Say no to DRM and Yes to Sharing

here is my comment:

“Let us share. It is tough to get traditional offline readers interested in works if you can not download and print. Everyone I know who is exposed to Gaiman’s works is interested in owning their own copies. Distributing viral copies through file sharing and printing is like giving people the first hit of an addictive drug for free.”

Two weeks ago I blogged about how great it was that Neil Gaiman’s publisher was going to release one of his books for free. I didn’t think it was possible to fuck this up. Great writer, great books, the only result I could imagine was positive for Neil’s popularity and sales….

I was wrong. HarperCollins released American Gods online with terrible DRM with no download options. I voted for American Gods because it is a great book, but it is LONG and not a good choice for online only reading. With the DRM:

You can’t download it.

You can’t read it without an internet connection.

You can’t tag it or link to cool stuff in it.

You can’t cut and paste text.

You can’t send people a chapter to try and get them interested.

If I had known it was going to be online-only I would have voted for a shorter book and not been so excited.

For more on the evils of DRM, see Defective by Design