Social DRM Requires Transparency On Both Sides
Joe Wikert just wrote a post announcing the new Wrox chapter on demand service. My first reaction to the idea was “Neat. Way to go Wiley.” After a second I wondered “What about DRM?” Joe answers…
My favorite part of this: We’re selling all this e-content without the use of traditional DRM. I say “traditional” because we’re using more of a social DRM solution where we inject the customer’s name in the footer of the PDF. Print it. Use it on however many devices you want to. Just don’t release it into the wild. Is this hack-proof? Of course not, but what is? The key is that we want to make this a very attractive product for our customers and we believe this is the right approach.
Hmmm. This makes me wonder why even bother? A pirate is going to be able to hack this in 30 seconds, so what exactly is the point — to prevent piracy? No. The titles are probably on pirate bay already.
Instead this is the right kind of evolution for book publishing. It is the beginning of a social contract between publishers and readers. Wiley is saying they are ready to enter into a trust relationship with readers. A genius next step for them would be to ask the readers to actively reciprocate — not just passively accept their name inscribed on every page. After all a trust relationship is a give and take kind of thing.
The $4.99 price point is likely too high. If readers responded to that end, and Wiley transparently discussed their pricing structure — that would come closer to a shared power relationship that doesn’t engender contempt of the content provider.
That might be asking too much. But still, the solution shows a sophistication on Joe’s part that I commend. Someone that is not a digital consumer themselves wouldn’t likely have approved this. Bravo.
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