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Update 2023-06-26-drmbooks.markdown

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Surya Prakash 2023-06-26 08:34:55 +00:00
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@ -9,9 +9,9 @@ Worse - they are fooled into subservience!
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It is no secret that [one single company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle) has monopolized the ebook medium. Thirst for money eventually has led to some unethical practices - Absolute power corrupts absolutely. In particular, I will draw your attention towards the distribution of ebooks.
It is no secret that [one single company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle) has monopolized the ebook medium. Thirst for money eventually has led to some unethical practices - Absolute power corrupts absolutely. In particular, I will draw your attention towards DRM practices.
[Digital Rights Management](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management) is an umbrella term referring to practices that enforces the rights to digital content. For example a consumer of a DRM protected music video will not be able to make copies of, or distribute that video - making sure that the only way to access that content is by trying to make sure it is purchased from the authorized publisher. DRM originated along with the rise of internet in the late 90s and early 2000s. While there are [campaigns against the enforcement of DRM](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/drm.html) across all domains of digital content, I will only be talking about DRM in ebook content in this post.
[Digital Rights Management](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management) is an umbrella term referring to practices that enforces the rights to digital content. For example a consumer of a DRM protected music video will not be able to make copies of, or distribute that video - making sure that the only way to access that content is by trying to make sure it is purchased from the authorized publisher. DRM originated along with the rise of internet in the late 90s and early 2000s. While there are [campaigns against the enforcement of DRM](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/drm.html) across all domains of digital content, I will only be talking about DRMs in ebook distribution in this post.
**What happens when ebooks are DRM protected?**
@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Collecting such data, and later selling it for profit sounds like breach of priv
If one asked this question to the Amazon Kindle team, one would get the following answer -
- Because we want to protect the Author's intellectual property. You see, if we were to freely distribute the digital books without DRM, it is possible for anyone with a copy to redistribute it. This leads to more people reading the book without paying its author their due. With the help of DRM, we can strictly control the number of copies sold as it can only be read in our device or our software. This also prevents a redisctribution because each copy is associated with the user who purchased it, so it would work only when they are logged in to the software. Brilliant isn't it???
- Because we want to protect the Author's intellectual property. You see, if we were to freely distribute the digital books without DRM, it is possible for anyone with a copy to redistribute it. This leads to more people reading the book without paying its author their due. With the help of DRM, we can strictly control the number of copies sold as it can only be read in our device or our software. This also prevents redistribution as each copy is associated with exactly one owner. The book can be opened only when they are logged in to our softwares. Brilliant isn't it???
Hmmmm, not exactly, for 2 reasons -
@ -41,6 +41,6 @@ So what is the real reason companies sell ebooks with DRM?
DRM......Personal Data........PROFIT!!
If you see yourself reading DRM protected books, you should get paid. You share your data which is turned into money by the seller. You need to be compensated! If not, it might just buy my digital books from stores that sell the open [EPUB](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB) version that can be viewed on any device and on any software.
If you see yourself reading DRM protected books, you should get paid. You share your data which is turned into money by the seller. You need to be compensated! If not, I might just buy my digital books from stores that sell the open [EPUB](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB) version that can be viewed on any device and on any software.
NOTE - I do not encourage piracy of ebooks. There are online stores that sell ebooks in the EPUB version so that they are interoperable and without any trackers. Buy your books to support the author. Don't get the DRM protected ones because they are a little cheap!