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Apple iBooks Copy Protection Cracked for First Time
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Good luck with that. Too bad you don't have a way to know how many of your books are in distribution, because with my first book, distributed without DRM, we found over half a million downloads from unpaid sites - compared with sales of just over 50,000 books at the time.
My second book has enjoyed over 250,000 sales to date, and we have only found it on one illegal download site, and the copy was horrible. We shut that down anyway, but I'm actually making money on my work now, rather than simply giving it away.
People steal digital books. Like it or not. It's the reality of a no DRM digital release.
My first book sold roughly 50,000 copies DRM free. We found over 500,000 downloads on illegal download sites before we shut them down.
I will never release another DRM free book, and will aggressively go after any illegal distribution sites should someone start to distribute a hacked copy.
Yes, they are stealing from me, and I will take action to prevent it.
So no, you don't have anything to back up that without DRM publishing companies go bankruptcy.
And if you are equaling stripping DRM and illegal distribution you have a perception problem.
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thewitt said:
This is only plausible if the only site you publish is iBooks before this tool work with them. If you publish in other sites, the copy is one to one to the original.
So what do you think of the digital watermark idea (and don't tell me hackers can remove the watermark, they can also remove DRM too)?
Where the copy you sell some one has a watermark and if they try to copy it to give or sell to people and they find people with illegal copies, they can use that watermark to trace it back to who originally distributed the illegal copies?
I'll admit it probably isn't as secure (as it relies on you catching the person rather than it trying to prevent) but to me it seems a good compromise between security but also not punishing the consumer by forcing the consumer on one format for trying to do the right thing and actually buy the book rather than find a pirated copy.
I will say one huge advantage paper books have over ebooks right now because of no standard format (and even with a standard format they will always have at least some edge cause digital standard formats don't always stay the same). They won't get outdated. As long as you care for them and know how to read you don't have to worry about the company losing interest and no longer supporting a reader that will work with the book, or the company randomly pulling the book from your library, or the company going out of business and eventually not having a reader to read the book as your tech fails and you can't replace it. At least a standard format lessons the chances of that happening (You aren't relying on a company to either not fail or decide to change what they support).
Do schools usually buy a book then photocopy it and hand the copies out to their students? No. So, why would they do what you think?
If you read my other statements you would already know the answer.
People do not put the same value on digital books as they do on printed books. The same thing happens with software. People put no value on it because it is easy to duplicate and distribute. They justify their stealing by saying they would not have purchased it anyway.
The same mindset applies the same logic to digital books.
As for photocopying textbooks, it takes both time and money to make a workable paper copy text from an original book. The same is not true for distributing an eBook.
I would rather see the industry define a real standard reader, universally available, with physical ownership rights on eBooks.
Not sure if we will ever get there, but I support the direction.
I bold the key part.
Problem is way to many people turn around and make copies of it to share on the internet with there 10k friend. It is one thing to strip DRM for personal use. It is a completely different story if you park it on a server somewhere for it to be downloaded by anyone.
I personally hate on things like music or anything else. Big time with Apple DRM due to the Apple only lock in with it. I would love to have some universal DRM that is not limited to only manufacture. It would provide the DRM with out the issues that come with it like being very limited on personal use.
You have it for epub, Adobe DRM, if you buy an epub with DRM on B&N, Sony or Fictionwise it will work on any device that supports epub and Adobe scheme, the vast majority.
It *is* acceptable and completely legal in most countries, no matter what those "agreements" you accepted say. Most of the terms in these agreements are not enforceable because some rights of the consumer cannot be forfeited by agreements, otherwise most companies would get away with basically anything.
On the specific, a judge in the USA already stated that circumventing DRM is not illegal. It's illegal only if the end goal is a copyright violation. If the end goal is enjoying the media I bought on a different device that's clearly within my fair use rights.
Some other examples? With Apple in Europe by agreement I would have only 1 year of warranty. EU laws begs to differ and they had to pay a pretty big fine and provide the 2 years mandated warranty no matter what the "agreement" said.
If I buy something online I have the right of forfeiting the sale with full money back if I change idea within 7 days (no need for any kind of justification). Some sellers tried to avoid this through agreements which were obviously found unlawful and unenforceable.
TL;DR: you have many rights as consumer that cannot be forfeited no matter what you sign. DRM circumvention with the end goal of fair use is one of them.
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I may not know so this is not a taunt, but what is it that Apple is restricting or trying to force it to suck? There are some other good readers on iOS. Are you talking about the 'link to purchase' a book? No I'm not referring to that. I can live with that; adjust with it. It's a one time thing, once in a week or a couple of weeks. But the app quality sucks. The app is laggy; doesn't render the text properly. It's slow and creepy. Feels like I'm using the app on the first iPhone which is ridiculous.
Your username is thewitt but its painfully obvious you are anything but. Is it beyond the realms of possibility that someone's second book becomes much for successful than their first book due to exposure of their first book to 500,000 readers?
Furthermore, are you that deluded that you consider everyone of those 500,000 infringing copies a lost sale?
This is a real problem here. Somehow they think that if a book/film/tv programme was not available to steal those that are currently stealling it would line up to buy.
This is nonsense. I am sure some would definitely buy somethig at some point, but general mass would not.
DRM doesn't protect anything. if someone wants to pirate something to offer it for download whatever DRM will be circumvented. It just makes it harder for everyone else to use what we paid for.
If DRM could be made to not get in the way of the user that'd be fine but it's just not reality. Normally, it's a pain in the ass and I don't see that changing. We are not likely to see 1 standard to rule them all.
Do I steal? no. I buy books from barnes and noble's store, amazon, and from apple. Does this news interest me? yes. I may in the future use it to allow me to move things from ios to my nook.
I also have a subscription to make magazine. I have all of their magazines in .pdf drm free from them. By some people's logic on here I probably have a server farm in my basement delivering these to all my friends. Far from the truth.
As a developer I'm worried about people stealing my software but at the end of the day there isn't much I can do about it. People who want my software and are decent will buy it to support me. Those that steal it most likely won't pay for it anyway. Perhaps there is a few sales I'd lose but such is life.
DRM just gets in the way for the average person. I do not support it. Others have their reasons for supporting it.
cheers,
r
If DRM could be made to not get in the way of the user that'd be fine but it's just not reality. Normally, it's a pain in the ass and I don't see that changing. We are not likely to see 1 standard to rule them all.
Do I steal? no. I buy books from barnes and noble's store, amazon, and from apple. Does this news interest me? yes. I may in the future use it to allow me to move things from ios to my nook.
I also have a subscription to make magazine. I have all of their magazines in .pdf drm free from them. By some people's logic on here I probably have a server farm in my basement delivering these to all my friends. Far from the truth.
As a developer I'm worried about people stealing my software but at the end of the day there isn't much I can do about it. People who want my software and are decent will buy it to support me. Those that steal it most likely won't pay for it anyway. Perhaps there is a few sales I'd lose but such is life.
DRM just gets in the way for the average person. I do not support it. Others have their reasons for supporting it.
cheers,
r
But I can resell a hard copy of a book or lend it, why not a digital version
If I buy a book, I can read it, then lend it or sell it second hand: fact.
If I buy a digital version with DRM, I can't: fact.
That is not right.
I have paid the author for his work in both forms, so why should they be treated differently.
I'm a customer, I have paid my money and I should within reason be able to read the book on any device I wish, lend it to a friend and resell it second hand if I wish.
It has worked for printed books for centuries.
If I can't do the same with a digital copy then sell it to me at a reasonable price, ie one third of the price, because you are limiting my freedom to use my property which I have paid for as I wish.
If I buy a book, I can read it, then lend it or sell it second hand: fact.
If I buy a digital version with DRM, I can't: fact.
That is not right.
I have paid the author for his work in both forms, so why should they be treated differently.
I'm a customer, I have paid my money and I should within reason be able to read the book on any device I wish, lend it to a friend and resell it second hand if I wish.
It has worked for printed books for centuries.
If I can't do the same with a digital copy then sell it to me at a reasonable price, ie one third of the price, because you are limiting my freedom to use my property which I have paid for as I wish.
It shouldn't be any different, but THEY somehow think it is. Works for music, so why it should be different for books. Price wise difference is almost nonexistent.
No, there's the other ecosystem: buy the book on paper. DRM should be flexible enough to let the purchaser read the book (listen to the music, watch video, whatever) on other devices he owns. But DRM should be strict enough to prevent the one licensed copy being on more than one person's devices (kind of like loaning a book or a CD: when the other person has it, you don't).
A significant complaint about DRM is that it makes it harder for honest people to use the media, and thieves just strip it off and ignore it. But that same argument holds for locks on your house: you have to stop, get out a key, unlock the door, etc. Thieves just throw a rock through your window.
Actually that does happen... The expense of higher education can certainly spur people on all sides (institution, student, and in this case copyshop vendor) to cut corners or take advantage of it. The press release is worded to not cast a lot of blame on the University, more of a scolding.
Further to this line of thinking, I just wanted to mention an issue that came up this month in one of my Commerce courses.
My and many other Canadian Universities refused to renew their Access Copyright agreements this academic year. As a result, formal photocopy licensing is getting quite dodgy and difficult in dealing with coursework.
The prof in this course had found a case study from Harvard School of Business, wanted to use it in class for large, randomly assigned groups. As a result, he could only give one (his) copy out for groups to discuss for 20 minutes, and he collected them afterward. Each group had a different article (one copy), and there's only one projector screen that isn't long enough for 3 page articles. So the groups had to read them aloud, and then discuss. I was the only person in my group whose first language is English, and I'm not the one that read it.
This was ironic because my morning class had raised the communications theory point that people only remember 50% of what they hear immediately afterward. The discussion didn't go well.
The rules on sharing are so specific that he cannot even put a link to the article source online. He has to describe how students can search for it for themselves. Very inefficient and difficult to expect all 40 students to be on top of such a task.
Poor compromises all around, and I certainly made it known that it was less than ideal for learning. Still, there was literally no alternative for him besides dropping the exercise completely. So either way it's a reduction in quality of learning. With so many institutions shunning AC it's clear that a monopolistic licensing agency isn't the ideal solution either, but the alternatives -- of none or thousands of agreements -- are logistically horrifying.
I feel your frustration, but I have to say that since some of the first ebooks were available (I have been watching this space closely) I could not comprehend how the industry via sites such for example amazon would not provide a free e-copy for every printed book they sold, and instead required, and still require that you pay double the price for an ebook version too. At the very least a minimal flat fee of say $.99 should have been introduced for every print copy.
They instead opted to pull a greedy music business stunt where new formats of available content (vinyl to cd to digital) had to be repurchased. I am aware the analogy is not quite valid, but it helps to showcase that if you don't respect the buyer that comes back to bite you in the behind eventually.
I would be very frustrated too if they were stealing my copywrited work, but you also have to take it out with the publishers as well. It's sheer lunacy to demand for someone to pay twice for the same content just for the added ease of use of being able to store it and read it on an ereader. Printed books, no matter what apple would like to do, or no matter what amazon would like to do, are very important as physical items too for oh so many reasons. You cannot blakcmail the most avid book owners to pay twice for content, without at the very least not giving them an option for a discount for both print and "e" items.
Publishers dug this hole for themselves very much and for their authors, for no other motivation than greed, thinking they could be software companies or the music biz that as soon as something is created it can be very easily distributed at almost no cost compared to physical items. They were wrong, you cannot drm the web away, you cannot tame it thus, you can adjust and offer something back if you want to be respected.
Myself as an avid reader I was not respected for having to pay twice for the same content just so I could keep a reference or portable file of books with my e-reader (epaper, lcd whatever). Can you blame me for then telling them to eff off and stealing away much like everyone is doing? Although I 've made it a point books I do read and not just skim through the first few pages as in a bookstore to pay for the print copy as well... But tell your publishers to give me something back not bullying me into paying for both print and e-books, bullying me into paying twice for the benefit of the portability of an ebook.
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Sure, but that's yet another conversion you have to do after first removing the DRM. Easy enough, but definitely not as convenient. And I'm always a bit concerned with conversions like that, as far as formatting being preserved and such.
Yes, but that applies to both Amazon and iTunes. kas23 stated he preferred Amazon because it was somehow better as far as DRM is concerned.
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To all the "you're a pirate" haters out there, I'm still enjoying reading my purchased eBook on my MBAir
And no, I won't be giving it away to friends/family
So let me get this straight...
- People here don't see the justification of buying a CD or digital copy after they've bought a Vinyl edition? Even though someone took the time to MAKE that Vinyl, package that CD together, and convert the audio for you so you didn't have to?
- You think that eBooks are expensive when you can search through them with ease, highlight, annotate, and look up any obscure word right IN the text? You think Apple/Amazon/B&N/etc should sacrifice the pitiful commission they get just so you can have ANOTHER copy to go along with it?
I agree that we have the right to strip DRM off our files, but we are NOT entitled to have free copies just because we already bought it in another format. And if you think that you do, well, go type up word per word of that 800 page book/convert the 100 albums yourself. No one is stopping you.
Oh, and Amazon DOES let you lend books to your friends for 14 days.
- People here don't see the justification of buying a CD or digital copy after they've bought a Vinyl edition? Even though someone took the time to MAKE that Vinyl, package that CD together, and convert the audio for you so you didn't have to?
- You think that eBooks are expensive when you can search through them with ease, highlight, annotate, and look up any obscure word right IN the text? You think Apple/Amazon/B&N/etc should sacrifice the pitiful commission they get just so you can have ANOTHER copy to go along with it?
I agree that we have the right to strip DRM off our files, but we are NOT entitled to have free copies just because we already bought it in another format. And if you think that you do, well, go type up word per word of that 800 page book/convert the 100 albums yourself. No one is stopping you.
Oh, and Amazon DOES let you lend books to your friends for 14 days.