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Old-Fashioned DRM Protects Harry Potter Book
RMX writes "The Telegraph has a nice article
about the steps that Scholastic is taking to
protect the content of the print version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. They're delivering 10.8 million copies and need to ensure that this content isn't accessable by anyone before midnight. Technology includes high-tech (GPS to monitor delivery trucks progress and check that they did not deviate or stop.), low-tech (steel boxes & locks), social engineering notes (crates stacked up in the warehouses of delivery companies across America are marked: Please Do Not Open Before Midnight), and legal threats (As a final layer of security, booksellers have been forced to sign legal forms acknowledging that if they break the embargo, they will never again be supplied with a book by Scholastic). Think how much cheaper and easier it would be if they just used an E-book s with DRM.
I'm all for Harry Potter protecting his rights; but it seems we keep getting closer and closer to the world described in
Stallman's visionary The Right To Read article."
Anyway, DRM based on a "do not read before" timestamp would be hard to effect. It would require that any reader be set with an unhackable internal clock that knows the time zone the reader is in, otherwise people could circumvent the "do not read before" settings rather handily.
I think the argument here is a bit difficult to support.
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
The original manuscript would be worth well more than any gold. An exclusive dozen of the books available today, 7 days before the release would also be worth more than it's weight in gold, I imagine. Let's see, say a hardcover versions weights two pounds, thats, what, $15,000 or so worth of gold? I am sure you could sell one for more than that right now, today.
This is also the reason many home video arms of the studios have "street dates" for video releases. Right after college, I temped in various studios in Los Angeles. One interesting job was calling up video stores that had "broken street" (started selling or renting a video before the authorized date), getting the manager on the phone, and then transferring them to a mid-level Disney exec, who would reduce them to jello.
What was interesting, though, was the water cooler talk. If Costco or Walmart broke street, they didn't get the intimidating phone call. While the little guys couldn't afford to lose Disney, Disney couldn't afford to lose Costco and Walmart.
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
Or you can wait until November when it's available in print. The trick is that the download is an "Advance Readers Copy", which they say is unproofed and may change before final publication.
Translation: Buy this one because you can't wait, and then buy the "release" downloadable version in August, and then buy the hardback in November.
At least on the site they admit up front they're taking advantage of you. But either "pre-release" or "strict release", the idea is to drum up interest and business.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
I can't recall ever having known the street date for any book I have ever bought, or even cared about it for that matter. I most certainly have never seen any book other than the Harry Potter series have a street date be the subject of the general press, let alone any form of "security" whatsoever.
Books generally don't recieve this kind of attention, because there isn't that much marketing associated with them. However, you have probably known the street date for movies or music you've bought (assuming you buy these things) even if you didn't realize it. Street dates for movies are well advertised, especially big releases. And that "this item won't be released until" notice you see on Amazon.com is also letting you know the street date. The only reason you are seeing this with Harry Potter is because of the large popularity of the book...the concept is nothing new. Walk into a Barnes and Noble and look around...you'll see signs posted announcing the street dates of various upcoming books. The only reason it doesn't make news is because nobody cares...they aren't as popular as Harry Potter.
The publishers did not create the frenzy on this on, sorry to say. The customers did. And they are only enforcing their release dates this strictly because the more popular the item, the more likely the street date will be broken.
This whole schmegegy has little to nothing to do with fair competition, but a whole lot to do with marketing, drumming up the fervor of the torch and pitchfork bearing mob that makes it appear the security measures are necessary in the first place.
I can say it is very much about fair competition. Think of it this way...do you think that Harry Potter would sell that many less copies if a few stores sold it a day or two early? I don't. So it does NOT affect the publisher. But by enforcing a release date they can protect themselves against accusations of favoring one chain of bookstores over another, for instance, because they got their copies first and it gives that bookstore an unfair advantage.
You may or may not have ever worked in retail, so this might seem like it's a new thing to you. I was once manager of a Blockbuster Video (evil bastards that they are). We would sometimes get movies as much as a week before their release date. But our agreement with distributors forbade us from displaying them until the official release date. Not only did we honor that, but at random we would actually send employees to other stores to make sure that nobody else broke street date either.
Again, street dates and the strict enforcement of them are nothing new. The advertisement of them is nothing new either. Walk into any video store (and even many bookstores, as mentioned) and you'll see posted the dates of upcoming releases. The only reason this is news at all is because of the gigantic popularity of the Harry Potter book that's coming out. And that buzz was _not_ created by the publisher for the release of this book...it was created by the widespread popularity of the previous books. The Harry Potter books are as popular as many blockbuster movies, and they are being treated as such. I personally find it uplifting to see a book getting this kind of treatement; I had long since gave up and figured that most people in the US were just illiterate.
Reasonable but not true unfortunitly. Laydown dates are not restricted to best selling titles. Last Tuesday we had 11 laydowns alone, among the list was heavy hitters like the new woodward book but also you'll find a couple of crappy romance novels.
Do you really think publishers are worried about the plight of the little book store? if you do then I have some land to sell you. A laydown date ensures a smooth launch. Could you imainge the chaos if for example poter was released by book stores as it came in? A shipment comes in to one barnes and noble but not another, it'd be chaos and people would just give up and wait.
By your argument, why don't movie theaters just start playing movies the day the reel comes in (which is typically a couple of days before it airs) or why movies (dvds, etc) and games are released on specific days?
Be better in bed. Wikiafterdark!
Do you really think the big pulishers give a shit about the small bookstores? Hint, they don't.
It's all about revenue. By having a well publicised street date, they create a false scarcity and a sort of frenzy in the consumers (not the readers -- the consumers, the people with the money). The consumers know they can't get it until whatever date, and when that date comes, they jump on it and pay their 30 bucks for the hardcover. Without the artifical frenzy of the street date, they might not buy the hardcove the day it comes out. They might not buy it at all. They might go for the trade or - god forbid - the mass market paperback. Worst of all, they might borrow it from a friend! Imagine that, all that enjoyment without paying Big Media a dime. It's criminal! Don't even get me started on libraries. Little pinko Bolshevik communes, every one.
Protexting the small bookstores might be a nice thing for the publishers to talk about -- it makes the proles feels fuzzy inside -- but if it wasn't for the fact that they can make twice as much at Barnes & Noble by having a big, hyped midnight release like Revenge of the Atttack of the Phanton Clones, they wouldn't be doing it. Fuck the small retailers. If doing a big release meant twice as much BN revenue and the smaller bookstores had to sell their children to stay in business, they'd still do it.
It's not about small bookstores. I doubt JK's publishers gave them a second thought. It's revenue. And it's not revenue from Fran's Book Barn, either.
Stupid like a fox!
1. receive truck load of harry potter books
2. sign legal document declaring they will never give me any more books if i break the contract
3. start massive advertising (pre-planed) campaign: Internet, tv, driving a van around with a poster and megaphone all within minutes of getting the book in stock
4. offer the books to the absolute highest bidders, take advantage of rich kids, yank the prices up as high as they can possibly go.
5. Call up scholastic say: "If you want me to stop selling these books I will sell you my remaining stock.. for a fee, and even give you a list of people I sold them to."
6. Proffit
This isn't real DRM, and it certainly isn't to stop piracy, this is just their hype machine and if you play it right you can make some serious profit off it and probably quite legally except for that pesky civil court.
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