I'm just now noting month-old comments from Authors Guild president Scott Turow citing the "pirating" of eBooks as a large problem.
Two points.
1) I wonder how he has quantified this. I mean, what's the methodology? Given the extent to which all the major players load their editions up with DRM, I'm skeptical of the risk.
2) More importantly, however, I wonder how much of a detriment piracy actually is. Are we even correct in viewing piracy as something we actually want to avoid? There's evidence that piracy (in my view: free word-of-mouth) grows reputations and thus fuels legitimate sales.
So, the question: Do we need DRM? The Grateful Dead used to create a dedicated space at their concerts for people who wanted to record bootlegs of the band playing live. They encouraged the exercise and, in effect, gave away their work (their "content") for free. In turn, the band's reputation/fanbase grew exponentially.
As regards books, per Michael Shatzkin, there's little evidence file-sharing reduces sales. Shatzkin points to science fiction writer Cory Doctorow who "does the best he can to give away as much of his content as possible." The result? Doctorow's sales continue to boom.
I am reminded of a statement in "The Economy of Ideas," that seminal 1994 essay by Grateful Dead lyricist, EFF co-founder, Berkman Center Fellow, and (now) New Street Communications Editorial Advisory Board member John Perry Barlow: "The increasing difficulty of enforcing existing copyright and patent laws is already placing in peril the ultimate source of intellectual property - the free exchange of ideas ... unbounded intellectual property is very different from physical property and can no longer be protected as though these differences did not exist. ... if we continue to assume that value is based on scarcity, as it is with regard to physical objects, we will create laws that are precisely contrary to the nature of information, which may, in many cases, increase in value with distribution."
Here is Barlow making the same point - click the center "play" button:
