Why removing DRM protection from ebooks? Is it legal?

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

Why else removing DRM protection from ebooks? And is it legal?

It is illegal to distribute copyrighted content.

IMHO it is a good idea to have DRM-free ebooks. Here is why:

• Your next reader (even from the same company) may use other ebook format(s).
• You can break your book reader and lose all ebooks.
• Your book store may disappear tomorrow, so you won't be able to transfer your ebooks to your next reader.
• Besides it is nice to read ebooks on any device you have.

Also note that sometimes you can buy a DRM-protected ebook in a format not supported by your reader. You can do it by accident or make an intentional purchase (for example, Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader use different formats for ebooks). Anyway after removing DRM, you can read your ebook on any reader you have. There is a chance that it will be the only way to read your legally purchased ebook.

But I would like to repeat that you should NOT distribute copyrighted content!

What is your opinion about removing DRM from ebooks? Is it a good idea at all? Is it legal?

[Julian]

Originally Posted by Stream Recorder

What is your opinion about removing DRM from ebooks? Is it a good idea at all? Is it legal?

I can't make meaningful comments on the legality (I'm not a lawyer) but, just in case anyone with influence is reading, I'll give a personal data point as to why I think it's a good idea.

I've been reading ebooks for 11 years (since my first Palm V in 1999) and have a big collection of commercial titles purchased in ereader format. After years of resistance I've just decided to iDevice my life and now have an iPad and will shortly be getting the new iPhone to serve as my main reading device. I've been seriously looking at moving to iBooks and have considerable iTunes credit waiting to buy books but I recently had a last-minute wobble when I got worried that I would end up with my library split across multiple readers, some of which might even stop being supported at some point, so I've been holding off on making any further commercial ebook purchases of any kind (well, OK, just a couple of purchases).

Today, with the invaluable help of Steam Recorder (thank you yet again), I have successfully decoded my first book from my eReader library and, subject to a few more days of experimentation being equally successful (I'll try a few more of my eReader titles and I might buy a cheap Kindle book to try that too) , I will have no concerns about beginning to invest new money in iBooks purchases on the basis that if I can't find what I want on the iBooks store I can buy it elsewhere and convert it.

Ultimately the ebook industry is locked in a particularly nasty version of the VHS/BetaMax or BluRay/HD format wars and risks putting people like me into a state of paralysis as far as investing money in building up a library is concerned. Yes, in dishonest hands the ability to strip DRM can lose publishers revenue but it can also serve to break the format-wars deadlock and in my case has just unlocked about $300 of planned spending that the industry otherwise might not have got.

This is one of the best sites that I've discovered in a long time.

- Julian

[slayda]

Originally Posted by Julian

... Yes, in dishonest hands the ability to strip DRM can lose publishers revenue ...
- Julian

I wonder if (or how much) the publishers "lose" due to such 'dishonest hands'. Many (maybe most) of those who get their ebooks that way would not, IMO, have bought the ebook anyway.

Also I really have a problem with the idea of "lost revenue". How can you lose something that you don't have? The publisher might "lose" the opportunity of that revenue but they never had the revenue to begin with so they couldn't lose it. Such "lost revenue" therefore is, IMO, no different then the "lost revenue" due to a boycott, lack of interest in the product, or just lack of funds from the potential buyers. It is all "virtual" revenue and doesn't exist in the real world until someone buys the product.