Andre Yoskowitz
14 Oct 2009 20:59
Cory Doctorow, the keynote speaker at the O'Reilly Tools of Change (TOC) conference at the Frankfurt Book Fair, had a few choice words for publishers who continue to use DRM on their e-books, calling them "the real pirates," and "bent on the destruction of publishing."
Doctorow is the author of the Boing-Boing blog and long time activist in the industry.
Says Doctorow, via BookSeller.com: "Digital licensing systems currently employed destroy the bond between the readers and the book."
He continued that DRM was a "farcical" way to exploit consumers, adding that "there is no mechanism whereby a retailer of a [print] book can take it away from you," and that a system wherein that exists is "insane."
Doctorow concluded that the "most valuable asset that publishers have" is the knowledge that a book "is passed to kids or has come from your parents".