talkmagic.co.uk

by **MiKo** » Jan 19th, '12, 14:41

Dear magicians/authors,

you are mostly a wonderful bunch of people and I've learned so many things since I'm around this forum, with much pain for my bank account (although I am still able to contain my cups restricting my compulsive buyings to books and dvds...).

But I have from time to time encountered some very good material with some kind of copy protection or DRM of the sort (PDF with passwords or more exotic stuff).
This invariably causes me some kind of trouble, because DRMs tend to work worse on my Mac and because I often want to read the material (which I always pay for) on my Kindle, since when I go back home from work I tend to keep my monitor switched off.

So I beg you: stop using DRMs.
First of all, they don't work: most of them can be easily circumvented by someone sufficiently determined, the ones that might work probably are too expensive.
Secondly they can really hurt (and usually do) the experience of your legit paying customers.

Will you, please?

MiKo

by **Rob** » Jan 19th, '12, 16:41

Dear magicians/authors,

Can I do whole-heartedly second this motion; I was lucky enough to receive a lovely new kindle for Christmas, and are rapidly emptying my entire book case and converting loads of stuff to PDF to use on it.

Only last week, I was dismayed to note that magicscene magazine PDFS are DRM protected. I would happily have taken out a download subscription, but with DRM restricting the purchases to my laptop -a medium I hate reading on - they've lost a customer.

As far as I'm concerned, I'll be reading all future purchases on my kindle; if you can't provide the format enabling me to do that, I won't be buying from you -simple as that!

by **Mancunian Lee** » Jan 19th, '12, 17:24

It gets my goat too, had to stop buying from certain places because its a nightmare when you want to read them. Ive now resorted to removing the passwords, found an online app that does it but its still more hassle than you need.

Amazon, iTunes etc all sold more products when they got rid of DRM. Please learn from their mistakes.

by **The4thCircle** » Jan 20th, '12, 00:45

My ebook reader saves passwords so it's not so bad.

What gets my goat is that these things are all released format locked to PDF! If they had some kind of re-flowable text (like an ePub) I'd be able to increase the text size without messing up the formatting or setting my reader to a sort of pan & scan zoom mode...

I want to invent a trick just so I can sell it in ePub format, buy it, and enjoy reading it!!

-Stacy

by **DavMac** » Jan 22nd, '12, 09:20

magicrob,

I got a kindle for Christmas too but I am able to read magicseen on it. I'll have a look at what I did and pm you later.

Mac

by **Rob** » Jan 22nd, '12, 10:19

DavMac wrote:magicrob,

I got a kindle for Christmas too but I am able to read magicseen on it. I'll have a look at what I did and pm you later.

Mac

That'd be brilliant - thanks Mac

by **DavMac** » Jan 22nd, '12, 10:34

The4thCircle wrote:What gets my goat is that these things are all released format locked to PDF! If they had some kind of re-flowable text (like an ePub) I'd be able to increase the text size without messing up the formatting or setting my reader to a sort of pan & scan zoom mode...

I completely agree, it would be so much easier if creators used a format that was more compatible with ebook readers.

by **magicofthemind** » Jan 22nd, '12, 11:42

I have a Sony Reader, which does handle pdf reflow, but pdfs vary enormously in their compatibility - some work quite well but others come out most oddly. Epub is a much better format.

You can convert from one format to another using Calibre or other free programs but pdfs don't usually convert well. There's also a Calibre add-on to remove DRM but I haven't tried it - the installation process sounds very messy.

Barry

by **MiKo** » Jan 22nd, '12, 11:45

magicofthemind wrote:I have a Sony Reader, which does handle pdf reflow, but pdfs vary enormously in their compatibility - some work quite well but others come out most oddly. Epub is a much better format.

You can convert from one format to another using Calibre or other free programs but pdfs don't usually convert well. There's also a Calibre add-on to remove DRM but I haven't tried it - the installation process sounds very messy.

Barry

That's the point: DRMs can usually be removed if you are determined enough and as such are basically useless in that they just cause hassle to legitimate customers.