this is a very lengthy piece but quite interesting. from the introduction:
Something happened when we shifted to digital formats that created a loss of rights for readers. Pulling back the curtain on the evolution of ebooks offers some clarity to how the shift to digital left ownership behind in the analog world.
While most publishers still sell physical books, when it comes to ebooks, the vast majority appear to have made a collective decision to shift to offering only limited licenses. Some of the reasons for this shift are economic, some legal, some technological, and others psychological – a belief that limiting or eliminating digital ownership of books will raise publisher revenues, forstall free copies leaking onto unauthorized websites, and allow publishers and platforms unprecedented control and tracking of the behaviors of readers, as well as universities and libraries that provide ebooks. Whether these beliefs map to reality, however, is hotly contested.
and the broad conclusions here:
Our study leads us to several key conclusions:
- By turning to platforms as the primary technical means for conveying ebooks, publishers have introduced a third major player into the ebook supply chain: ebook platform companies. Together with publishers, platforms have restricted the ebook market to one composed primarily of licensing instead of sales.
- The platform companies have motives and goals that are independent of those of publishers or purchasers (including institutional buyers such as libraries and schools). Rather than looking to profit from individual sales, like a bookstore does, platforms compete to collect and control the most aggregate content and consumer data. This enables what are now widely known as “surveillance capitalism” revenue models, from data brokering to personalized ad targeting to the use of content lock-in subscription models.3 These platforms’ goals are sometimes at odds with the interests of libraries and readers.
- The introduction of platforms, and especially publisher-platform partnerships, has created new forms of legal and technological lock-in on the publisher side, with dependencies on platform infrastructure posing serious barriers to publishers independently selling ebooks directly to consumers. Platforms have few incentives to support direct sales models that do not require licensing, as those models do not easily support tracking user behavior.
- The structure of the ebook marketplace has introduced new stressors into both the publishing and library professions. Publishers and libraries feel they are facing existential crises/collapse, and their fears are pushing them into diametrically opposed viewpoints. Publishers feel pressured to protect and paywall their content, while libraries feel pressure to maintain relevant collections that are easily accessible via digital networks. Both libraries and publishers feel dependent on the ebook platform companies to provide the ebooks that readers demand, allowing the platform economy (which is already dominated by only a few large companies) to have even more power over the ebook marketplace.
- Because of the predominance of the publisher-platform licensing model for the ebook marketplace, important questions exist as to the impact, if any, that digital library lending of books has on that market. For example, while some evidence exists that the availability of second-hand physical books via libraries and used bookstores might compete with direct publisher book sales, it is less clear that the digital loan of a single title by a library competes with platform ebook subscriptions and locked-in book purchases. Moreover, given that publisher-platform partnerships profit from surveillance of book buyers, consumers who choose more privacy-friendly library loans may represent an entirely distinct market that places significant value on data protection.
- While access to user data generated by platform surveillance of readers is a potential benefit to publishers, in practice publishers do not fully exploit (and may not have full access to) that information.
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I should probably care about this way more than I do, but this is a fight I’ve largely given up. The ‘right’ thing to do would be to boycott all DRM-encumbered content, but that’s a fight that very few people outside of a comparatively small circle of tech idealists would even about, much less care… and boycotts have never worked for CDs, DVDs or even VHS tapes. The sad truth is that DRM does work as designed for the overwhelming majority of less tech-savvy consumers who either aren’t aware of or can’t be bothered to try alternatives.
The good news is that it’s relatively easy to remove the DRM from ebooks, especially compared to other types of media. As long as this remains possible with just a few additional mouse clicks, the status quo “works for me”. I’m all for paying the artist/author, I just don’t want the thing I’ve bought taken away from me as soon as the publisher decides to pull the plug on their DRM server.
And what I’ve noticed here in Switzerland, even though it’s non-representative and anecdotal evidence, is that more and more ebooks are sold DRM-free.
How do you remove DRM?
I just buy books without DRM. I’ve heard about alternate licenses, but I just don’t buy those ones.
Speaking as a macOS user, it’s a relatively straightforward process using a specific version of the Kindle app and a bit of knowledge of how to use Calibre. It can be a bit of a fiddle to set up, but once it is it’s wonderful to be able to take advantage of discounts on Kindle while reading on my Kobo.
I can’t speak for how easy it is on Windows/Linux, mind.
I ue Epubor Ultimate because I never got Calibre’s de-DRM working on my machine. It’s drag&drop for Adobe Digital Editions and also works very well in the very rare cases that I want a book that’s only available on Amazon (though buying one of those still leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth).
A DRM-free copy of the original is still preferred though. There’s one online shop in Switzerland that has started selling more of these lately. Maybe that’s a good sign.Use Calibre, there are guides. Took me like 4 minutes to learn how to do it when I was gifted a kindle last year
Oh! I actually already use Calibre to convert formats. It makes sense I guess that it also strips DRM. Cool!
Research an addon for Calibre named Apprentice Alf.
I’m also in Switzerland - can you please point me to some (swiss) stores which sell DRM free books?
So far I’ve found most of what I’ve been looking for on www.exlibris.ch, though www.orellfuessli.ch seems quite nice as well. Normally it says in the details whether or not a particular book comes with DRM.
The DRM-free books are still digitally marked - Ex Libris will include your e-mail address in one of the first pages, and there are probably subtle differences in the text itself. I don’t mind that, though I blame the technology for the occasional annoying ‘typo’ in the book.
Thanks, i’ll take a closer look at the details in future
Most of the exploitation that we suffer in the digital world are primarily due to our laziness. If we had made the right choice instead of convenience, we wouldn’t be paying so much to rent seekers.
That said, ebooks are one area where freedom-respecting choices still exist. DRM-free ebooks are still available. We have the opportunity to save them from greedy rent-seeking middle man corporations. Please don’t squander it away too in the name of pathetic excuses that nobody wants to hear.
If we had made the right choice instead of convenience, we wouldn’t be paying so much to rent seekers.
The right choices are generally more expensive (in terms of up-front costs, even if they’re less expensive in the long run) and/or require more time investment, both of which are lacking for the poor. The appeal of convenience is that a decision can be made quickly, allowing the person to mentally tick off that problem as dealt with and move on to other problems. The rent seekers want people to be poor, in precarious living situations, so that they’re less capable of making good decisions. It’s not helpful to blame the victims of a system that’s rigged against them.
The right choices are generally more expensive (in terms of up-front costs, even if they’re less expensive in the long run) and/or require more time investment, both of which are lacking for the poor.
or just the non-technologically savvy. a lot of the issue here is a technological hurdle, fundamentally—it takes a certain level of technological knowledge for someone to, say, pirate ebooks versus just buying them legitimately and that’s a big point of friction for people in making the “right choice”. we have to keep in mind that for a lot of internet-using people nowadays, knowing the ins-and-outs of Facebook or how to download a browser add-on is probably a legitimate technical skill and on the upper bounds of what they’d know navigating spaces like this. and we don’t make it easy necessarily for people to acquire and advance the technological knowledge we’re talking about here either.
I’d count having to learn how to use a more technologically complex option as being more time-intensive, personally. Anyone can learn to use a more complicated option, but they need the time and mental resources to learn how to do it. And yeah, as you say, a lot of things are legitimately technical skills, and even reasonably tech-savvy individuals can end up out of their depth in some of the more complicated spaces in the internet. Recently I’ve been switching some things I use over to open source alternatives, and the number of options that look like they’re better than the convenient proprietary ones but which come with no or utterly arcane instructions for how to use them (or even just install them) is very high. I’m pretty sure I could figure it out for myself if I had enough time, because I’m very much in the “poke buttons to see what happens” camp when it comes to tech. But I genuinely just don’t have the time, and in the absence of more user-friendly good options, the bad options that have a shallower learning curve are more accessible.
While you do have a point, there are very well known exceptions where people make bad choices regardless. Ebooks are one example. DRM-free books don’t cost extra because the authors often dislike DRM. Another is the example of browsers. Firefox doesn’t cost a penny. But people choose a spyware browser from an ad company.
In both cases, people have to both know that other options exist and know where to find them, because they’re not available as a default option. People don’t actively research browsers and choose one from an ad company. They use the browser their device comes with. Likewise, with ebooks, they buy a device to read ebooks on and then use the ebook shop the device points them towards (most obvious example, if they’ve bought a Kindle, they’re going to use Amazon’s shop that is accessible from the Kindle). Choosing the alternative option requires knowing the other options exist and then devoting the time to finding and using them. The good options in both cases greater time investment.
It’s always easy to find ‘can’t have/couldn’t have’ style excuses for laziness. But ultimately, issues like DRM on ebooks or spyware from an add company all boil down to consumer vigilance and defense of consumer rights. It isn’t just about the digital goods - that applies even to Mom & Pop shops, without which the mega corps are free to price gouge to their hearts’ content.
Consumer rights protection is a culture that takes time and effort. There is no getting around it. If users are being exploited by big corporations, it the users’ fault for not being vigilant. It’s not rocket science. These options aren’t hard to find. Whether that be a browser that respects you, or buying a DRM-free book directly from the publishers, it takes hardly a few minutes to learn and execute. Ultimately, there is no excuse for squandering away any respect we have as consumers, due to sheer laziness.
I stand by my belief that victim blaming isn’t helpful, and it’s not laziness. A lot of people don’t have extensive knowledge of technology and are too ground down by working multiple low-paid jobs just to afford food and rent to spend time searching for the best internet browser. People cannot make rational choices when they’re exhausted and afraid.
Buy the paper version, cut off the papers with a paper knife, and scan to PDF, with text layer. Takes half an hour for 300 pages, a book I’d read several hours. I paid for ownership, I’ll own it. Legal in many countries, research the legal situation of your country of residence.
Depending on the country, you may be in the same legal status if you just buy a physical copy and then download a copy of the same edition. (Caveat - I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice.)
Google won a case on appeal in 2015 concerning their book scanning and digitization project. The result of that case, in the US at least, is that you are protected in scanning a book you own for fair use and other legal purposes and can even give a copy to a friend (for purposes of education and other fair use) but if you mass distribute that copy then you may run afoul of copyright law.
Very interesting. I prefer to actually own the books I buy, so I always remove DRM from the ebooks which I purchase. And Amazon is trying its best to make the process as difficult as possible. At least using Calibre, it can be done only on older kindle pc versions.
Have noticed this lately, and it absolutely sucks. I’m not a pirate, I just want to be able to purchase books (like I used to physically) and read them at my convenience offline or on any device I like. I’ve been sticking with services where I can do this currently or avoided purchasing those books when I can’t.
We could certainly use legislation that prevents companies from calling it a buy/sell transaction when in reality it’s a license transaction. Purchases can’t be revoked or altered after the fact.
Subscription services allow companies to show higher valuations to their investors. Everything is shifting that way because our shareholder system demands it.
I happen to rarely read recently published books, so I paid for an ebook a single time. In a series of eight books, each of them had an appendix saying “this file was formatted on purpose for torrenting. The estimated cost of producing the book is roughly 5.27$. If you liked it here’s my bank account and my website if you’d like to buy the book on paper”.
My main issue with ebooks is not being able to sell them. I prefer them to physical books when reading, but once I’m done with a book, i don’t think I’ll ever read it again so I’d rather sell it to recoup the cost.
I agree. A digital file is written to disk yet has no second hand value because of the nature of replication. Your books have value after you’ve read them because it’s not easily replicated and has more value beyond its basic consumption. It can be collected, displayed, traded, burned… It has all sorts of intrinsic value beyond the words on the page.
It’s as if the printing of the media to a physical device in the end provides you a solid copy but not the rights to the work contained inside of it. You’re not allowed to modify and distribute those works as that violates copyright.
I feel like the individual ownership of physical media actually protected copyright and now in the digital era, the lack of ownership is subverting its own purpose. We as a people never understood or acknowledged the implicit agreement that came with the acquisition of our books and DVDs. We ignore all the legal messaging and even made fun of it. We laughed when we realized “How could they ever enforce this?!” And so we didn’t care.
Now here we are, learning in real time how it will be enforced.
Apologies but the subject is unknown to me. The logo and branding is beautiful however.
