You can find more about this book at PaulCarr.com and the story behind this e-release on TechCrunch.
Archive for the Category »drm «
Category: drm, ebooks
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Piracy is Caused by Poor Choice
05
Mar 2008
Here’s another article, this time from the UK, which shows that if people had an easy-to-use legal alternative, they’d happily pay for most content.
On top of the availability issue, 68% of the respondents who have downloaded copyrighted content indicate that the illegal alternatives are more convenient, because they can get what they want much faster.
Category: drm, piracy
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According to the New York Times Penguin Group is the next published (after Random House) to announce the end of DRM on their audio books. "HarperCollins said the publisher was watching these developments closely but was not yet ready to end D.R.M." I’m not holding my breath on HC because of their recent "protected" releases of free e-books.
Category: drm, ebooks
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Random House Audio abandons audiobook DRM
21
Feb 2008
I posted earlier this week about DRM-free free eBooks. Now it looks like Random House is going through with DRM-free (though not $$$ free) digital audiobooks. It seems they’ve been doing this for a while through eMusic but will be extending it to all other online services (such as Audible and Overdrive I assume.) The most interesting part was this reason given for going through with the change:
[W]e have not yet found a single instance of the eMusic watermarked titles being distributed illegally. We did find many copies of audiobook files available for free, but they did not originate from the eMusic test, but rather from copied CDs or from files whose DRM was hacked.
In other words, people that legally purchased the music and could do what they wanted with it due to the lack of DRM felt no need to redistribute said content in legally questionable ways. Yep. Give us something we can actually use the way we want and we’ll pay for it. Don’t make us pay for something that locks us out of what we’ve paid for.
More at Boing Boing.
Category: audio, corydoctorow, drm
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How I Became A Music Pirate
27
Mar 2007
Some wonder why people think it’s o.k. to do things with music they’ve purchased that the RIAA doesn’t want you to do. Well here’s the story of how one man became a “music pirate”.
“‘Well’ she responded, ‘You didn’t actually purchase the files, you really purchased a license to listen to the music, and the license is very specific about how they can be played or listened to.’”
Category: copyright, drm, music
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Jobs on DRM
07
Feb 2007
Steve Jobs has written a 2000+ word essay, posted on the Apple, Inc. site regarding his feelings about DRM (digital rights management) on the iPod platform and in general. After a history explaining how we got to where we are today, this is the paragraph that makes the article worth it’s weight in gold:
“The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.”
His thoughts only get more interesting from this point as he clearly states why it makes total sense for the mucis corporations to ditch DRM. Read it and give copies to all your friends.
Cory Doctorow on DRM at the 2006 LIFT Conference
Category: drm, video
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DPL eFlicks
24
Apr 2006
As promised, I’m half-way to writing a full review of the new eFlicks program offered by the Denver Public Library. (I don’t plan on making more than one or two snide comments about the DRM in the article, at least not at this time.) I’ve gone through the system, set everything up, downloaded and watched a few vids. Throughout that process I took 52 screenshots. Now all I have to do is narrate them into an article. If you’re interested in a preview, you can view them as a slideshow on Flickr.
(I’m thinking that the article will be long enough to be posted on something like WebJunction, not here on the blog.)
Category: drm
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DRM, a poor explanation (part II)
21
Apr 2006
This is a follow-up to my post DRM, a poor explanation.
The language on the
page in question has been changed. It now reads:
“The Windows Media Security Upgrade is a one-time process that must be performed before Microsoft Windows Media Player will allow any DRM-protected files to be played. A security measure, the security update identifies the copy of Windows Media Player with the computer on which the Player is being used. Publishers often require this sort of security in order to discourage the unlawful redistribution of digital content.”
This is much better. I still don’t like DRM as it gives power to the content provider that was traditionally the library’s, but at least the explanation is accurate now.
Category: drm, windows
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DRM, a poor explanation
12
Apr 2006
The Denver Public Library has started to offer downloadable video content on their Web site. I plan on testing it out shortly and writing a full review of the system. However, in looking through some of the documentation I found this little gem on the help page:
“The Windows Media Security Upgrade is a one-time process that must be performed before Microsoft Windows Media Player will allow any copyright-protected files to be played.”
[emphasis added]
This sentence is misleading at best and a lie at worst. Windows Media Player will play copyright protected files just fine without this “security upgrade”. I can stick the recently released DVD of King Kong, clearly protected by copyright, into my computer and play it with Windows Media Player just fine without this “security upgrade”. What it won’t play without the upgrade is files that include the DRM restrictions that the content creator is using to enforce their copyright. Yes, it’s semantics, but this is an important issue when attempting to explain to people why they need this software just to watch a video. Copyright protection is a concept, DRM is software.
Update 04/14: I have contacted DPL regarding this issue and here’s their reply —
“Thank you for calling our attention to this. We are working with the vendor to revise the wording.”
Category: DVD, drm, video, windows
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