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Apple Set to Deploy FairPlay Digital Rights Management on iPad eBooks?

Augure said:
Let stupid people pay for some ebooks, and intelligent read more ebooks for free.

The publishers will be upset about how they can't screw enough because nto everyone is stupid enough yet and increase the prices: stupid people will pay even more and intelligent people will have even more free alternatives as a result.
...snip...
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I don't understand the vehemence shown here about paying for content. I don't feel I have the right to walk into Peets or Starbucks and get a free coffee. I can't walk into the supermarket and walk out with a free case of beer. I can't walk into Barnes and Noble and walk out with an armload of books, CDs and DVDs. So why are so many people strongly attached to the idea of free books, movies and music simply because it is digital?

I can understand some of the convenience factors. Micropayments are not well implemented yet, manipulating digital content is different than dealing with a physical object (loaning, transferring and such). So why not beef about those topics rather than demanding free content? Just askin'.
 
Garion said:
My best guess would be a "yes", they will allow you to read ePub books from other sources in the iBooks app. My reasoning is this; if they continue to allow other ebook-reader apps in the App Store (such as the Kindle reader), it sounds unlikely that they would go to great lengths to stop you from reading ePub books from third parties in their own reader app, no? In fact, by making you use the iBook app as your default ebook reader, they bring you much closer to the thing that matters to Apple; the iBooks Store. Just a few clicks away to find and purchase the sequel to the "third party ebook" you just finished reading, you know? *s*

By not shipping the iBooks app preinstalled on the iPad, but only as a download option among other readers, I think Apple is also sending the message, that they don't view the iBooks app in the same manner they view Safari on the iPhone, for instance. In the case of e-book readers they DO allow others to duplicate functions.
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Apple is not a content provider but a hardware provider.
They don't care less how many books you buy from the iBook store, as long as you buy an iPad. Heck they won't even care if you download the kindle app and buy all your ebooks from Amazon. They are not in the content business to make money, they are in the content business to sell hardware. if you've already bought an iPad, their job is done. So having said that they have no reason to prevent you reading other epub files on the iPad, if doing so helps you decide to buy one.
 
fruitpunch.ben said:
Apple is not a content provider but a hardware provider.
They don't care less how many books you buy from the iBook store, as long as you buy an iPad. Heck they won't even care if you download the kindle app and buy all your ebooks from Amazon. They are not in the content business to make money, they are in the content business to sell hardware. if you've already bought an iPad, their job is done.
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+1
 
manhattanboy said:
just download the books for free off the interwebs and screw the Apple store
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... and after learning this degree of ethics, the next step for these people would be to hack in and download your paycheck from your employer or your savings from your bank and screw you as well.

Would you keep working hard if your paycheck always bounced because your employer's payroll account had been emptied? That's what happened before the beginnings of Copyright law, for which DRM is the current technological reminder. Copyright and DRM don't have to be perfect, just work well enough to give people a sufficient business reason to work/write/create.

Be careful of what you wish for...
 
firewood said:
Would you keep working hard if your paycheck always bounced because your employer's payroll account had been emptied? That's what happened before the beginnings of Copyright law, for which DRM is the current technological reminder.
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Lots of paychecks bounced before 1710? There were paychecks before 1710?
 
Wirelessly posted (SAMSUNG-SGH-A821/1.0 SHP/VPP/R5 NetFront/3.4 SMM-MMS/1.2.0 profile/MIDP-2.0 configuration/CLDC-1.1)

Here's a question. If the iBookStore is an app and not part of the OS, how will we sync the ebooks to to our computers? iTunes only syncs the integrated stuff like Music, Movies, Contacts, Photos, etc. Right?

If this is the case with eBooks as files within an app, how does DRM even fit into things?
 
4mat said:
Wirelessly posted (SAMSUNG-SGH-A821/1.0 SHP/VPP/R5 NetFront/3.4 SMM-MMS/1.2.0 profile/MIDP-2.0 configuration/CLDC-1.1)

Here's a question. If the iBookStore is an app and not part of the OS, how will we sync the ebooks to to our computers? iTunes only syncs the integrated stuff like Music, Movies, Contacts, Photos, etc. Right?

If this is the case with eBooks as files within an app, how does DRM even fit into things?
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Purchased books will sync over the air. Other books can be side-loaded - when you dock an iPad to your computer, it mounts like a hard disk. All third party apps can, if they wish, create directories that appear on the mounted disk.
 
firewood said:
... and after learning this degree of ethics, the next step for these people would be to hack in and download your paycheck from your employer or your savings from your bank and screw you as well.

Would you keep working hard if your paycheck always bounced because your employer's payroll account had been emptied? That's what happened before the beginnings of Copyright law, for which DRM is the current technological reminder. Copyright and DRM don't have to be perfect, just work well enough to give people a sufficient business reason to work/write/create.

Be careful of what you wish for...
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The self righteousness in here is vomit inducing. All parties involved are aware of the risks involved with digital media. If they lose money it's their own fault.
 
scroto said:
The self righteousness in here is vomit inducing. All parties involved are aware of the risks involved with digital media. If they lose money it's their own fault.
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Actually, the fault lies a little bit more with the people who make the illegal copies.
 
firewood said:
... and after learning this degree of ethics, the next step for these people would be to hack in and download your paycheck from your employer or your savings from your bank and screw you as well.

Would you keep working hard if your paycheck always bounced because your employer's payroll account had been emptied? That's what happened before the beginnings of Copyright law, for which DRM is the current technological reminder. Copyright and DRM don't have to be perfect, just work well enough to give people a sufficient business reason to work/write/create.

Be careful of what you wish for...
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What artist has been unable to cash a check due to their work not having DRM on it?
 
Since now there are web sites and software where anyone can download or copy anything, we now have the mentality that we have a 'right' to do so!

While the music industry, or the book industry as examples feel it is more than okay to ripoff the author, or band, by either paying them less, or dumping them when sales don't reach expectations.

Authors, musicians, artists, graphic designers work hard to produce original story lines, original songs, and graphic designers work hard on images, web sites, brochures, etc. As a designer, I get very upset when I see someone stealing my work!

Even on here, people are looking for free advise and design ideas. If you want to contribute then fine, but remember every time you download a book, or a song etc., your taking away someone's work, livelihood, etc. just so you can screw the music industry, the movie industry, or the graphic design industry. In the end you don't hurt them, but the people who create what your downloading for free..
 
miketcool said:
Meh, the publisher already does that. ESPECIALLY when it comes to text books.

I say screw the publisher and the store that sells their overpriced bullspit.
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Do you have any clue what book publishers do to sell textbooks?

Do you think you could get your textbook adopted by schools without that activity?

If so, you can self-publish your textbook TODAY. It'll cost you approximately nothing....

Let me know when you turn a profit.

fruitpunch.ben said:
Apple is not a content provider but a hardware provider. [....] They are not in the content business to make money, they are in the content business to sell hardware.
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That changes with the iPad. If the average user buys two books or movies per month (a very reasonable number) then Apple revenue from content will be double their revenue from hardware.

Given the amount of revenue, and the cost reductions associated with their new data center, the content will be much more profitable than the hardware.
 
I still find the term FairPlay to be ironic.

But honestly, DRM sucks. It's not like if I had an actual book it couldn't be in 5 different places. I like the B&N model where I can lend it to a friend for 2 weeks but not keep it myself in that time period. Ah, whatever.
 
TheMBC said:
I still find the term FairPlay to be ironic.

But honestly, DRM sucks. It's not like if I had an actual book it couldn't be in 5 different places. I like the B&N model where I can lend it to a friend for 2 weeks but not keep it myself in that time period. Ah, whatever.
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If you had an actual book it couldn't be in 5 different places simultaneously.
 
archipellago said:
true but this apple. they rarely bother with the trivialities of the law!
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what are you talking about?

there is no such legal requirement [to keep a DRM server available indefinitely].

read the iTunes agreement you click through every once in a while when Apple changes it. they can kill their server at any time, and you have no right to a refund or a way to remove the DRM.

I don't believe there has even been a legal precedent set yet in the US on this issue [ie, like when WalMart got out of online video's and turned off their servers, they voluntarily gave a refund, probably because the major movie studio's DIDN'T want it to go to court over whether consumers could be arbitrarily disabled from accessing content they licensed].

What may finally get interesting is AutoDesk suing a private reseller over sales of old copies of AutoCad [which were original, fully paid for versions], which was decided in the resellers favor [of course, Autodesk is appealing], which applied the first-sale doctrine to software licenses. I can see this being litigated against PSP online games [where the online downloadable version is sold for the same price as the physical disk, where you can resell the disk, but not the downloadable version] and on these non-transferable licenses from Apple, Amazon, etc...
 
firewood said:
... and after learning this degree of ethics, the next step for these people would be to hack in and download your paycheck from your employer or your savings from your bank and screw you as well.

Would you keep working hard if your paycheck always bounced because your employer's payroll account had been emptied? That's what happened before the beginnings of Copyright law, for which DRM is the current technological reminder. Copyright and DRM don't have to be perfect, just work well enough to give people a sufficient business reason to work/write/create.

Be careful of what you wish for...
Click to expand...

I guess your right. I am using the easiest to hack operating system (aka a Mac) :apple:
So maybe we do need some sort of protection (Where's trojan man when you need him?)
 
neutrino23 said:
I don't understand the vehemence shown here about paying for content.
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Here is what it really boils down to:

Author should be:
a: Selling it from their own website
b: Selling it directly from iTunes bypassing 'publisher'
[or they end up with two publishers, apple and whoever is sending it to Apple]

As of now prices are inflated, which rips off both author and purchaser.
After all you have two middle men between when you only need one.
[Of course some will argue that print is still around so both are needed... I say no - let one publisher deal with print and the other with online - of course that wont help the middle mans pocket book... but Im not shedding a tear about it.] ;)

Peace

dAlen
 
I didn't buy jot from iTunes when unfair-play was featured and I will take the same stance if books go the same way. I will only pay for non DRM material otherwise I'll continue to spend on paper and ignore these offerings.
 
Wow, what a dumb and misleading story.

It has been on movies all along, it never went away.

If anyone seriously thought they would ever release all books with no DRM, they're out of touch with reality.

Is there anyone selling digital copies of bestsellers without DRM right now? If nobody else is doing it, it's a bit silly to whine about apple just doing what the publishers require them to do.
 
aristobrat said:
Apple didn't lift the "asinine DRM from the songs", the record labels did..
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Honestly, I don't see this as a issue. It is reasonable to allow a limited number of iBook clients to read specific content that was purchased. If you had the physicial book how could it be shared other than to pass the book from one person to another.

If there is some means to share, at least let more than 1 person read a book that you purchased that is HUGE in my mind.

When the next best book comes out and is finally in a e-format, and we purchase it thought iBooks, I will be saying thank you to the publishers if both my wife and I can read the same copy on our shared acount. That just saved me 100% of the purchase of a second copy and not having to share!! YEA!!
 
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