Self-publishing site Lulu will stop offering DRM as an option on ebooks created through its site. But ebooks created on Lulu and sold through other retailers, like Amazon and Apple, will still be subject to DRM. Read more »
Startup BookShout lets users import their Kindle and Nook books into its iOS, Android and web-based social reading platform. But the function doesn’t work very well yet, and it seems as if it’s only a matter of time before Barnes & Noble or Amazon shuts it down. Read more »
Remember when Friendster was the hot social network, publishers doubted that ebooks would ever sell, and Netflix thought DVDs in red envelopes was the future? We do — that was that state of digital media when paidContent launched in 2002. Read more »
Microsoft this year joined a growing number of companies that forbid users from filing class action lawsuits. The new policy, however, has failed to stop at least one disgruntled Xbox user. Read more »
This week, the book industry gathered at the ugly, cavernous Javits Center in Manhattan for the largest book trade event in the United States. (“I feel like I’m in Costco,” actress-author Molly Ringwald told the AP.) Here are five digital lessons from the week. Read more »
IPG, the Chicago-based distributor that recently made news due to its battle over terms with Amazon, has announced that it will offer its roughly 400 client publishers the option to publish their books DRM-free. Three months ago, Amazon yanked over 5,000 IPG titles from the Kindle […] Read more »
Macmillan’s science-fiction/fantasy imprint, Tor/Forge, will launch a DRM-free digital bookstore this summer, Macmillan announced at Publishers Launch BEA today. Sci-fi authors Cory Doctorow, John Scalzi and Charlie Stross also spoke out on DRM. Read more »
Pan Macmillan Australia’s digital-only imprint Momentum will remove DRM from all its titles by August, the company announced today. Last month, Macmillan sci-fi/fantasy imprint Tor/Forge announced it will drop DRM by early July. Read more »
Amazon is a “predator,” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo said at paidContent 2012 this afternoon, and he believes that young undiscovered writers are at particular risk. Read more »
With Pottermore.com now using watermarking instead of heavyweight DRM on all the Harry Potter e-books, anti-DRM arguments are growing louder. Now the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) hopes to create an industry standard for “lightweight content protection,” occupying “a middle ground between strong DRM and DRM-free.” Read more »
Macmillan science fiction/fantasy imprint Tor/Forge will sell its e-books DRM-free as of “early July 2012,” the company announced today. Read more »
Calls for big-six publishers to drop DRM have increased in recent weeks, coinciding with the DOJ price-fixing lawsuit. In the meantime, one publishing industry executive tried breaking the DRM on purchased e-books — and isn’t going back. Read more »
Some e-book buyers embrace a little friction, says Joe Esposito at The Scholarly Kitchen. Read more »
Book publishers argue that Amazon is a vicious monopoly that has too much power over them and their content. But they need to realize they gave Amazon much of that power themselves when they agreed to shackle all of their books in DRM chains. Read more at GigaOM »
Last week, the Department of Justice sued Apple and five book publishers for allegedly colluding to set e-book prices. What does the suit mean for readers today and in coming weeks? Read more »
By requiring retailers to encrypt e-books with DRM, big publishers are essentially banning online indie bookstores and increasing their own dependence on the whims of Apple and Amazon. Emily Gould and Ruth Curry of Emily Books look at the problem DRM poses indie booksellers. Read more »
DRM is just “a speedbump,” Hachette’s Maja Thomas said at a copyright conference this afternoon. However, opinion within Hachette is clearly… Read more »
What do To Kill A Mockingbird, A Wrinkle in Time and Little House on the Prairie series have in common, besides being beloved? None of them… Read more »
