Why removing DRM protection from ebooks? Is it legal?

[HamletofWI]

I actually have no problem with DRM as a means to protect intellectual property rights to prevent others distributing free copies of copyright material. What I object to is that if I buy an ebook from Sony I can view that on a Sony ebook viewer, but not on any other device. So if I replace my Sony with, say a Kindle, I have to buy the same book again. If this keeps up with each ebook viewer manufacturer having a proprietary format for ebooks that can only be viewed on their device it will severely restrict the growth for all.

[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.

[scott blake]

I have to agree with you slayda,

I think a publisher might lose out on some revenue on one hand (because maybe I email you my copy of xyz book). That said, as you say, you were likely not buying it anyway but there likely would be lost potential revenue on this point; maybe you send me a copy of a book I might have bought. To the extent that everyone did book swaps, that lost potential revenue would definitely put people out of business. Of course, as we all know, most people are more than happy to pay for content.

That brings us to the flip side - content will be consumed and paid for happily; especially if made easily available and transferable. Nobody likes a 'trapped' format and its one of the biggest obstacles to really seeing ebooks start to get some serious sales traction.

The only thing holding me back on purchases in much larger quantities is this whole drm issue and me not being able to watch/read things I have bought on devices I own. Open that tap up and sure, it might be rougher for Amazon to compete with B&N or whoever wants to open an ebookstore and sell content, but with that freedom of content movement from device to device and likely slightly lower prices (due to some incremental competition) I would say ebooks would fly off the uh, shelves (hehe); more than making up for any 'lost' sales here and there.

Catch is, everyone at the moment wants people locked into their devices and their formats to try and extract monopoly style profits. The flipside of this - people hate that and will resist; regardless of drm 'agreements' buried deep in the fine print of buying a device from someone. That short term outlook won't make them more money in the long run and just ticks customers off with the providers products (I have a new Kindle, but I can't say as Amazon is endearing themselves to me with all restrictions - although I would likely be just as ticked with a Nook at the moment for similar reasons). Remove these issues and sell more books!

CD and DVD sales are no small potatoes and they are copyable (or readily so in the case of dvd's) so clearly sales will happen if things are setup to the preference of the consumer; even if I can give you a few of mine or vice versa. Heck, look at the Itunes store; huge sales volumes because its easy and legal - and funnily enough, I can pass you my mp3 file for 'free'...but Apple is still somehow doing exceptionally well. Hmmmmm as they say!

The real @#%^* to me is the international treatment - because I am outside the US, the 9.99 book in the States is....15.03 or somesuch here. Its ridiculous - there isn't even shipping going on here if its emailed to you. That then leads to consumers (me for sure) doing the hoop jumps required to get accounts setup in the US all to avoid these extortions (thats how it feels anyway); hardly a way to keep your customers happy.

[Choclit]

As the former CEO of a large software company (back in the 80s and early 90s) copy protection was always a major issue for us. Originally we put copy protection on all our software and ended up in the usual battle to stay ahead of the hackers. Eventually, we decided to drop copy protection entirely (with one exception...). The result - sales went up noticeably! The one exception was the Italian version of our software. It turned out that the Italian government itself was buying one copy of our software and then making and distributing illegal copies to all of their agencies!

Back to eBooks...

I have had a Kindle DX for more than a year. My wife just bought a Kindle 3 and I just did as well (mine should be here tomorrow). As soon as I get my Kindle 3, I plan on trying to break DRM on subscriptions. Amazon and most book publishers allow you to download books on up to 5 Kindle readers/devices registered to one account, which is very reasonable. On the other hand, at this point all newspaper subscriptions on the Kindle do not allow this at all. So if my wife and I both want to read the New York Times, they except us to buy two subscriptions? Since we both read the paper version now, why not require us to get two paper subscriptions as well? This restriction is absurd and I have no qualms about breaking the DRM on newspaper and magazine subscriptions to duplicate the real world usage for paper editions.

[dare05]

I just remove DRM so I can print them, I don't plan to re-distribute them. It's a shame they let me pay so much money and not let me print the ebook

[Apprentice Alf]

DRM is used by publishers to restrict what you can do with your ebooks. DRM controls which devices you can use to read your ebook, and stops you converting your ebooks from one format to another.

DRM makes buying and using ebooks harder. When you first start using ebooks, you might not notice the restrictions very much. But the restrictions are there.

There are several different DRM schemes. Ebooks with one DRM scheme can’t be read on a device that uses a different DRM scheme. Some DRM schemes limit ebooks to one device only, so if you want to read that ebook on a different device, it’s necessary to download the ebook again. Others require new devices to be authorised by a central server on the Internet.

When you want to use a different ebook reader, or if the supplier stops supporting the ebooks you’ve bought, you may lose access to your DRMed ebooks.

So to be able to read your ebooks on all the devices you have now, and to be sure that you will still be able to read your ebooks in the future, you will want to remove the DRM.



Ethics of DRM Removal
None of the developers and maintainers of DRM removal tools or this site are in favour of ebooks being ‘pirated’.
We expect people to use these tools only to gain full access to ebooks they have bought themselves. Dedrmed ebooks should not be uploaded to open servers, torrents, or other methods of mass distribution. No help will be given to people doing such things, and no links to such books should be posted here. Authors, Publishers and Ebook retailers all need to earn money to be able to carry on making great ebooks available.