c|net Australia has just put up an article “Tor Books: piracy not an issue despite lacking ebook DRM” that state what I and others have been preaching for years.
From the article:
“One year after Tor launched its DRM-free store, the publisher has said that there has been “no discernible increase” in piracy.”
On April 25, 2012, Tor Books UK removed DRM from all of their ebooks. According to a blog post by Julie Crisp on the Tor Books site, “We made this decision in conjunction with our sister company in the US, for our shared brand imprint. It was something that we’d been exploring for quite a while and a move that we felt committed to for our particular area.”
DRM is copy protection added to ebooks and other media by publishers and retailers supposedly to prevent piracy. It assumes that the person legitimately buying the media from the retailer is a thief. As a purchaser, I find this kinda insulting; if I was a thief, I wouldn’t be buying the work in the first place. Duh!