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by GhostVII 980 days ago
I don't really get how a DRM free library works. Based on the article at least it seems like being DRM-free means people can keep the book as long as they want? What's the difference between that, and just letting anyone download the book for free online?

DRM for books will of course always be easily bypassible - it's just text and images, not exactly hard to copy. But I don't see how a "library" can work without some limit on how long you can be using a piece of content.
2 comments
fooker 980 days ago
Call it a repository if you want to.

Artificially imposing a limitation doesn’t seem like a great thing to do.

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GhostVII 979 days ago
If there is no limitation, why would anyone pay for the ebook though when they can just get it for free from the library indefinitely? I just don't get how this works from the authors side, are they supposed to just give away their book to everyone for free? Or is the idea that the library compensates them enough to cover the costs of them writing the book.
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fooker 979 days ago
The library could have a monthly fee.

The library could charge per download.

There could be be ads, though that seems distasteful.

None of these require making an ebook available for a limited amount of time.

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marcus_holmes 980 days ago
I thought they discussed this in the article?

> While pricing for unlimited-user, DRM-free e-books is higher than the cost of traditional 1-user versions protected by DRM technology, DRM-free materials are also seeing more usage—and so the cost per use is ultimately lower.

I read that as: for some works, the libraries are buying "unlimited-user" licences that basically allows them to give away copies of the book to borrowers (not "borrowers" any more, I guess?).

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