The Great DRM Debate — Settled (for me, anyway)

I found a resource that helped me make up my mind on this:

Neil Gaiman on Copyright Piracy and the Web

Mr. Gaiman is a convert to the “no DRM” camp. His experience with piracy increasing demand for paid copies of his works is telling. Why indeed, since piracy seems to effectively be free advertising, should I use DRM? It would be counterproductive.

Besides, if I can unlock my entire library in one afternoon with less than an hour of web research, DRM is futile anyway.

Brave New Book World

I enlisted in the ebook revolution a long time ago.

I bought books from ereader.com for my Palm LifeDrive when that was the coolest thing in mobile computing (before the release of the first iPhone.) I often would buy both paper and electronic versions, so that I could read anywhere including my bathtub. (I still do, when I can afford it….)

I never worried much about DRM (Digital Rights Management, AKA copy protection.) I bought from one website, had no interest in piracy, and could read my ebooks on my Mac on the rare occasions I so chose, and lend my paper copy to family members.

But then, the books by well-known authors were just no longer available for my Palm after ereader.com was bought out by Barnes and Noble. This was one of the reasons I upgraded to an iPad. For a while, I was happy, using an ereader.com app on my iPad for my old stuff, and buying new books in Kindle app and in iBooks.

I have become frustrated though. iBooks won’t let me read on my Mac. I want to lend ebooks and magazines to other members of my household, as I could with paper books. Ereader for iPad and Mac is defunct, and those books only partly transferred to Nook apps. Some stuff is only available on Kindle… And I need yet another reading app to read ebooks from my local library. And another if I want to buy ebooks from my local independent bookstore. None of these apps can talk to each other. I have ended up paying for two electronic versions of the same darn book…

Now, if everyone had just played nice and settled on, say, Adobe DRM, (not that I care for Adobe, but it’s the closest thing to a DRM standard there is) I would have been happy. I’d transfer all my books to one app set, give the password to my household members, and go on not really giving a darn about DRM. As it is, I’ve become…

An outlaw. Yes, I got tired of the whole stinking deal and broke the DRM on all my books. Now I have one reader on my iPad, one on my Mac, and if a family member wants to read one of my books, I give him my cloud password.

This puts me in an ethical bind. As a writer who would like to be a published writer, I get to be on the other side of the fence. I really, really would like everyone who might possibly want to read my book to, well, pay for the privilege. So, do I do as I have heard some indie writers do, and just put my stuff out without DRM, or do I annoy some of my potential readers by sticking on DRM, possibly several different systems thereof, and trust that if it bothers them, they will do as I have done? (BTW, the sentiment over at SFWA is evidently in favor of DRM, but indies need not apply there…) Unless I go with the traditional model and sell to a publisher, the decision is mine and mine alone.

Of course, if I don’t finish editing the darn thing, the point is moot.