Fictionwise, Digital Rights Management

[nemorathwald]

I've been a loyal customer of Fictionwise for years, and am a big promoter of the science fiction short stories they sell as e-books. The short stories have no copy protection, but the novels are sold in secure formats such as Secure Palm Reader. I've always been leery of digital rights management, but hearing Karl Schroeder at last year's (2004) ConFusion describe his novel Permanence was what first tempted me to venture slowly into them. I found it ironic that this was a book about digital rights management being encoded with nanotags and micropayment radio frequencies into all the physical property in the society. For instance, if you stop paying royalties for the door on your house, the door stops opening for you. This has just happened to me with my secure e-books, and I do not plan to purchase secure digital formats in the foreseeable future. For that matter, I'm incapable of doing so now that I don't have credit cards. DRM apparently doesn't care for the business of those who pay on Fictionwise only with micropayments sent through Paypal.

At ConFusion I asked Robert Sawyer when he would be putting more work on Fictionwise, and he said he had just recently done so. I went home and bought several of his short stories (which are not DRM, they work just fine) and a Secure Palm Reader e-book, Hominids. Years ago I entered a credit card with Fictionwise, but I lost all my credit cards last year during my layoff. I only use Paypal online. When I downloaded Hominids and went to read it, the secure software on my Palm asked me for that old credit card number as copyright protection. I discovered that the old secure e-books such as Permanence are now asking me for it too because they're on a new device. But I cut up that old card and no longer have the number. I tried switching credit cards on my Fictionwise account but they submitted it to the credit card company-- despite the fact that I've already paid for my books-- and of course it was declined. I have no valid credit cards to use.

I own these books. I have paid for them. I am not willing to go out and buy a paper copy of Hominids now that I've already paid for it and can never read the one I paid for. I'm pissed. I don't know how it must feel to be an author. I don't blame them and I'm not in their shoes. But I know how it feels to be in my situation, and it's wrong, wrong, wrong. Cory Doctorow is a smart self-marketer-- he has positioned himself as the champion of my consumer rights. I'll go out and buy another paper copy of his free books (Eastern Standard Tribe, this time) tonight on my way to the M.O.F.O. meeting, just to reward Cory for pioneering with his own intellectual property. Lots of people write about the future-- Cory is creating it. I can't wait to meet him at Penguicon this year. Download his TOTALLY free Hugo-winning, Nebula-pre-nominated e-books and read them! Try before you buy!

Comments

[aiela.livejournal.com]

I have that entire Robert Sawyer trilogy, so if you'd like to borrow them, just give me a holler.

I do think that's terribly, terribly unfair that the situation is so screwed up, though.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Maybe you could loan one or more of them to me on Friday?

[aiela.livejournal.com]

Sure - I've got two in hardback and one in paperback - I think the first one is paperback. I can bring them Friday, if I ever decide on a restaurant. :P

Viral Marketing.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

By the way, any SF authors reading this, look at this thing that's happening right now, between Aeila and me. This phenomena, in which she gives me a copy of her book without me paying the author, is one of the important ways that authors get fans. It's also sometimes known as libraries for crying out loud. Fans spread word of mouth. Word of mouth gets more fans. Fans seek out more from the author and give her or him money, but not until (this is the key) after they are already a fan. How many people go to a bookstore and pay to read an author who they have never read and who no trusted friend with similar tastes has recommended to them? Last night at the bookstore, browsing the SF&F titles, I sure didn't want to. Cory realizes this, and so do the authors in the Baen Free Library, which is why they release their paper-published books in free electronic formats. It's viral marketing. The reason I will overcome my umbrage about my wasted e-copy of Hominids and read Aeila's copy on dead trees, is that Robert Sawyer published the first section of the book as a free e-book on Fictionwise, and I respect and admire that.

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

I do not plan to purchase secure digital formats in the foreseeable future.


You know how Permenance ends, right? :)

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

I can't remember, and I can't look it up in the copy that I rightfully own.

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

The Rights Economy were the villains, and their civilization collapsed when the rebels hacked their protocols.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Like I said, quite ironic.

Customer support?

[monado.livejournal.com]

Do get in touch with Customer Support at Fictionwise and explain the situation to them. They should be able to send you a new digital license for the fiction or to authorize a new download that will play on your current device.