Tom Doherty Associates, publishers of Tor, Forge, Orb, Starscape, and Tor Teen, today announced that by early July 2012, their entire list of e-books will be available DRM-free.
“Our authors and readers have been asking for this for a long time,” said president and publisher Tom Doherty. “They’re a technically sophisticated bunch, and DRM is a constant annoyance to them. It prevents them from using legitimately-purchased e-books in perfectly legal ways, like moving them from one kind of e-reader to another.”
DRM-free titles from Tom Doherty Associates will be available from the same range of retailers that currently sell their e-books. In addition, the company expects to begin selling titles through retailers that sell only DRM-free books.
As someone who reads books on various readers of different formats, I find this is a huge plus and a much appreciated convenience. I understand that DRM was conceived as a means to stop online piracy- but it seems to me that it hasn't been a huge deterrent as people will outsmart the technology fairly quickly.
John Scalzi has already weighed in with his thoughts on the issue (very reasonable IMHO) and I look forward to seeing what everyone else has to say.
5 comments:
This is huge - kudos to Tor for leading the charge.
I usually buy my ebooks wherever they're cheapest, which means I often need to do some DRM workarounds to get them onto my Sony. This is great news.
YAY, I hate drm, sure I get why it's good, but a pirate can fix that quickly. Instead think about poor little I who can't put drm protected books if I wanted when I live far far away. So thanks TOR
"Meanwhile, the people who do spend money to support me and my writing have been penalized for playing by the rules." I can't agree with him more. It worked for Amazon music. It'll work for eBooks.
Whoa, that's interesting. I wonder how much effect that will have industry wide.
There's been a pretty good buzz about it (mostly positive) so I'd be surprised if other publishers don't follow suit. As far as the larger impact- I have no clue. I think it's one step in the many that will be needed to adjust to new technology.
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