Doctorow’s Law
April 25, 2009 – 8:47 am by Thomas GideonI just watched the video of Cory Doctorow’s talk on eBooks and DRM from the O’Reilly Tools of Change conference. In it, he expressed the desire to have Doctorow’s Law, if ever a thing is coined, to be that if anyone puts DRM, locks, on your works, as a creative, they are not doing so in your best interests. Pretty obvious to consumers and advocates of open media. It is nice to have a shorthand for this idea, though, and I wholeheartedly endorse this coinage.
The rest of his talk does an excellent job of explaining how Audible has turned the tables on publishers. DRM started as a condition required by publishers before they would enter into electronic distribution in many cases. Now, though, Audible is enforcing DRM even in cases where authors and publishers wish to release digital audio editions without locks.
As usual, Cory makes his point with eloquence, charm, and plenty of examples. This talk is well worth a watch.
