Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:33:43 -0400
From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
To: RBoP Yahoo <rbop at yahoogroups.com>,
 WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>,
 WSFA Official List <wsfa-forum at yahoogroups.com>, bsfsgeneral at bsfs.org
Subject: [WSFA] Charlie Strouss' case to MacMillan to drop DRM
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Excerpt:
Last week's blog entry on Amazon's ebook strategy went around the net
like a dose of rotavirus. And, as we can now see from Tor's
ground-breaking announcement I was only just ahead of the curve: people
at executive level inside Macmillan were already asking whether dropping
DRM would be a good move. Last week they asked me to explain, in detail,
just why I thought abandoning DRM on ebooks was a sensible strategy for
a publisher. Turns out my blog entry on Amazon's business strategy
didn't actually explain my full reasoning on DRM, so here it is.

Note that I am not responsible for Macmillan's change of policy. An
internal debate was already in progress; this move was already on the
cards. I caught their attention and was given a chance to offer some
input: that's all. The final decision to drop DRM on ebooks from
Tor/Forge was taken by John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan, who ultimately
has to account for his actions to the shareholders.

Also note that when trying to argue for a strategy, you need to frame it
in terms of the concerns of the people you're addressing. Therefore
what's below the fold is my response to the question of why I thought
abandoning DRM would be good for Macmillan's business, framed to address
the concerns of publishing executives. I thought I'd post it here as an
historical footnote to the end of blanket DRM restrictions in the book
trade, and because it features a line of reasoning about DRM which may
be of interest to other publishers who are, as yet, undecided.
--- end excerpt ---

<http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2012/04/more-on-drm-and-ebooks.html>

         mark