Dreaming of a DRM free ebook future | upstart — the magazine for emerging journalists

“... By the end of this year, ebooks will account for a staggering 40 per cent of all publishing sales. Within the next five years, the publishing industry will make more money from ebooks than books as sales reach 60 per cent... To borrow from fashion terminology: ebooks are the new books. Or are they? By virtue of their inherent electronic nature, ebooks have the potential to magnify, scatter and democratise the distribution of stories and ideas... Plagued by DRM however, they have failed to fulfil their potential... DRM stifles an ebook’s potential for propagation. It works by encrypting the ebook file so that it can only be read by a device or software able to decode the DRM encryption... Worse still, DRM can limit ebooks to one device only... This means that you cannot lend an ebook you bought from Amazon. You cannot transfer the ebook onto your brother’s Kindle... DRM has made lending taboo... When the Big Six publishers (HarperCollins, Random House, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Penguin and Macmillan) embraced the impending ebooks revolution, they insisted on DRM-ing ebooks. They touted DRM as a way to prevent piracy and protect authors’ incomes. By limiting lending options, the argument was that DRM would prevent illegal proliferation of ebooks online. But DRM simply does not deter thefts. It is as easy to strip an ebook of its DRM affliction as it is to rip music off a CD. The real reason behind DRM-ing ebooks was to prevent casual sharing, that is, sharing with close family and friends. Last year, Mike Shatzkin, a widely-acknowledged thought leader on digital change in the book publishing industry, informally asked nine high-level executives from the top dozen publishing houses and four literary agents if they thought that preventing casual sharing was DRM’s main benefit. Only one did not think it was... Casual sharing forms part of the classic reading experience: if you enjoy a book, you lend it to someone else and, in the process, knowledge spreads. And preventing casual sharing also goes against the Big Six’s assertion that DRM-ing ebooks protects authors’ incomes. Non-bestselling authors, which constitutes the majority of the writers’ community, in fact benefit from casual sharing as it helps them to build a larger base of readers. This, in turn, may lead to increasing sales ... In recent months however, it has become increasingly clear that publishers are not entirely happy with DRM anymore. For instance, Tor Publishing, an imprint of Macmillan, announced last week plans to strip DRM from all of its ebooks. The cause of this change of heart, echoing well-known writer Charlie Stross, is Amazon’s increasing grasp on the publishing sector. Amazon disrupted the publishing industry when it invested heavily in its Kindle platform, including ebooks. It is now a virtual monopoly, boosting an 85 per cent market share in the ebook sector in 2010. When the Big Six publishers insisted on DRM-ing their ebooks, Amazon saw the opportunity to strengthen its monopoly on customers by locking them into its platform...In essence, thanks to the Big Six’s decision to DRM ebooks, Amazon strengthened its monopoly and its monopsony. It became the only bridge between customers and publishers. The Big Six, increasingly uncomfortable and powerless in their current position, now want out... To reduce their dependency on the Amazon bridge, the Big Six envisaged a second bridge. They negotiated with Apple when the company opened iBookstore to back a second major bridge to reach their customers. As it stands though, the plan is not working, with the US Department of Justice filing a lawsuit against Apple and three of the Big Six for price-fixing. The remaining option available to the Big Six is now to break DRM. This avenue has been vocally advocated by O’Reilly Media... By breaking DRM, the Big Six can democratise ebook retailing and allow various outlets to join the game of selling ebooks... Smaller retailers, who are no longer expected to invest tens of thousands of dollars in DRM technology ... will be able to start selling DRM-free ebooks... breaking DRM will finally allow ebooks to take the torch from books. Ebooks will really be able to magnify, scatter and democratise the distribution of stories and ideas like never before...”