Last week, Kassia Krozser wrote a post on her publishing industry blog, BookSquare, about Digital Rights Management (DRM). She refers to it as “the most hated aspect of digital publishing” and attempts to come up with solutions to the “DRM problem.” She addresses the four main players in the game: readers, authors, publishers, and booksellers.
- Readers: Krozser suggests that publishers more actively engage readers in the discussion of DRM. She believes that consumers understand the goal of DRM and are supportive of protecting author’s rights, yet she thinks they have been getting jerked around while the industry tries to figure it all out.
- Authors: Krozser also encourages publishers to educate authors about piracy and DRM so that they feel less “nervous and confused.” Some writers are just keeping their work in print format only to avoid all of the hoopla.
- Publishers: Another thing she asks of publishers is to demand the acceptance of a universal standard for digital publishing rather than a variety of platforms competing with each other. She encouraged the use of the epub format.
- Booksellers: Krozser suggests that booksellers be given the capability to fulfill digital book orders immediately within their store.
She also writes: “The advantage of this slow-but-steady growth is that the book industry has a chance to get it right from a customer point of view. There are a lot of interests to balance, a lot of needs to consider, many perspectives to view. You can’t please everyone and you’re going to get some stuff wrong.”
The post has amassed nearly 50 comments so far and it’s all an interesting dialogue worth reading.
SOURCE: “Big Bad, Three Years Running, Or How to Solve a Problem Like DRM,” 02/16/09; photo by pandemia, used under its Creative Commons license
