Early this week, Tor Books, a subsidiary of Tom Doherty Associates and the world's leading publisher of science fiction, gave an update on how its decision to do away with Digital Rights Management (DRM) schemes has impacted the company. Long story short: it hasn't, really.
Tor announced last April that it would only retail e-books in DRM-free formats because its customers are “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."
This week, Julie Crisp, editorial director at Tor UK, wrote that the publisher has seen “no discernible increase in piracy on any of our titles, despite them being DRM-free for nearly a year.”
Tor's 2012 decision was largely applauded by its customers, who enjoyed being able to share e-book files among various devices. Tor's authors are happy too. “All of our authors including bestsellers such as Peter F. Hamilton and China Miéville were incredibly supportive when we asked them to consider removing DRM from their titles,” Crisp wrote. “All of them [signed] up without hesitation to a scheme which would allow their readers greater freedom with their novels.”
Not everyone was on board with Tor's decision, however. In August 2012, a leaked letter from Hachette UK to a number of authors suggested that Tor's DRM-free e-books strategy would “make it difficult for the rights granted to us [Hachette] to be properly protected.” The letter urged authors to push pack against Tor's DRM-free policy.
This reaction was more of a flash in the pan, and Tor says it will continue to publish e-books 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,” Crisp wrote.
It's unclear whether Tor's success will sway other e-book publishers toward offering DRM-free titles. As Forbes contributor Suw Charman-Anderson points out, Tor has a unique customer base. Their readers are more engaged with authors than readers of other genres are. Still, one common argument is that DRM can be easily removed with a little know-how, so blocking a reader from sharing a book across multiple devices ends up being an inconvenience rather than a deterrent.
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