March 2, 2008 9:50 AM PST

Publishers phase out piracy protection on audio books

Publishers phase out piracy protection on audio books
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Some of the largest book publishers in the world are stripping away the anticopying software on digital downloads of audio books.
The New York Times

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"DRM is not actually doing anything to prevent piracy"
Hallelujah!!! At last someone in the media industry has recognized what has been obvious to the rest of the world for so long.

DRM does NOT reduce, prevent or inhibit piracy!!

DRM only inconveniences legitimate purchasers of the crippled media.

DRM has no place in any consumer product.
Posted by sismoc (119 comments )
Reply Link Flag
Absolutely right
Agreed 100%, slowly but surely content creators and distributors are waking up to the reality that DRM is only a hindrance to those that actually purchase the content. Those who will pirate it will do so regardless of DRM....
Posted by RobertAPierce (202 comments )
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Baen Books realized that years ago
They have been selling mainstream Sci-Fi in DMRLess eBooks for years now.
Posted by PzkwVIb (463 comments )
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Great news for everyone!
I would like to commend Random House on this decision. I thought audio books would be a great thing 8 years ago when I first heard about audible.com. After spending a bunch of money at their store I realized that my mp3 player was not on their approved list, meaning I would have to sit at my computer the whole time. Furthermore, I would have to use Microsoft's Windows OS and install special software to listen to the books I purchased. Enough pain for me to consider audiobooks dead. I plan on spending money on these new offerings. I hope other retailers realize the people who buy audio books are older and not the same ones who do a lot of pirating. They are, however more likely to throw their hands up and give up if DRM technology is too much of a pain.
Posted by dummy_load (2 comments )
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Security features often frustrate honest buyers
We removed security features from our ebooks a couple of years ago because we realized we were confusing and frustrating our honest customers more than we were preventing crooks from stealing/sharing.

Let's face it. As soon as you come up with a new security feature, somebody is already writing a hack to crack it. If you're trying to trick them, it only makes them more apt to attack you for their own entertainment.

Reward the honest customers by giving them a simple product to use.

Angela Hoy
Booklocker.com
Posted by Angela Hoy (2 comments )
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