DRM is a bad idea!

Since Richard brought up the idea of DRM and encrypting things to keep the evil pirates away from them, I thought it would be a good idea to let people know that a lot of work has been going on in the major publishing houses on this. Baen Books started it (long story that you can read about on their website) and now Tor is getting on the bandwagon.

Three has been an ongoing series of essays by Eric Flint of Baen Books on why Digital Rights Management (DRM) is such a bad idea. Rather than replicate all his words, here are the links to the essays. They are long, but well worth reading.

A Matter of Principle
http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/principle

Copyright
http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/salvos2

More on Copyright
http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/salvos3

What is Fair Use
http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/salvos4

Lies, and More Lies
http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/salvos5

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch
http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/salvos6

Books: The Opaque Market
http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/salvos7

The Problem is Legal Scarcity...
http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/The_Problem_is_Legal_Scarcity__not_Illegal_Greed

Now I know there is a lot to read there and if you want to thin it down a bit, focus on numbers 5, 6 and 7. Especially number 7 that deals with how opaque the ebook market really is.

The fact is that any sort of DRM is dumb. It is totally ineffective in protecting your author rights and only serves to tick off the people you really want to help... Your readers. 

Keep in mind that almost all of Eric Flint's novels are available for FREE on the Baen website and all of them have seen increased sales in the past five years. If this doesn't make sense to you, then you need to read the articles listed above. 

Good luck!

Stan




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