DRM

The anti-DRM activist group Defective by Design have set their eyes on a new target: the Barnes & Noble Nook.

 

Things have changed and now the Nook represents a real threat to users because of its invasive DRM, close relationship with DRM champions Adobe, and because of its use of the Android operating system — which might lead many to think the Nook is not defective by design.

This group  has a goal of raising public awareness of the horrors of DRM, with the eventual goal of geting major content companies to stop using it.

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The Marlin Developer Community, a DRM technology company that is based on the idea of open DRM, has launched a new tool for publishers to protect eBooks.

The idea behind is to give publishers a tool that lets them protect works across platforms and doesn’t lock them in to any one format. The tool works with ePUB, and it is not subject to proprietary copyright protection technologies.

Talal Shamoon, chairman of the MDC stated: “Books are the cornerstone of enduring culture, and using proprietary security technology to lock consumers into walled gardens is untoward. While it is every person’s right to access written works, it is also important to protect authors’ rights and ensure the integrity of distribution networks; Marlin DRM elegantly balances these requirements.”

It’s just over 1 month until the third annual Day Against DRM. Will you join the protest?

What is DRM? Well, companies like Amazon and Apple will tell you that DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. However, since it is designed to restrict the actions of you, the user, it would be more accurate to describe DRM as Digital Restrictions Management. DRM restricts  what you can do with movies, music, and eBooks that you think you own. Have you ever wanted to convert an eBook from Epub to Kindle? That conversion usually fails because of DRM. Software implementing DRM technology is simply a prison in which users can be put to deprive them of the rights that they would otherwise have under the law.

Will you join the protest?

via Defective by Design

Richard Nash‘s Red Lemonade imprint will release its first titles in May, and the publisher (pictured, via) has taken the unusual step of offering his digital review copies without any digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.

In an email interview, he explained why: “Eventually it will be common practice because the last folks to not notice the horse had bolted the stable long ago will have turned the lights off in their offices. Money will only be changing hands for digital files as a convenience charge.”

He concluded: “Given that most books are going to end up on a Torrent site anyway, rather than pointlessly fight it, ingratiate yourself with the influencers by not forcing them to wait. The good publishers will have long since been making money by unhackable means anyway.”

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If you’ve ever had trouble opening an eBook because of the encryption then you might appreciate the new DRM announced yesterday.

BooXtream does away with costly and cumbersome DRM encryption used by major publishers, and it replaces that encryption with a more subtle DRM that embeds information about the buyer of an ebook. That information could include email, name, the eBookstore where the eBook was bought, as well as a digital watermark.

The developers of BooXtream believe that DRM doesn’t actually stop piracy; all it does is irritate customers. Given how easy it is to find DRM removal tools or pirated content, they are very likely correct.

One Dutch publisher has already signed on to use BooXtream, Bertram + de Leeuw.

via ereaders.nl

Last week I wrote about some graphics you could use to join the protest against DRM. Today I’m posting one more image. One enterprising Kindle owner took one of the graphics and turned it into a Kindle screensaver.

The full size image is 600×800, and such a simple design should look good on your Kindle. Of course, you’ll need to hack your Kindle first before you can install it, and there is a small risk it could harm your Kindle.

You can find it here. Thanks, Bobby!

HarperCollins recent decision to restrict library eBook checkouts has inspired a growing protest over DRM.

Digital Restrictions Management is a type of security placed on files to control how you use them. The goal of DRM is to piracy, but given how easy it is to remove DRM from ebooks, it has largely failed in that goal.

DRM is the tool that HarperCollins uses to enforce its new rule. Naturally this has brought more attention to an unpopular technology, and given heart to its protesters.

The artist Ninay Paley has made a number of simple icons so you can show how you feel about DRM. You can find them at readersbillofrights.info

Author/blogger Cory Doctorow blogged about winning the DRM battle against on BoingBoing yesterday.

The blog stems from Doctrow’s column this month in Publisher’s Weekly, in which is talks about how he convinced Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo to sell his eBooks unencumbered by DRM coding, so that consumers can transfer the files that they purchase across device.

Here is a bit from the BoingBoing blog: “Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Kobo were all happy to carry my books without DRM, and on terms that gave you the same rights you got when buying paper editions. Sony and Apple refused to carry my books without DRM — even though my publisher and I both asked them to. The upshot is that you can now buy electronic editions of my books in the Kindle, Nook and Kobo stores in DRM-free, EULA-free editions!”

Lexink, a software company that lets consumers buy and sell “used” digital media, is positioning itself as the publishing world’s answer to illegal book downloading. Lexink’s tool called “Unloder” works like a used book or music store. Users can buy and sell their old MP3s, digital videos or eBooks in exchange for a credit.

Once these items have been sold, they disappear from the seller’s computer and the seller is given credit for future purchases within the site. Buyers can shop a database of used digital titles to spend these credits. Publishers are paid through Unloder.

In a press release, Lexink owner Alexandre Despallieres says that “illegal downloading will continue, but creative solutions like the Unloder can help stem the tide of loss to media producers while providing savings to buyers who want to buy and sell eBooks.”

This is pretty interesting. On the one hand, some people prefer to buy books in used bookstores or from Amazon resellers or eBay sellers for a cheaper cost and the publishers don’t see any of that money. On the other, a used book usually comes with bent pages and underlined notes and is actually “used,” making them less attractive to some book buyers. If used digital copies look exactly the same as the new releases, I am not sure this is good for publishers. What do you think?

EPub, an open and widely-used format for eBooks, is a great ideal, but, as Gizmodo points out in a lengthy post running down the various eBook and DRM formats, but various companies different kinds of DRM basically kills the promise of eBooks compatible across devices.

Most companies, says Gizmodo, use Adobe’s DRM. But Amazon’s got its own format, and Apple will be using its own FairPlay DRM. So, as you probably already know, you won’t be swapping eBooks between iPad and Kindle or Nook or anything.

Here’s the main point from Gizmodo: “You may be thinking that it’s just a matter of time before ebook stores all go DRM free. That would be wishful thinking at best. While ebooks might seem a lot like digital music circa 2005, you can’t rip a book, so the only way to get a bestseller on your reader is to buy it legally, or to steal it. It’s pretty much that simple. There will be free books, there will be unencrypted books, and the torrents will rage with bestsellers (as they already do). Still, DRM’s gonna be a hard fact of life with every major bookstore, since they’re going to at least try to keep you from stealing it. You don’t see Hollywood giving up DRM, do you?”