5 ms·

Of course, they put your name & other info on every page of the PDF generated for you. That probably works as a general "shaming" mechanism, such that most folk

by cpr 16y ago

Of course, they put your name & other info on every page of the PDF generated for you. That probably works as a general "shaming" mechanism, such that most folks won't share indiscriminately.

zosi 16y ago
O'Reilly doesn't seem to do that, unless it's embedded in the PDF in a way which doesn't show up in simple viewers. Pragmatic Bookshelf, Manning and Packt (out of the e-books I have handy for quick checking) do put your name/address on the bottom of every page to discourage piracy. Edit: Specifics for each publisher, for anyone who's curious: Manning - Name and email address on each page Pragmatic Bookshelf - Name on each page Packt - Name, physical address and purchase date on each page
- cpr 16y ago
  My pre-release copy of Javascript: The Definitive Reference (perhaps because it's pre-release) does have personalization on every page. The other (regular, relased) books from ORA don't.
  - knshaum 16y ago
    Downloads from O'Reilly's Safari Bookshelf, at least those in PDF format, have the account holder's name at the bottom of each page. If that's changed, it must have happened recently.
generalk 16y ago
Which is the right way to discourage large-scale piracy. If I put my copy of an O'Reilly ebook online for anyone to grab, it's obvious the copy floating around is mine and I'm a jerk. But I can still give a copy of the PDF to a few friends and encourage them to buy a copy if they like it. And, there's absolutely no way this is going to somehow bone me in the future. The authentication server isn't going to go down, it's not going to mistakenly think I lent out my "last copy" or lock me out of my purchase because I don't have internet access.
- pmjordan 16y ago
  I wonder if there's any legal precedent for a friend being the jerk in a scenario like this. "Friend" uploads ebook/music track/magazine I bought and "lent" him/her to file sharing site or whatever. It's my name in there, so I'm going to be the one who's going to be sued.
  - kragen 16y ago
    Yes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Caridi#Piracy_incident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Caridi#Piracy_incident
    - Entlin 16y ago
      In other words, giving your book to somebody in good faith but the person then pirates it will cost you $300'000 (or at least it did in this case with Caridi and DVD screeners). In other words, you better not share, unless you've got a lot of money laying around...
    - pmjordan 16y ago
      Interesting. Pre-release screener copies, which you're presumably not even allowed to show friends, would seem like a different kettle of fish than files which are publicly available for purchase.
- michael_dorfman 16y ago
  Sure there's a way this could somehow bone you in the future-- if one of those "friends" you loan the copy to decides to put it online for everyone to grab, everyone thinks you seeded it, and suddenly, you're a jerk.
  - khafra 16y ago
    The jerkiness of your friends is transitive in many other contexts as well, so I don't think this is a problem with this technique in particular.
pmjordan 16y ago
The digital versions of the German c't magazine (archives and iPad version) have similar visible and possibly some invisible watermarking features. Music downloaded from iTunes has your name in the Metadata. Personally, I'm fine with this, but then I was never going to offer the files on Bittorrent or whatever. I don't think you could have any serious moral qualms with this kind of soft DRM. I certainly do share music with my girlfriend, which presumably is considered piracy by the RIAA, etc., along with ripping the CDs I bought before DRM-free music was widely available.
adulau 16y ago
Maybe there is a misunderstanding in the services proposed by O'Reilley Media. On their eBooks offer (available via their main website - oreilly.com), They don't put your name or any other info on the purchased eBooks. There are no DRMs and you can get the books in many format. That's the services mentioned in the Forbes article. The "Safari Books Online" is another services with many DRM-like techniques but this was a previous services where O'Reilley Media is member along with other book editors. I used it in the past but that was a pain to use it. I suppose O'Reilly now focus on the first service only as this is the one generating revenue without DRMs or watermarking techniques or additional limitations. I buy much more from their non-DRM offer (it's convenient, low-cost and many formats are available).

by cpr 16y ago

Of course, they put your name & other info on every page of the PDF generated for you. That probably works as a general "shaming" mechanism, such that most folks won't share indiscriminately.

zosi 16y ago

O'Reilly doesn't seem to do that, unless it's embedded in the PDF in a way which doesn't show up in simple viewers. Pragmatic Bookshelf, Manning and Packt (out of the e-books I have handy for quick checking) do put your name/address on the bottom of every page to discourage piracy. Edit: Specifics for each publisher, for anyone who's curious: Manning - Name and email address on each page Pragmatic Bookshelf - Name on each page Packt - Name, physical address and purchase date on each page

cpr 16y ago
My pre-release copy of Javascript: The Definitive Reference (perhaps because it's pre-release) does have personalization on every page. The other (regular, relased) books from ORA don't.
- knshaum 16y ago
  Downloads from O'Reilly's Safari Bookshelf, at least those in PDF format, have the account holder's name at the bottom of each page. If that's changed, it must have happened recently.

generalk 16y ago

Which is the right way to discourage large-scale piracy. If I put my copy of an O'Reilly ebook online for anyone to grab, it's obvious the copy floating around is mine and I'm a jerk. But I can still give a copy of the PDF to a few friends and encourage them to buy a copy if they like it. And, there's absolutely no way this is going to somehow bone me in the future. The authentication server isn't going to go down, it's not going to mistakenly think I lent out my "last copy" or lock me out of my purchase because I don't have internet access.

pmjordan 16y ago
I wonder if there's any legal precedent for a friend being the jerk in a scenario like this. "Friend" uploads ebook/music track/magazine I bought and "lent" him/her to file sharing site or whatever. It's my name in there, so I'm going to be the one who's going to be sued.
- kragen 16y ago
  Yes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Caridi#Piracy_incident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Caridi#Piracy_incident
  - Entlin 16y ago
    In other words, giving your book to somebody in good faith but the person then pirates it will cost you $300'000 (or at least it did in this case with Caridi and DVD screeners). In other words, you better not share, unless you've got a lot of money laying around...
  - pmjordan 16y ago
    Interesting. Pre-release screener copies, which you're presumably not even allowed to show friends, would seem like a different kettle of fish than files which are publicly available for purchase.
michael_dorfman 16y ago
Sure there's a way this could somehow bone you in the future-- if one of those "friends" you loan the copy to decides to put it online for everyone to grab, everyone thinks you seeded it, and suddenly, you're a jerk.
- khafra 16y ago
  The jerkiness of your friends is transitive in many other contexts as well, so I don't think this is a problem with this technique in particular.

pmjordan 16y ago

The digital versions of the German c't magazine (archives and iPad version) have similar visible and possibly some invisible watermarking features. Music downloaded from iTunes has your name in the Metadata. Personally, I'm fine with this, but then I was never going to offer the files on Bittorrent or whatever. I don't think you could have any serious moral qualms with this kind of soft DRM. I certainly do share music with my girlfriend, which presumably is considered piracy by the RIAA, etc., along with ripping the CDs I bought before DRM-free music was widely available.

adulau 16y ago

Maybe there is a misunderstanding in the services proposed by O'Reilley Media. On their eBooks offer (available via their main website - oreilly.com), They don't put your name or any other info on the purchased eBooks. There are no DRMs and you can get the books in many format. That's the services mentioned in the Forbes article. The "Safari Books Online" is another services with many DRM-like techniques but this was a previous services where O'Reilley Media is member along with other book editors. I used it in the past but that was a pain to use it. I suppose O'Reilly now focus on the first service only as this is the one generating revenue without DRMs or watermarking techniques or additional limitations. I buy much more from their non-DRM offer (it's convenient, low-cost and many formats are available).