially zero cost. Just like digital. That's why the pricing is the same.
Sure.
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I think you meant "hardback prices" for eBooks...
Re:Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment (Score:5, Insightful)
Let me correct you on this - Amazon does NOT want to do this. In fact you will note that almost all of their book prices specifically state that they were set by the PUBLISHER and not by Amazon. Why? Because Amazon WAS selling books at pretty reasonable prices aka under $9.99 for even new best sellers and then Apple released the iPad and gave the publishers the ability to set pricing - which they then demanded from Amazon. Amazon tried to fight this but in the end knuckled under and we have the Agency Pricing Model that we have now - and we have Amazon acting as a publisher for many smart writers. Amazon doesn't like this but they have no choice, in fact someone is suing Apple and the publishers for this now.
End result? I no longer buy many books and I think this industry will be learning a very hard lesson just as the music industry did. In fact it will be WAY worse since books are WAY smaller (say 4megs with multiple formats) and because books aren't read over and over quite like music is. A real shame too since I and many I know were buying books more and more frequently prior to this truly stupid move by the publishing industry.
P.S. MacMillen was one of the big publishers leading the charge and on their blog, I shit you not, they actually tried to defend their pricing by stating how expensive PRINTING presses were! The mind boggles - these dinosaurs aren't long for this world...
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Of course. But that's where the distribution ends: when it's in my hands. Somehow it has to be paid for.
And no matter what it's added in the price of books: within the US Amazon offers "free shipping" (of course I don't know the exact terms as I'm not in US). And you bet this shipping cost is included in the book price already!
So you have two options: the e-book (very low cost, just some server storage space and band width) versus the paper book (which has to be printed, quality checked, packed, shipped t
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You're paying for both.
For new books it almost makes sense. I'm seeing the digital versions at about 1~4$ cheaper, which may account for the price difference for trees, ink and shipping.
But for older books (sometimes just 1 year old), the price falls much faster for physical books than for their digital versions.
I suspect that it's because digital books don't have to compete with the second-hand market.
Re:Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment (Score:4, Interesting)
No one is forcing you or anyone to buy the e-book, I, for one, only buy kindle books when it's worth it (I payed 10$ less for A Dance with Dragos, 7$ less for the latest Dreaden Files and more or less 8$ less for the Inheritance e-book.
But then I bought The Lies of Locke Lamora on paper.
And even though I don't regret it, I might not do it again just to save 2$. The convenience of the whole Amazon infrastructure combined with instant delivery anywhere in the world for free, not to mention the lousy quality of pocket paperbacks...
Re:Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment (Score:4, Informative)
Not all eBooks are so expensive. Baen prices theirs at mostly $4 to $6, with a whole lot for $0. Yes, their ARCs (advanced reader copies) are $15, but those are a special case for hardcore fans (basically pre-release manuscripts direct from the author before they've been edited), and if you don't want to pay the $15, just wait for it to get edited and published and the cost will be in the $4-6 range as expected.
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Ahh the Australia Effect (Score:5, Insightful)
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For the hardcovers, kindle books are cheaper almost every time. I bought my dance with dragons for 14$ when the hardcover used to cost 23$, and even now you still save around 4$ if you buy the kindle version.
On the other hand, the mass market paperback pocket books are usually cheaper than the kindle books, but the quality of those books pales in comparison to the service you get on the kindle.
And in the end, you're not forced into buying e-books, if the paperback is cheaper, buy it (:
Re:Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment (Score:5, Insightful)
in that case ebooks should cost 10% less than the paperback edition when it comes out, and 10% less than the hardcover before the paperback comes out.
And maybe they do "cost" 10% less. However, that's their cost. Their price to you, on the other hand, should be whatever they think you'll pay that gives them the most profit. It's how capitalism works: buy low, sell high. It really is that simple.
If they think you'll pay an extra $3 for the convenience of sitting on your butt while having the book whisked over the aether to your Kindle, then they'll happily collect it from you. If they think you'll pay an extra $5 for the smell of a dead tree, they'll be even more happy to collect that. And if they think you'll pay $79 for a Kindle today that will lock you into an investment of $15 DRM'd books, they're ecstatic.
The only part of the equation that matters is what the largest number of consumers are willing to pay in order to maximize profits to the stockholders. Nothing else, not fairness, not reasonableness, not public opinion, not whiny authors, not abusive commenters in the Amazon reviews, nor the public good, matters. Never forget that.
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Capitalism is also about reducing the gap between cost and price by having that gap smell juicy enough to attract a little thing called competition.
Re:Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment (Score:4, Insightful)
Because the correct price for a good has nothing, zero, zip, nada, to do with the cost of producing it. The correct price for a good is "all the market will bear". And claiming the price is too high is simply not moral justification for stealing a book, electronically or otherwise.
Re:Not sure DRM is the biggest issue at the moment (Score:4, Insightful)
Not only that bust as many authors are finding out ebooks don't have limited shelf life. In the paper world a book is only on the shelf and then in print for shipping for a limited time. An ebook on the other hand need never leave the shelf - it's ALWAYS available for sale. Many authors are waking up to this and telling their old publishers to take a hike when they come calling asking for rights to the electronic copy and doing it themselves. I cannot find the blog now but there's a guy out there who's making huge bucks on books the paper publishers REJECTED and laughing his way to the bank using Amazon. The faster the old school paper guys go under the happier I will be, we need less greed in the world.
I sense a pattern. (Score:3, Insightful)
Why does every aspect of the publishing industry seem to fail at grasping the advantages of limited or no DRM and digital products?
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Limited is not the same as no DRM. There should be some measure of DRM, in my opinion, just to dissuade the most basic of copies. But DRM should never inconvenience those who pay for the final product.
I have yet to see how Amazon's DRM does that, the books I buy work on my Phone, iPad, Kindle and any computer I own(up to 6 devices can share the same book at one time). It's anything but restrictive, in my opinion.
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Obviously, I have no f..king clue about who you are. No idea why should I.
You can use amazon books if you remove the DRM. It requires a google search and 5 minutes. You can use your books anywhere.
Their app isn't shitty and for both android and iOS (iPad) is my proffered reader. A quick web search will also tell you they are, it is, in fact, the best reader app out there - even recommended for books not purchased via Amazon
And the clauses in the TOS you consider abusive are there for a reason. Amazon, as fa
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Why does every aspect of the publishing industry seem to fail at grasping the advantages of limited or no DRM and digital products?
What purpose a publisher would have in the business landscape if the authors would (self-)publish exclusively in e-formats and DRM free?
(maybe they do grasp the situation very well, and they are just fighting for their life?)
DRM is a joke (Score:2)
and it's on the publishers. Tens of thousands of books are available on usenet alone. I regularly buy non drm'ed books, mostly from Baen. I'm not going to buy any DRM books. Not gonna do it. Especially not when they cost damn near what a paper book in a brick and mortar store costs. That's just wrong and I will not bend over and take it up the ass like that. Especially when so many pirated books are available free and easy.
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My Own Entry Point (Score:3)
If I could buy an epub file for a book, knowing that it is well-done by the publisher, and not just a simple OCR job of the printed copy, I would pay up to $5 for books.
More than that, and for any other format with or without DRM, and I don't buy it.
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How about $6, DRM-free, in ePub and any other format you might want? Baen's eBooks tend to be $4-6. Some are free (and not crappy samples, usually the first few books in major series).
Re: (Score:3)
Scifi, fantasy, alt history... But that makes sense, since they're a scifi publisher.
They have more than just old books and short stories. Two of their most popular series are David Weber's Honor Harrington scifi series and Eric Flint's 1632 alt-history series, both of which still have new books coming out.
Can they invent a new model now? (Score:5, Informative)
I think I should be spending more on entertainment; I'm starting to feel much guiltier about stealing everything but comic books, occasional paperbacks, and the three video games per decade I like enough to buy a collector's edition.
At the same time, the release prices for entertainment are completely batshit crazy. Games are $60, books are $35, and movies are $12? Who can afford that crap? Those prices all fall pretty quickly, but can't they come up with a better model than fleecing their most eager customers and then doling it out one step at a time to the next most impressive or convenient formats?
I don't know; maybe they can't. I just know I laugh when I see those numbers breakdowns, and I've seen them from official sources multiple times, in which publishers swear to God they only make a 1% profit.
Re: (Score:2)
Games are $60
A lot of the market has shifted to games that run on telephones. These tend to cost somewhere between $1 and $5.
Re: (Score:3)
I really hope publishers cave in and figure out a way of pricing things better.
it's not just pricing. it's method of payment too.
where is the ebookstore that i can go to with my cash and my usb stick, buy a pdf ebook and read it at home with okular or evince or whatever pdf reader i choose.
not everybody has a credit card. actually - i think one can safely say that most people in the world do not have a credit card. so why haven't companies learned that and adjusted their way of doing business accordingly.
Re:Can they invent a new model now? (Score:5, Insightful)
At the same time, the release prices for entertainment are completely batshit crazy. Games are $60, books are $35, and movies are $12? Who can afford that crap? Those prices all fall pretty quickly, but can't they come up with a better model than fleecing their most eager customers and then doling it out one step at a time to the next most impressive or convenient formats?
This is actually the whole point: Market Segmentation. Your goal with any product is to extract maximum sales revenue from it, which means finding the optimum point on the price/demand curve. But if you sell at only one price point, you actually leave money on the table from individuals who were willing to pay you more for that product. For example, suppose I've figured out that maximum revenue for my widget is at $10/widget. However, I also know that there are people who are willing to pay $20/widget; there simply aren't enough of them to make the $20/widget price more profitable than the $10/widget price. Wouldn't it be great if I could get the best of both price points? If I could sell the product for $10/widget to those customers who would only be willing to buy at $10, but also turn around and sell it at $20/widget to those customers willing to pay more? Wouldn't it be great if I could do this in such a way so that the $20 customer actually is pleased with his purchase, and doesn't feel ripped off, by providing some kind of extra value to that $20 customer?
The solution to this problem is to segment your market. With some goods this means coming out with slightly different products for each market segment. (eg, Mercedes has a C-series, an E-series, etc. etc. etc.). The solution in other products is to segment by time, so your most ardent customers pay extra to get the product right away, while more value-conscious customers wait for price drops or sales.
This is in fact the solution used for most entertainment products, and honestly I don't think there's anything wrong with it. The brand new game may start at $60, for those fans that are very interested in the product and want it right away. (Market segementation also goes higher, with special and collector's editions with extra doodads for superfans). Then the price gradually drops until it covers every level of enthusiasm/budget for the product, until it shows up in a Steam sale for $5 and even those people who say "meh, looks interesting, guess I can try it" become customers. This system nicely balances multiple interests - it makes the same product accessible to a wide range of consumers, with each consumer paying what they think that product is worth to them (and the ones paying more getting some benefit from that higher price).
Who Can Survive Without Whom? (Score:2)
As Mr. Stross points out, most English-language books are published by a few big players. With Amazon, they find themselves in much the same position as many restaurants do with OpenTable... they've got one gatekeeper between them and their ultimate customers.
And, as with the restaurants, the tools build their own gate are available: create or buy their own coop service, and stop doing business with Amazon. There would be risk, and there would be a short term loss of business. But, the publishers should ask
Re: (Score:2)
As Mr. Stross points out, most English-language books are published by a few big players. With Amazon, they find themselves in much the same position as many restaurants do with OpenTable... they've got one gatekeeper between them and their ultimate customers.
With Charlie Stross, I can't muster as much sympathy as I otherwise would, given that he (or his publisher) pulled his books off ereader (formerly peanutpress) and thus helped reduce the number of gatekeepers.
It is astonishing that they didn't foresee this (Score:3)
At least with the music industry's drm'ed files they could be played on a multitude of devices from various companies. Amazon's ebooks only work on amazon hardware.
I also get the impression that pirating ebooks is far less common with Joe and Susie Consumer than with what occurred in the napster days with mp3s. I doubt ebook filesharing has much affect on the publisher's bottom line, since most of those who do it probably wouldn't have purchased the book anyway (and certainly not new in hardcover).
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Amazon's ebooks only work on amazon hardware.
Not entirely accurate--one of the things I like best about ebooks from Amazon is that I can (and do) read them on the Kindle, my phones, and my computers. The Kindle app is available for just about everything, and syncs between devices so I can pick up on one where I left off on another.
Re: (Score:3)
At least with the music industry's drm'ed files they could be played on a multitude of devices from various companies. Amazon's ebooks only work on amazon hardware.
Actually it works with amazon hardware, but also any android OS, iOS, BlackBerry OS and desktop (using Chrome or a derivative, I believe web reader supports Windows/OSX/Linux) .
Amazon's not stupid. They know that customers will want/need their content on multiple devices and they make it easy to move content across devices.
This isn't to say that DRM is a good idea -- only that they're very efficient at hiding the fact that DRM exists from the majority of consumers. THis works very much in their favor --
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No, and this is a common misconception.
The books you bought on Amazon will work on iPads, iPhones, Android Tablets, Android Phones and any mac/PC, up to 6 at the same time.
True, they won't work on other e-book readers, but if you bought the book removing the amazon DRM is easy (allowing you to move it anywhere you want).
Re: (Score:2)
"Amazon's ebooks only work on amazon hardware. "
Funny, my iPad reads kindle ebooks in the kindle reader app just fine. And my old android tablet reads kindle ebooks as well in it's kindle app.
In fact I believe Kindle ebooks are the MOST cross platform ebooks out there as their reader app is on every single platform.
Wait... I cant read them on my BluRay player. DRAT!
Re: (Score:2)
I think you mean that Amazon's ebooks only work on Amazon *software*. You can get a Kindle reader for most any major platform.
Very true. Should have said amazon hardware/software. It has the same result: amazon is the gatekeeper, and the files are accessible under their conditions.
Comment removed (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Amazon doesn't have the clout to fight the publishers anyway. They tried holding the line at $10 per book, and lost.
The best path we have to DRM-free ebooks is authors deciding to self-publish DRM free titles. If the next JK Rowling were to do so, it would have a big impact. Of course, you aren't likely to reach that point without publishers backing you at the start, and they probably make you sign contracts that you'll stay with them through the whole series.
Why I don't have a kindle (yet) (Score:5, Insightful)
"Here's a great book I just read. Let me lend it to you..."
Re: (Score:3)
Calibre fixes that....
Want to borrow this ebook? what format do you need it in? here you go.
Its Vendor Lock-in, not DRM (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
DRM isn't the issue. Its Vendor Lock-in. You can have the former without the latter. The author is using Vendor Lock-in to trash DRM.
Except, getting rid of DRM also gets rid of the Lock-in. So why not kill two birds with one stone?
Re: (Score:3)
The author is rather explaining how DRM, in this case, leads to vendor lock-in - because the customers who already bought DRM'd books from Amazon have to stick to their devices and apps (or else lose their collection), and consequently publishers have to publish through Amazon to reach that "captured" audience.
Amazon Exclusives? (Score:2)
If the big six began selling ebooks without DRM, readers would at least be able to buy from other retailers and read their ebooks on whatever platform they wanted, thus eroding Amazon's monopoly position.
You mean I can't buy from the likes of B&N already? Never mind they already have their own DRM. Also as a side note it would be interesting to both see E-reader sales and how much each purchaser buys?
My book (Score:5, Interesting)
Disclaimer: I'm currently finalizing a book for the Amazon store. Shameless linkwhore here. [lacunaverse.com]
This guy hit the nail right on the head. The reason the publishers are pushing for DRM is fear of piracy, but...
Bleck. First up I don't like the term "piracy". Bleh. But language is fluid and you all know what I mean, so let's go with it.
Real pirates, like these guys [wikipedia.org], are evil. They're not Jack Sparrow, they're not Captain Hook, they're murderers and rapists and kidnappers and deserved to eat a Tomahawk missile in their sleep. They're scum. They're villains. They're evil. They're not some kid who just wants to read the next (awesome, awesome, aweeeesome) Harry Potter book for free or whatever.
I've never understood musicians, writers and artists who get all messed up about digital piracy. It just strikes me as entirely retarded, especially if they're not in full compliance with every piece of software, hardware, music and movies they've ever seen or owned. I'm sure their $2,000 copy of Adobe Photoshop is fully legitimate now and was when they were 14, and I'm sure they've never downloaded an MP3 in their life.
I see this crap everywhere. I see rap artists thumbing their nose at society, waxing lyrical about sticking it to the man, pimping hoes, glorifying robbery, murder and pushing drugs, while at the same time appearing bereaved that their latest forgettable album appeared on The Pirate Bay the day after it appeared in iTunes. I see armies of cocaine huffing, hooker bashing, Harvard educated RIAA trust-fund babies who've never wanted for anything in their life but a full head of hair, going on about how Limewire costs them the GDP of the entire world [oddballdaily.com] ($75,000,000,000,000 dollars) in lost revenue and also, simultaneously, claiming to have had one of their most profitable years ever [azoz.com]. How do you even rationalize that kind of blatant, intrinsic wrongness?
Fuck those guys.
I don't give a shit if you got my book from The Pirate Bay. It costs $2 to buy and is available in DRM free PDFs, or even DRM free plaintext if you really want it and you're Richard Stallman (I met you once, by the way, and you were cool. You hated my iPhone though. Sorry bro). I don't want to DRM my book(s). I want people to read them.
DRM pisses me off and ultimately hurts the consumer and then, eventually, the publisher too. Hell if someone made a torrent on The Pirate Bay of my work I'd probably just feel proud that I'd made a book people really want to read.
Re: (Score:3)
<quote>... appearing bereaved that their latest forgettable album appeared on The Pirate Bay the day after it appeared in iTunes.</quote>
<p>
<p>
FTFY
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Here's the thing: the statistics you posted are
Re:My book (Score:4, Insightful)
- They emerged originally as a replacement for a national navy, keeping garbage from being dumped in Somali waters?
Irrelevant
- They generally let people go unharmed after receiving a ransom?
They kidnap innocent people at gunpoint for money. Fuck them.
Re:My book (Score:4, Insightful)
I bet you change your tune when it's your mother/sister/girlfriend/wife who gets kidnapped and raped, and then killed because you can't come up with what they want fast enough, or if she gets returned, seeing her live with the aftermath. You'll be just as miserable as she is, unless you shut her out of your life afterwards.
Yeah, think about that. That Tomahawk sound a little better now?
DRM Isn't the Driving Factor, it's the Kindle (Score:4, Insightful)
The Story of DRM (Score:4, Insightful)
Reader: I'd like to buy your book please.
Publisher: Buy a Kindle first.
Reader: No, I don't want a Kindle. Sell me a book?
Publisher: Buy a Kindle.
Reader: If I buy a Kindle, can I read the book without it?
Publisher: No. But buy a Kindle. I don't even care if you buy my book. Just please, buy a Kindle.
Reader: What is this, a MLM scheme? Do you get paid for Kindle sales?
Publisher: No. I just want you to buy a Kindle.
Reader: Whatever. Anyway: money. Here is some money. Want my money? Sell me book. Book. File. No Kindle. Not any particular Kindle competitor. Data, not tool. Book. Sell me book. Money. Money. Here is some money. Money.
Publisher: Fuck off.
Reader: [blink] I think we had a misunderstanding. Let's try this one more time: money. Money. Here, please take my money.
Publisher: Fuck you and your fucking money. I don't want money.
Publisher Stockholders: la la la I am blissfully unaware. The management is trying to increase revenue. The management is trying to serve my interests. I will not sue them, or even fire them. la la la la.
Publisher: Fuck money. Money is bad. I hate stockholders. Die, stockholder. Die, author. Die, customer. Everybody die. Fuck you all! RAAAA! Buy Kindle. *drool* *ramble* *rant*
Reader: Hey, this torrent site is pretty nice. And everything just works!
Amazon: You know what else just works? Reading those pirated books on a Kindle.
Reader: ok. Here, have some money.
Amazon: Moooney! Woohoo! Here you go. Enjoy your Kindle. Wanna buy some books?
Reader: No thanks, but I gotta admit, this Kindle is actually pretty cool. And thanks for pointing me at those torrent sites.
B&N: Wanna buy some books?
Reader: I didn't know anyone was still trying to sell books. No thanks.
Borders: please, money .. i need money.
Publisher: Money baaaad!! No money.
That is what DRM is all about. Saying no to money, in order to advance someone else's interests at your own expense. DRM means "Fuck you and your fucking money." That's about as rational as DRM gets, if your business is content. If your business is selling the one legal implementation of that DRM, though, it's reasonably sane.
Some good sites for getting drm free ebooks (Score:3)
no starch press [nostarch.com]
fictionwise [fictionwise.com]
wowio - graphic novel ebooks [wowio.com]
oreilly technical books [oreilly.com]
smashwords [smashwords.com]
Baen web scription [webscription.net]
the ENTIRE Vorkosigan Saga [thefifthimperium.com]
...very few ways to deviate? (Score:5, Informative)
Umm any non DRM book + calibre = kindle e-book.. pretty easy process.
As far as the publishers 'becoming more aware', they really don't care. If you want the books they own the rights to, soon you will either do as you are told, or pirate it.
Re:...very few ways to deviate? (Score:4, Interesting)
Slightly offtopic: Amazon's "spooky action at a distance" - deleting books from Kindles remotely - doesn't work for converted non-DRM ebooks, does it?
Because the Kindle still seems the best reader for the price.
Re:...very few ways to deviate? (Score:5, Informative)
No it does not. Only Amazon's books. You are free to load whatever books you want, and Calibre is a great tool to do it.
Re: (Score:2)
You do know that converting anything from e-Pub to mobi is trivial, right? And the device won't lock you out if you get a book version without DRM (nor will any of the kindle apps).
The value you get from the kindle and the nook is actually way better than any of the other readers. What you say is a lock, I say it's convenience.
And if you know how it isn't hard to remove DRM from a book you bought from anywhere else.
Re: (Score:2)
You can read your purchased kindle books on all those platforms at the same time (up to 6)
And removing amazon's DRM is actually trivial, if you bought the books.