Quote:
Originally Posted by ATDrake
Well, as the person who originally told the OP that DRM-free was what "Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited" in the Product Details meant, I'd hate to have been spreading incorrect info.
Now, I did notice that a lot of them seemed to list "Public Domain Books" as the publisher, so it's possible that this is simply because any public domain books may be automatically DRM-free, or it's just a single-publisher quirk.
Similarly, all the books noted by the authors responding in this thread as being DRM-free also have SDU:U on their product pages, whereas the publisher promo freebies I picked up yesterday again omit the info entirely and very definitely can't be transferred between K4Mac installs and still be readable.
So it seems that Amazon is using the Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited tag for distinguishing *something* in an ebook, and I don't think it's solely a self-pub versus non-self-pub issue, since this guy who's very definitely self-pubbed has no such SDU info on his book here.
Conversely, a random spot check of the Kindle titles listed under the "drmfree" tag on Amazon, again shows that the Product Details have "Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited" showing, at least on the part of the obvious indie author offerings and the O'Reilly computer books.
Probably the fastest way to find out what Amazon really means by putting this note in the Product Details of some books but omitting it from the vast majority of others is to email them and ask.
But thus far, the ones I did try were completely DRM-free and I certainly hope this holds true for anyone else who possibly went and got stuff on the strength of it.
Maybe some people who've gotten non-PD Kindle books with that particular distinction can confirm/deny if it holds true for their copies. |
It's my understanding the SDU does mean DRM free as well. There is a check box for authors uploading -- choose DRM or not-- and it is a ONE TIME choice. Once applied, we can't go "republish" and have it taken off. It says so right next to the option.
You can't tell whether an author is self-published or a backlist author or in some cases a small publisher uploading books. Amazon has different platforms for loading books. It's my understanding that they do some of the actual uploading for the large publishers and/or have special platforms for them.
Authors under contract with large publishers don't have much say in DRM or no--except possibly those with enough selling power to make a stink. Possibly worse, many authors don't know what DRM is, nor do they care.
They're writing to a contract and trying to get a book out.
If the self-published are ones you want to avoid, you'll have to do more sleuthing to find out whether they are backlist authors (many of whom are uploading the out-of-print books or having it done for them) or self-published or small published, etc.
Me, I'm a sample person. I don't care who wrote it, when or where, I'll just give it a few pages and go from there.
Maria