Netgalley is a company that specializes in providing early access to books that have yet to be released. Publishers provide them with ARC e-books and audiobooks in exchange for reviews that can be used for marketing purposes. For a long time, Netgalley used Adobe Digital Editions as a form of Digital Rights Management (DRM). However, they just announced that they no longer use it and switched to LCPL protection.
As part of ongoing security efforts, NetGalley has also adjusted the “Download” Reading Option, replacing the older Adobe DRM with EDRLab’s Readium Licensed Content Protection (LCP). NetGalley files have been protected with LCP in the NetGalley Shelf app since it was launched in 2020, but with this upgrade, NetGalley members can now download and read files on any LCP-supported device or app.
“We’re committed to making books easily and securely accessible to NetGalley members. However, they like to read,” said Firebrand Technologies and NetGalley, LLC Chief Technology Officer Tom Shawver. “This major upgrade expands our Reading Options to allow for a seamless in-browser reading experience while strengthening our partnership with EDRLab to offer portable, Readium LCP-protected downloads. We’re thrilled to pull from our extensive experience to create a simple and convenient reading platform for our community and a first-of-its-kind content protection solution for our publishers.”
One of LCP’s shortcomings is that it is incompatible with Kobo e-readers, so users can no longer load e-books. Kobo CEO Michael Tamblyn said, “They decided to sunset Adobe DRM in favor of LCP (an excellent open standard). We don’t have support for it yet. Working on it, but it’s backed up behind some other big projects.”
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.
