Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint TOR celebrated one year of abandoning DRM and the company has stated that it has seen no noticeable increase in piracy.
DRM or Digital Rights Management is a form of encryption that retailers and publishing companies employ to protect their works. This often causes confusion for the customers and warrant using bulky programs to copy the eBooks on more then one device.
TOR, a subsidiary of Macmillan, reflect on the last year of going DRM-Free.
“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.”
Readers are the main people who win from the abandoning of DRM. Charles Stross, author of the Merchant Princes series, recently said “I’m happy to see that Tor have gone DRM-free with their eBook editions. DRM doesn’t impede pirates, but it subjects honest customers to a monopoly tightly controlled by the owners of the DRM software, reducing readers’ freedom and hampering competition.”
TOR and Pottermore continue to buckle the trend of curbing piracy, while still not using Digital Rights Management. Hopefully these two companies will act as case study for other digital publishing imprints.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.