New York Times reports that Audiobook publishers are dumping DRM.
It’s about time too and I think this move will be good for the entire audiobook industry and as I’m in the business myself albeit as a minnow compared with Penguin books I’m pleased by this news.
DRM does nothing to stop piracy it just pisses off those consumers who have legally purchased audiobooks, music or whatever other digital media who wish to use that media in some way not sanctioned by the publisher. All it takes is one individual with the smarts to crack the DRM and the file becomes available to everyone that has installed a bittorrent client and can perform a simple search on Google.
If you stop treating your customers like criminals then they will be happier purchasing from you in the future and any increase in piracy is likely to be negligible and will in the end have cost you far fewer sales than the increase due to having dumped DRM.
