Digital Rights Management (a.k.a., We Hate Our Customers)

The good news is that Digital Rights Management (DRM) is going away.  The music industry has proven that it isn't needed & they're making plenty of money.  So why are some ebook & audiobook producers still punishing their customers?

An author complained to me when their expensive, older CD player wouldn't play a few new CDs because they were locked by DRM.  They thought it was unfair for the recording industry to lock them out like that, but they still support DRM on their own works.  It doesn't bother them that their own customers might have to buy a new copy of a book because they changed devices or lost license files, but it bothers me.

If I purchase a book, I shouldn't have to worry about dealing with disparate, proprietary licenses every time I change my PC, phone, MP3 player, ereader, or whatever.  I have thousands of books from dozens of publishers, many now defunct.  I started reading ebooks a couple of decades ago, so I've seen many devices come & go.  Most had proprietary formats & licensing that is no longer supported.  Sony wanted me to buy ebooks for my reader from their store, but I couldn't get Adobe Digital Editions (the DRM software they used) & the Sony software to work together on my computer.  It was a well known problem & after several evenings of frustration, I quit trying & I'm fairly computer savvy.  Computers are what I do for a living.  Is that any way to treat a customer?

DRM doesn't protect the producer against pirating, just punishes the customer.  If it can be viewed or played, a DRM-free copy can be made.  If an appropriate utility isn't already on the computer, it's easy to download one.  Most are free & often easier to use than the licensing schemes.  Besides, if it is a hassle to use when & where I please, I'll buy elsewhere.

I've always had plenty of ebooks to read.  Gutenberg.org & The Internet Archive (archive.org) have over a million books for free.  Baen (www.baen.com) gives away many of their older books in multiple formats.  It's a smart move.  That's where I found the first Honor Harrington book & I wound up buying a dozen more new.  Baen & Weber made money.  There are other authors I like who have their work tied up by DRM, so I usually just buy their used, paper books.  Neither they nor their publishers see a dime.  I don't mind supporting an author, but I do mind supporting DRM.

I'm a huge audiobook fan, but I won't buy from Audible & I don't need to.  I belong to three local libraries that have about 10,000 audiobooks that are in MP3 format (no DRM) & I don't even need to go to the library.  Blackstone Audio's books are also DRM-free & I buy their books frequently through downpour.com.  Librivox.org & Archive.org have thousands of free audiobooks that are out of copyright & worth listening to.

In other words, I don't have the time to read all the available books.  There are millions of books out there with over a million new books published annually.  If a person reads 150 books per year for 65 years, they'll read about 10,000 books (1% of 1 million).  It's obvious that an author's biggest problem is getting a reader's attention.  If their books make it to a pirate site, they should consider it a badge of honor.  Most books aren't even worth stealing any more.