Since Y’all Asked . . .

Ralf asked me in another topic about my policy on DRM. I don’t actually have one, because I don’t produce software, so what I’ve got amounts to mere observations.

I’m for whoever owns the work releasing it with whatever conditions he wants. People can accept or reject it on that basis. If he says, “You can only read it once, and it’s gone,” as William Gibson did for one of his stories, then that’s fine.

In the case of my own works, my print publishers buy electronic rights along with everything else, and if they choose not to use them, or to use them with restrictions, then that’s all right by me. They paid for that privilege. I bought a new car this year with the money they paid me. That’s groovy.

What I object to is adding malware to the package. Protecting your rights is one thing: infecting other folks’ computers with programs that spy on them, or which slows their computer, or can’t be removed even after the game/file/whatever is uninstalled, is not just wrong, but illegal. I own my computer no less than I own my copyrights: I can’t afford to let anyone interfere with either.

(And by the way, putting your work on a Read-Only machine is just dumb. When the machine and/or format becomes obsolete, as inevitably it will be, your work will be as inaccessible as if it were written in Linear A.)

“But,” I hear some say, “information wants to be free.” Maybe your useless information is worth nothing, but mine costs money.

Some writers have done well by releasing all their work on a free, non-DRM basis. I’ve done that with some works, and so far as I can see, it has not made a difference. People have to know who I am before they look for my stuff to find out whether it’s free or not, and most people don’t know me from Adam.

I have yet to hear a single person come up to me and tell me, “I read that story online, and now I’ve gone out and bought everything you’ve ever written.” Or even one thing I’ve ever written.

Giving away stuff for free is fine, but you have to be famous first before that will help your career. Cory Doctorow isn’t famous because he gives his work away: giving his stuff away works for him because he was already famous.

So that’s my policy, such as it is. And, like all my policies, it is subject to change.

If you think otherwise, feel free to change my mind.