DRM

The BookExpo is in New York, and among the "buzz" topics is DRM, or rather the lack thereof.

DRM is "digital rights management," basically a copy-protection scheme that makes it troublesome to copy ebooks. I say troublesome because there are a number of ways around it.

DRM can be a pain if you like to read on multiple platforms - say you've got a Kindle and an Android phone. (Why you would want to read on the phone is a question best left to those who do it; I find it pretty damn frustrating myself.) There's a segment of people, including authors, who claim that removing DRM will not only make the lives of this small subset of people easier, but will increase overall readership, enhance lives and cure cancer.

Well not the last. But the overall thrust of the authors - and the few publishers who have gone along with the idea - is that this will somehow help the publishing world in general.

Maybe they know something I don't know, but I fail completely to understand how making it easier for a book to be copied and, inevitably, stolen, is going to make the publishing eco system. From my point of view, it inevitably lowers the price a writer - and a publisher - can get for a book. And that in turn makes it more difficult for writers to survive.

Piracy is already a problem. Excuse me - the politically correct term is "sharing" - writers are "sharing" their work, rather than having it taken from them for free. I will grant that with certain books that it's barely noticeable, since the numbers of legitimate sales are very high. (Yes, I truly am thankful and grateful.) But the vast majority of authors are not producing books like that. Losing a few thousand dollars in sales will have a huge impact on their careers, and their lives.

Speaking as a reader, I think it's unfair that I pay $6.99, $2.99 or even $.99 when the person next to me is getting the book for free. It's not that I begrudge the writer, or am even aware that there's a publisher involved - it's a simple question of fairness. And if I see that there are no mechanisms to keep me from "sharing," then why would I not? Unless I happen to know that writer and know that he or she is actually not being paid all that much to write that book, I'm probably going to think he or she is doing well and doesn't need my two dollars or whatever. And on an individual basis, the writer doesn't. The easier it is to "share," the more it will happen.

It's often argued that people who get a book for free wouldn't have read the book in the first place. I have no idea whether that's true or not, but even if it is, the real measure of piracy's effect is not on the individual, but on the system as a whole. The effect is to lower the perceived value of the item being sold. Eventually, that hurts everyone - including readers.

Making books accessible to different platforms owned by the same person is not a great programming task. If that's the problem, DRM schemes can be easily altered. Otherwise, I have to wonder why so many people in publishing keep doing things to undermine their livelihood. They keep telling themselves it's the future, but they don't seem to have taken a good look at what that future means.