: Re: What are the advantages and disadvantages of digital rights management for self-published authors? DRM (digital rights management) is being used in just about every electronic format, including files

@Angie602

Vote Up Vote Down

If an ebook has DRM, it tends to be tied to a specific reader (actually, a specific physical reader-device). Since devices are, to some extent, short-lived and libraries are (or should arguable be able to be) long-lived, DRM directly harms the end consumer.

If the DRM is implemented with call-backs to a central server (not the case, as far as I am aware, with any ebook format, but quite common in computer games), the usefulness of the product is limited to the lifetime of the DRM-grant-access service. There's no real incentive for the original publisher to keep it running, once "the long tail" has been entered, so things protected by such a DRM are only useful as long as the publisher thinks they should be.

On the balance, I'd say that not including DRM is the right thing. Even with DRM, it's not hard for the ebook consumer to strip the DRM (I understand it is at the "install a piece of software, press a button" level of complexity, these days). By slapping DRM on the published content, you are annoying legitimate customers and not deterring people wanting to illegally copy the work(s).

(0)

Login to post a comment!