Is DRM bad for eBooks?

[Brother Rick]

I'm looking to put my book on Amazon Kindle this week, if everything works out well. Lo and behold, I've discovered there's a debate about DRM with eBooks. Those of you who have these devices, what is your take? In my experience, Christians completely ignore the command to not steal and copy anything and everything they can and pass it out under the guise of "being a blessing." That's why I wanted to do DRM, but now I'm having second thoughts.

[Guest]

I'm looking to put my book on Amazon Kindle this week, if everything works out well. Lo and behold, I've discovered there's a debate about DRM with eBooks. Those of you who have these devices, what is your take? In my experience, Christians completely ignore the command to not steal and copy anything and everything they can and pass it out under the guise of "being a blessing." That's why I wanted to do DRM, but now I'm having second thoughts.

You're going to have to consult someone else...diligently.

[Invicta]

What can't understand is how people can get a book that has been out of copyright for 100s of years, copy it onto a computer and then say they have the copyright.

Rick, as regards your book you will ahve to decide on that.

[Anon]

I have a Nook and there are certain books you can "lend" but certain books you cannot.... I mean I can download free books online and give those to people (not copyrighted) but the copyrighted ones are downloaded straight to my nook...I'm not sure if I can download them to my computer and put them on another machine or not...? (Have to wait til I get my hubby a nook and find out!) Seems like they'd have some sort of limitation on being able to do that.

I guess you'll just have to decide how you want to manage your book....

[no name joe]

DRM is a good thing. ANy product you buy such as books, music, etc., you are buying a license to use that material. You cannot use it beyond the scope of the license. For example, if I buy a CD, I cannot make copies of it and sell it. Digitial music is the same way, though it is tougher to control and easy to copy and give to someone else. Those that copy and give it away are stealing from the artist and publisher. With the digital books, they have found a way to limit the ability to give the material away. So one person cannot buy a book and give it to everyone in his church, depriving the publisher of profits. I have read Kindle is looking into permitting the lending of books where you can "give" it to someone for say, 30 days. A the end of the time period, their license expires.

Another example is that you cannot buy a book, and copy it, and distribute pages. That violates your agreement and the publishers rights. You are stealing from the purchaser if you do not have permission.

THere is nothing wrong with it. Just make sure to read the agreement and understand what your rights are.

As too books over 80 years old, those are in the "public domain" meaning anyone can take the words. Now if I took an old book, say, "Les Miserable" which is public domain, and types out all of the words and arranged it into a book format, have the rights to my format of the work. Someone cannot go copy my format of the words, though they could take the same book and create their own format.

[trc123]

Personally, I believe DRM is a good thing to insure the author is compensated for the intellectual property that they published. Without it, there is no way you are going to be compensated based upon the usage. Amazon makes it easy to publish your own written works with DRM and then market it with their site. I think it is awesome for an author like you Rich that may not have access to the big publisher machinery.

[Brother Rick]

Thanks for the input guys. I'm going to go DRM on this one, because it's a biblical commentary. If I write a fiction book I'll go DRM-free though.

TRC, yes, it's a unique time right now. Anyone who's willing to do the work can get in print right now - but wow, is there a lot of work involved!