My eBooks Are DRM-Free

No, this isn't referring to some kind of adult-oriented content. DRM stands for "digital rights management". It's used to protect ebooks and other forms of software from being copied and redistributed. The idea is to prevent them from being pirated. (I'll say more about online "piracy" in another blog.)

Unfortunately, DRM goes beyond that. Once you download an ebook into a particular reader, you can only ever read that book on that reader. If you buy a new reader, you cannot transfer the book to the new reader, because the DRM interprets that as copying. It's a perfect example of smart software being incredibly dumb, though moronic might be a better word. DRM is smart enough to know when a file is being transferred from one device to another, but it's too stupid to understand that you aren't giving it to someone else but just placing it in a new library.

It would be as if your printed books refuse to go with you when you move into a new house.

In many ways, DRM is a solution looking for a problem. In my opinion, online piracy simply isn't the problem people claim it to be; certainly not to the extent that we should treat our own customers like criminals and penalize them for buying our product.

I mean, think about it. We ask people to buy our ebooks, then we restrict how, where, and when they can read them. On top of that, we put in statements threatening them with criminal or civil prosecution if they so much as copy it for a friend to read.

Does that make sense? We don't do that for paper books. True, even with a photocopier or a scanner and a computer, it would normally be too time consuming and expensive to make a copy that way, but people do do it. Besides, technically it's illegal for someone to resell a book, or even just give it away, but you don't hear frantic voices screaming for some way to protect authors from that.

Besides which, it's a solution that doesn't really work. DRMs can be hacked, so their ebooks can still be copied.

I would prefer to trust my readers. I offer my ebooks through as many retailers as I can manage, even providing links on my official website and my subsidiary author sites. I render them into as many different formats as I can manage, so they can be read on as many different types of readers as possible. I put in a reminder to support my work and the retailers who sell the books. And I don't prevent them from copying it if they so wish.

Taking a lesson from John McAfee, my ebooks are like apples, and if some of them get "stolen", I'll just grow more.

I didn't always think this way. Back in 2004 I tried to start a small print-on-demand publishing company that also offered ebooks of each title. I turned out PDF files burned onto CDs that were DRM protected. I even included the standard "copy this and we'll throw yer ass in jail, you @#$%^& scofflaw!" statement. My only excuse, other than ignorance, was that I was still under the delusion that traditional print publication, augmented by digital versions for nerds, was the only legitimate way to go, and traditionalists fear and loath the idea of losing control over how their books are distributed and used.

Whether my knew attitude is truly enlightened or just as delusional, only time will tell, but I am committed to this course of action.

For more information, see these articles:

Should Publishers Abolish DRM and Trust Customers Instead?

Protect eBooks Or Trust Customers To Do The Right Thing?

Readers, Authors and Librarians Against DRM