The move has been a hugely positive one for us, it’s helped establish Tor and Tor UK as an imprint that listens to its readers and authors when they approach us with a mutual concern—and for that we’ve gained an amazing amount of support and loyalty from the community. And a year on we’re still pleased that we took this step with the imprint and continue to publish all of Tor UK’s titles DRM-free.
Hey Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple – are you listening?
“Hey Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple – are you listening?”
Hm, not that I would know… But are you sure it is them and not the publishers who demand DRM?
I know I have books on Kindle and iBooks (and I’m sure B&N has them too) that do not have DRM on them. You’re right it is a publisher choice.
I guess it’s possible that a book platform (iBooks, Kindle, Nook) could say they won’t support DRM anymore and that would push all the publishers into it, but who knows if that’s wise and possible.
To echo dreyfus – Amazon ships DRM-free books for Kindle right now.
All the out-of-copyright stuff I’ve got via the Kindle store is DRM-free.
I’m about 99.99% sure that Amazon doesn’t care if there’s DRM in commercial books in the Kindle store… but the publishers do.
(Just like Apple now only sells DRM-free music; I’m sure they’d pressure the publishers to change just like they did Big Music if they thought they had the leverage.
DRM systems are stupid hassle and overhead and annoy customers – retailers don’t want DRM.)
Apple sells DRM-free books, if the publisher wants DRM-free books. I’ve got a couple without DRM.