DRM Free ebooks from Tor UK

[Crusader]

As of today, Tor UK, Pan Macmillan’s science fiction and fantasy imprint, has made its ebooks DRM-free and available to purchase from the Tor UK Ebookstore. In a move announced earlier this year, Tor UK has joined sister company Tor Books in New York in removing Digital Rights Management from all its titles so that once you purchase a Tor UK book, you can download it as many times as you like, on as many ereaders as you like.

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Seems it's only limited to people in the UK and finding out how to buy the books from their own site is somewhat confusing.

[simond]

Some Tor books on Kobo are DRM free already.

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by simond

Some Tor books on Kobo are DRM free already.

Yes, all their ebooks will be DRM free from wherever you buy them. This was just the first sign of a shop actually run by the publishers, although calling it a 'shop' is a stretch.

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Seems it's only limited to people in the UK and finding out how to buy the books from their own site is somewhat confusing.

I got an email on 7th June from Tor.com announcing this so it's NOT UK only...

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by elcreative

I got an email on 7th June from Tor.com announcing this so it's NOT UK only...

TOR/Forge and TOR UK are different imprints. After TOR/Forge decided to go DRM-free TOR UK decided to do so too. So both TOR/Forge and TOR UK will have DRM-free ebooks at other retailers. TOR/Forge are working on their own ebook store which should go live at the end of the US Summer.

This latest announcement is related to TOR UK opening a 'store' of their own (at least making it available from their site). From what I can gather these ebooks will only be on sale directly from the publisher to those in the UK. Of course the ebooks will be available at other retailers as well (I'm assuming that's after the regional rights have been sorted).

So it's kinda like Amazon UK only selling to UK, and Amazon.com selling to other areas.

I'm guessing once the main Tor.com store is online they'll be offering both TOR/Forge and TOR UK ebooks, hopefully to all regions.

[elcreative]

They may be different imprints but they are the same damn company so TOR DRM free books are not limited to the UK - that's what I meant and that's what I said... and of course Tor UK is for the UK otherwise it wouldn't be Tor UK...

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by elcreative

They may be different imprints but they are the same damn company so TOR DRM free books are not limited to the UK - that's what I meant and that's what I said... and of course Tor UK is for the UK otherwise it wouldn't be Tor UK...

Yeah, you'd think that, but in their eyes they are 'different' from each other. It's a bit of a mess trying to figure out how these things work.

[garygibsonsf]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Yeah, you'd think that, but in their eyes they are 'different' from each other. It's a bit of a mess trying to figure out how these things work.

That kind of thing isn't so unusual. I worked very briefly for Borders UK at the turn of the century, and they were a distinct entity, in certain business terms, from Borders US. Similarly, Amazon UK and Amazon US are, I believe (or at least this was certainly the case) technically different business entities. Perhaps it's a case of one business 'leasing' their model to backers in other countries. Borders UK, for instance, was launched in collaboration with some other London-based bookshop chain whose name I forget.

Those of you in the UK may also be interested to know that Tor UK is running a competition over the next few days to win every one of their ebooks - 160 in all, on USB sticks. Details on their website.

I'll be updating my 'signature' to include the DRM-free aspect.

[DrNefario]

They are pretty distinct, in that they don't publish the same books. There are a lot of books published by Tor in the US that are published by someone else in the UK. For example, Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson is published by Gollancz here. I don't know if the reverse is true, that Tor UK publish anything that wasn't first published by Tor in the US.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by elcreative

They may be different imprints but they are the same damn company so TOR DRM free books are not limited to the UK - that's what I meant and that's what I said... and of course Tor UK is for the UK otherwise it wouldn't be Tor UK...

They could fall victim, though, to the common situation where an author sells rights to TOR in the UK, and a different publisher in the US, hence TOR UK couldn't sell to non-UK customers. That's an extremely common situation, and by far the most common cause of the much-hated geographical restrictions.

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by garygibsonsf

That kind of thing isn't so unusual. I worked very briefly for Borders UK at the turn of the century, and they were a distinct entity, in certain business terms, from Borders US. Similarly, Amazon UK and Amazon US are, I believe (or at least this was certainly the case) technically different business entities. Perhaps it's a case of one business 'leasing' their model to backers in other countries. Borders UK, for instance, was launched in collaboration with some other London-based bookshop chain whose name I forget.

It might not be unusual, but it sure makes things confusing for readers to figure out who has rights to what territory. Common sense would dictate that since it's the same company the books should be available everywhere they have a footprint, but as pointed out, that varies based on author rights etc.

Over here in SA we ostensibly fall in the same block as the UK, with releases coming out a month later, but it doesn't seem as if we'll be able to buy directly from the Tor UK site.