Tor/Forge Books Announces DRM-Free E-book Store

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

It occurs to me that after Tor's "Redshirts" release--intended to be DRM-free; DRM still applied at several vendors--publishers who wish to support DRM-free ebooks could release their books to several vendors, announce that they are intended to be DRM-free, and *distribute DRM-stripping software*--because the DMCA kicks in with "(A) to "circumvent a technological measure" means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner" (emphasis added)... if you've got the authority of the copyright owner, DRM removal is legal.

Also, on distribution of same:


Hmm. In the case of Redshirts, the DRM-stripping software is protecting the right of a copyright owner: it's allowing the materials to be copied to alternate devices, as the copyright owner wishes.

It looks like copyright owners are free to say, "If my stuff is DRM'd, I don't want that; please, download this program and remove the DRM."

IANAL. TINLA. Consult someone with a lot more legal authority before trying this argument in court.

1. Tor Books (and my) intent is to sell the Redshirts eBook DRM-free.

2. If you have a Redshirts eBook that has DRM on it, it’s not something that we asked for or want.

3. If for some unfathomable reason your preferred vendor has put DRM on your copy of the Redshirts eBook, I’m just gonna leave this here for you.

4. Feel free to complain to the retailer in question about adding DRM, and point them to this entry as evidence that their DRM is going against my and Tor’s wishes for the eBook.

Now we do have the copyright holder (in this case the author) saying go ahead and strip off the DRM if Redshirts has DRM. In fact, this may very well make the tools legal.

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/06/0...-re-redshirts/

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Joykins

I own the Redshirts Kindle version but I have no idea how to test it for DRM infestation without substantially reconfiguring my Calibre plugins.

John Scalzi mentioned on his blog that Redshirts is DRM free from Amazon.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Tor is only publishing it in the US and Canada. He has a different publisher in the US and no direct publisher in Australia/New Zealand

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/06/0...e-release-faq/

June 15, Scalzi is coming to a store nearby. I'll have to have to move Redshirts as the next eBook to read after I finish Pulchritude.

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

John Scalzi mentioned on his blog that Redshirts is DRM free from Amazon.

Tell that to the tool that told me my Redshirts Kindle file had DRM Macmillan sent me a DRM-free file about 3 minutes after I emailed them with my receipt.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by Joykins

Tell that to the tool that told me my Redshirts Kindle file had DRM Macmillan sent me a DRM-free file about 3 minutes after I emailed them with my receipt.

*Just* ordered and downloaded Redshirts from Amazon. It's now DRM free. Loaded into calibre and "Views" just as nicely as all of my other non-DRM ebooks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

*Just* ordered and downloaded Redshirts from Amazon. It's now DRM free. Loaded into calibre and "Views" just as nicely as all of my other non-DRM ebooks.

But did you check it out prior to loading it into Calibre? Do you have the DeDRM plugins installed?

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But did you check it out prior to loading it into Calibre? Do you have the DeDRM plugins installed?

I dual-boot and only my windows partition has plugin. I live in Linux and no plugin there. So yes, it's DRM free.

[jgaiser]

Speaking of Redshirts. Anybody else seeing wide line spacing in Amazon's version? Downloaded as AWZ3 from my account and calibre viewer shows more spacing than I like. Just tried conversion AWZ3-EPUB-AWZ3 and now it looks alright. I've got it being delivered to my K3 and I'll see what it looks like there later today when I get decent G3 coverage.

[Joykins]

I don't know about wide line spacing, but I had to crank the font size up from my default font size because it loaded smaller than the usual default size. Don't know if all Tor books do that, the last one I think I got in epub.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Speaking of Redshirts. Anybody else seeing wide line spacing in Amazon's version? Downloaded as AWZ3 from my account and calibre viewer shows more spacing than I like. Just tried conversion AWZ3-EPUB-AWZ3 and now it looks alright. I've got it being delivered to my K3 and I'll see what it looks like there later today when I get decent G3 coverage.

KF8 on firmware 5.1 has a larger line height then Mobi does due to a bug in the firmware. 4.1 might have the same bug. With firmware 5.1, you cannot change the line height.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by Joykins

BTW, Redshirts is in and of itself a good read. My review here.

Thnks for the review Joykins.

I'm not a SF reader, but heh - I could go at that one!!

(Well, in November anyway - because that's when it's slated to be released here!)

[Scott Nicholson]

Unless Amazon is free to retail the books at whatever price they like, at which time they undercut Tor/Forge prices and leave only the obstinately loyal and/or Amazon haters as Tor's direct customers.

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by Scott Nicholson

Unless Amazon is free to retail the books at whatever price they like, at which time they undercut Tor/Forge prices and leave only the obstinately loyal and/or Amazon haters as Tor's direct customers.

Or people who want epub's or any other non amazon format.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by Scott Nicholson

Unless Amazon is free to retail the books at whatever price they like, at which time they undercut Tor/Forge prices and leave only the obstinately loyal and/or Amazon haters as Tor's direct customers.

The logic of agency pricing in a nutshell. Macmillan ( parent of Tors.com) is an agency pricer, btw. Tor.com can guarantee the Amazon or any other retailer can't undercut Tor.com, Indeed, Tor.com may be able to gaurantee that it will offer the best price since it can offer a "publisher discount price" , without the 30 per cent commission.
I expect this model to spread to other Macmillan lines , and maybe all publishers, as a matter of business logic.

[crossi]

If the publisher is also a retailer then they are breaking their own agreement with Amazon about all retailers selling at the same price. They can however by selling at the same price that they set for everyone profit more from their own site because they won't be paying a commission to another retailer.