When does a DRM become a nightmare?
On the internet, you can find a safe place to talk about pretty much anything…religion, politics, sex…Lawrence Welk fandom. 
However, I think you’d have a very tough time finding a place to talk positively about DRM (Digital Rights Management).
As a publisher, you have to decide about using DRM or not…so it’s good to understand the implications of using it or not using it.
First, what is DRM?
Digital Rights Management, loosely, is the use of electronic means put into a digital file to control its use.
That could be a password, it could be copy protection, it could be something that blocks text-to-speech access…there are a lot of possibilities.
While it is hypothetically there to protect copyright, I have a problem with it when it is used to prevent non-infringing uses. I’ve jokingly suggested that it should actually be called “Digital Use Management”…but I don’t think publishers would like the acronym.
For example, a publisher could hypothetically insert code that prevents a book from being read in landscape mode…or when you are holding the reader upside down. Those aren’t infringing uses (violating the rights granted under copyright), but if the publisher did do that, you’d be stuck with it.
Now, there are people who could tell you how to strip the DRM, but that in and of itself can be illegal.
I have, however, argued in favor of DRM (when it’s really for rights and not just use).
Why is that?
When you are looking at unintentional infringement (when someone isn’t deliberately stealing your material, but just doesn’t understand that what they are doing is wrong), there are two strategies.
The non-DRM strategy is prosecution. After somebody takes your short story and posts it on a website where it is download by a hundred people, you seek a legal remedy. If you’ve registered the copyright, you could be going after criminal charges…if not, you could still go after them.
That’ s messy for everybody. You have to pay to file and conduct the case, and if it’s somebody who seems innocent to many people, you look like the bad guy.
The person who posted it has to pay to defend, or has to pony up your royalties…or both.
The DRM strategy is to prevent the accidental infringement.
Let’s say somebody buys a Kindle book on Amazon.
They like the book, make a copy of the file they downloaded, and send it to a friend.
The friend tries to open it on their Kindle, and gets a message that it can’t be opened.
At that point, most people just say, “Oh, well.” It stops right there.
No prosecution, no expenses, no bad public relations.
Which one seems like it works better?
Now, I see people say that DRM is not going to stop a pirate.
That’s right, it’s not…pirates will figure out how to get around DRM.
Of course, pirates can be prosecuted…and since they are deliberately violating your rights, you don’t have that same PR thing.
I remember asking my kid, “Why do we lock the car when we park?” The answer given was, “So somebody can’t steal it.” Well, that’s not true…somebody can still steal it. It’s just harder. When you lock your car, it’s really so the thief will steal someone else’s car. 
They try yours: locked. They rapidly look around the parking lot for an unlocked car, and if there is that one, they take it.
Most infringement without DRM, though, is going to be unintentional, I think.
The argument in favor of releasing your books without DRM?
They are more valuable to the customer. Your customer can convert the book into an appropriate format for whatever EBR (E-Book Reader) they have. Nothing stops them from printing out your e-book, if they want (many e-books limit copying ((which you may have to do to print)) to five or ten percent). There are people who say they won’t buy e-books which have DRM.
It also suggests to your customers that you trust them…and that can help bond them to you.
What do you think, WG2Ers? Do you DRM a little dream? Or do you leave your car unlocked?
Recent posts in the I Love My Kindle blog which may be of particular interest to WG2E readers:
- High fly the 1-click, oh!
- Ewan Morrison: “…epublishing is another tech bubble”
- Snapshot: August 1 2012
- 1DollarScan: digitize your paperbooks for $1?
- Round up #97: Amazon Yesterday, “romanticized” classics
The image in this post is from Samantha at the World’s Fair, by Marietta Holley and illustrated by Baron C. De Grimm. It was originally published in 1893.
Bufo Calvin is the author of the popular I Love My Kindle blog and six titles in the Kindle store, including the #1 bestseller Love Your Kindle Fire: The ILMK Guide to Amazon’s Entertablet. Bufo is proud to be a part of the WG2E family.
Thanks for tackling this interesting subject. I’ll be checking back in to find out what others’ thoughts and experiences are.
In general, imho, no matter what you’re dealing with, most people are not out to do you wrong… and those who are always find a way around all the locks, stocks, and barrels put in place to limit their criminal intent. Just a fact of life. So, why unnecessarily shackle your readers when they aren’t the ones you’re aiming at anyway? Just my .02.
Thanks for writing, Sharie!
I absolutely agree that most people aren’t deliberately trying to infringe on your rights. It’s the unintentional infringement that DRM stops. I’d refer to it as “guiding” rather than “shackling”, personally. There seem to be a lot of people who have no concept of copyright, and that can affect your ability to be compensated for your creativity. With no DRM, and no evil intent, someone could copy your book and send it to twenty people who would have otherwise bought it. You can’t stand behind that stranger and say, “Um, excuse me, please don’t do that.”
DRM does that for you.
Letting them do that, though, is arguably marketing…it’s a bit like when you give your book away for free. If the people who get it for free would otherwise have paid for it, it’s a negative. If they wouldn’t, and they tell other people good things, it’s a positive. If they get it for free and then buy it for others, that’s also a plus…but no-DRM doesn’t parallel that.
Whoa- I loved this topic and learned so much- thanks Bufo:)
Thanks for writing, Lois!
I’m glad that was helpful.
I’m not sure that many authors know about the vehemence that is out there about DRM…but it doesn’t stop tradpubs (traditional publishers) from selling brand name authors.
I used DRM on the novel I posted to Kindle. I have no idea if it prevents someone from turning the screen sideways and viewing the book in landscape.
I haven’t researched this topic, but I’ve stumbled upon several discussions like this one the Internet. Most say DRM is bad for readers, but a few have said it should be used to protect work.
I’m still on the fence. I want readers who buy my novel to be able to use it on their ereader and be able to save it or read it on any other devices they own. Apparently, that’s not possible with DRM.
My concern is that if DRM is not used, it allows everyone–computer literate or illiterate–to share my novel with anyone and everyone. It’s a free for all.
Do I leave my car door unlocked? No. I’d rather have someone else’s vehicle broken into. I’ve had my door lock removed with my truck parked 50 feet from a movie theatre door beneath a street light, so I know locked doors don’t stop everyone, only the thieves who check random doors.
Thanks for the post. I’ll be back to see what others say.
Thanks for writing, Diane!
You’ve summed up the issue nicely.
I think most authors/publishers would be okay with someone buying a book from the Kindle store, and being able to convert it for a NOOK. Not many readers would pay for it twice for two different machines. However, the problem is that, when someone goes to convert a copy a file, the DRM can’t figure out what their intentions are. Is the reader copying that book as a back-up, or to torrent (give away for free on the internet to anybody who wants it, basically).
Without some sort of “morality detection software”, it’s going to be complicated.
DRM or no-DRM – that is a hot button question with indie authors.
I have chosen not to use DRM. It doesn’t stop piracy. They’ll find a way around it. People who would download a book from a pirate site most likely wouldn’t have bought the book anyway, so it’s not like it’s money lost. You can’t say 10,000 downloads from a pirate site = 10,000 sales. I also don’t have the time to track down every possible pirate site and send out notices.
I think some of the anti-pirate sentiment goes too far in some cases. Authors end up mistakenly claiming an affiliate site or a lending site is a pirate site and end up hurting someone who hasn’t done anything wrong.
I choose to spend my time on what I can control. I can’t control pirates, so I’m going to keep writing.
Thanks for writing, Christina!
That’s certainly an option, and there are good arguments for releasing a book without DRM.
I’ve made the point about pirated downloads not equaling lost sales myself, and it’s a good one.
http://ilmk.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/pirates-of-the-high-e-s/
DRM, for me, is not about pirates…it’s about that unintentional infringement. It was interesting: I polled my readers in that post about when piracy was acceptable:
===
Under what circumstances would you consider book piracy acceptable?
Never 42.31%
If the book was otherwise unavailable in e-book form 30.77%
If the book had text-to-speech blocked 6.41%
If the price was too high 16.67%
Other: 3.85%
===
As you can see, for people whoever thought it was acceptable, the most popular reason by far is if it was unavailable. For tradpubs (traditional publishers), the best way for them to stop piracy is to get that backlist out in e-book form legitimately.
I’d say that if you don’t want to worry about infringement, you release the book with DRM. As you mention, DRM doesn’t stop pirates…for one thing, if there is a paper copy, they can simply scan that and release it as a PDF. What the DRM makes more worry-free is the unintentional infringement. Of course, if someone doesn’t care if their books are distributed for free to everybody (and therefore, there is no reason to put a price on it at all), then DRM-free makes sense.
One more thing (you got me going) :
many people who download from a pirate site have no idea that it is a pirate site. The process is simple: they go to Amazon looking for your book. They don’t find it. They do a Google search…they find it. Even better for them, hey, they find it for free. 
I think the vast majority of people who do that don’t realize it’s pirated.
I think I have put DRM on all my ebooks, because I have read that you should do so. I am not sure now if this is a good thing or not. I shall watch out for others opinions on this.
Thanks for writing, Julie!
I use DRM on my books, except for one that I would give away freely through Amazon if I could . On that one, I don’t care about compensation.
However, you’ll probably hear from others, like Christina above, who don’t use it.
There isn’t one right answer here, so I hope this post leads to comments that help you consider the different choices.
I have a friend who is having a lot of trouble with book pirating right now. She feels it’s because she sent out a lot of free copies in Word format to reviewers and bloggers. Now she can’t stop all of the free copies circulating around out there. She says she wished she’d always gifted her e-books through Amazon instead. I’ve learned from her mistakes, and I’ve been gifting my e-books through Amazon to reviewers and bloggers, even though it costs about a buck out-of-pocket per book to do it. One bonus – it raises my sales ranking!
Thanks for writing, Riley!
Yes, it’s entirely possible that all of those presumably unprotected Word copies have contributed to the piracy. A password could have been put on the file, and separately sent to the reviewer…that would have at least helped protect it against people stealing it from the reviewer. However, as you note, gifting is another way to go. Part of what drives down the cost of that is that you still get your royalty on it, even though you bought it.
Another interesting point of gifting the books is that you can see whether or not the gift was redeemed. You go to
http://www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle
Then, click or tap on
Pending Deliveries
You’ll see gifts which have not yet been accepted.
That can be important in determining which promotional channels may be most effective for you in the future.
Thanks for the invaluable info, Bufo! I didn’t know about the link for finding out if my ebook gifts were redeemed. Thank you!
Great!
Yes, I was a little disappointed when I saw that Jeff Bezos never picked up my gift…
I’m a total non-DRM kinda gal, Bufo!
For me, it’s like you said above:
“The argument in favor of releasing your books without DRM? They are more valuable to the customer. Your customer can convert the book into an appropriate format for whatever EBR (E-Book Reader) they have. Nothing stops them from printing out your e-book, if they want (many e-books limit copying ((which you may have to do to print)) to five or ten percent).”
It’s all about the value I’m giving my readers!
And, also worth noting is that it’s virtually impossible in time, money and many times the logistics too to prosecute a pirate. Why? Most pirating is done internationally (outside of the US)…so how are you going to serve those lawsuits? And wow if you did…talk about beyond expensive!!!
Thanks for writing, D.D.!
Well, to play Devil’s advocate here (which always seemed like an odd term to me…the Devil needs ANOTHER lawyer?
Just kidding, of course…I have nothing against lawyers), wouldn’t the best value for your readers be for you to always give all your books away for free and never accept any payment or royalties for them?
That doesn’t make sense, because you should be compensated for your work. If your work is freely distributed without your authorization, you are also not compensated for it. That seems like a parallel.
It is a better value for your readers if you can continue to write, correct? If you don’t get compensated, how will you afford to do that? Not much value for your readers if you have nothing new for them to read after a while…
Intentional pirating is certainly done sometimes outside the US, but I would guess most of the unintentional infringement that DRM would stop happens in the US (or wherever the book is first sold).
I think we agree that it’s virtually impossible to stop pirates…but DRM is addressing those unintentional infringements that can really cut into your sales.
By the way, I just saw that Google has agreed to work out a way to drive pirate sites farther down in search results…people have been trying to push them to do that.
A fantastic video about piracy by Neil Gaiman on YouTube, for those who are trying to use DRM to stop the pirates (because you’re not): http://youtu.be/0Qkyt1wXNlI
Re: to DRM or not DRM keep this in mind – JK Rowling has released the Harry Potter books electronically WITHOUT DRM.
She’s very clever though, every copy of the book is unique to the purchaser, it is effectively watermarked/security tagged with your purchasing details embedded in the book. So yes, you can print it, copy it, convert it, give a copy to the kids to read on their Kindle while you read it on your Tablet and that’s fine, BUT… if 10,000 copies of it turn up for sale on a Turkmenistan (for example!) website, and it turns out to be traceable back to you, then you’re going to have some serious explaining to do and JK and Warner Bros have some of the best (i.e. worst) lawyers in the business.
As I reader and a writer and the father of a 10 year old dyslexic child finding a DRM’d book that stops her using text-to-speech or changing orientation of e-reader will guarantee that I will not buy that author again. I will not be unfairly punished pre-emptively for doing nothing wrong, just the presumption that I might…
Thanks for writing, John!
Blocking text-to-speech on Kindle books is to me the most egregious example of the “digital use management” aspect I mentioned. It is legal in the USA, provided that the publisher has at least one edition of every e-book out which is accessible to “read aloud”…even if that copy requires a certification of disability.
As to not buying from that author again, it may be more the publisher’s fault than the author’s fault, particularly on books where the rights were negotiated a few years ago (when, for example, Random House’s policy was to block text-to-speech access on all e-books). I used to not buy any Random House products (paper or not) for that reason. Eventually, I came around to the idea of just not buying e-books where it was blocked. It made sense to me to reward not blocking the access.
Let’s say an author has TTS access blocked by the publisher on on title, and not blocked on another. If the publisher believes that blocking the access hurts the sales (by comparing the two titles), they may rethink that decision. If you simply pull yourself out of influencing them at all by not buying books from that author at all, I think it has less of an impact.
Sorry, me again (hogging your comment box), but I just noticed this statement in your original post: ” If you’ve registered the copyright”
Is this a US thing? In the UK, Copyright is yours by default the moment you write the thing, there is nothing to register. Proof that you wrote it, is not too onerous either, in the “old days” we used to post ourselves a sealed copy of our work, nowadays I’m as likely to send myself multiple email attachments over time as a work progresses both as back-up and traceability that the work is my own. Also useful that I quite often send out work to my Writers Group for comment before entering into competitions and thus there are multiple copies distributed around for safe keeping. (Just on the off-chance, that my work is not subsequently attributed to me, which has happened once (but only once) due to an “administrative error”…)
Thanks for writing, John!
Yes, I’m more familiar with US copyright. Copyright in the USA is automatic without registration, but your legal options are different if you have registered.
Without registration, you can not get statutory damages or have your attorney fees paid, basically.
Essentially, you have to prove damage if you haven’t registered the copyright, whereas if you’ve registered the copyright, you just have to prove the infringement (whether or not it actually harmed you).
I should emphasize that I am not an intellectual property attorney…I’m just giving you my understanding.
Let’s say that someone writes a story. The author freely distributes the story on a website…no charge. There is no indication the author ever intends to charge for it, or to place any restrictions on its distribution (DRM or a rights statement might be an indicator of intent to control).
Someone else takes that story without authorization and reposts it on their own website and again distributes it with no charge.
The author of the story seeks remedy against the reposter.
If the work is registered, the author can go after a statutory penalty, and get their attorney’s fees (which can be considerable) paid if they win.
If the work is unregistered, it’s going to be difficult in this case to prove damage. Since the author wasn’t charging for it or restricting distribution, how was the author damaged by another person doing the same?
Bottom line in the USA: without registration, you have to prove damage…with registration, you don’t have to do that.
I did take a look: that does appear to be different in the UK…
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-about/c-auto.htm