This is kind of a big deal: Macmillan becomes the first of the Big Six publishers to have one of its imprints reject the restrictive e-book licensing agreement known as DRM, or digital rights management.
The science fiction imprint Tor/ Forge Books announced that “by early July 2012, [its] entire list of e-books will be available DRM-free,” according to a company press release. That means you will be able to transfer Tor titles from the Kindle to the Nook to the Kobo or any other e-book reader with impunity – which is precisely what DRM controls prevent.
Said Tor/Forge chief Tom Doherty, “Our authors and readers have been asking for this for a long time. They’re a technically sophisticated bunch, and DRM is a constant annoyance to them. It prevents them from using legitimately-purchased e-books in perfectly legal ways, like moving them from one kind of e-reader to another.”
Why does this matter? First of all, freedom for consumers is almost always good. With e-readers now often costing less than $100, it is simply unrealistic to expect consumers to be tethered to a single device: It might be a Sony Reader one year, a Kobo the next. So part of the move is surely a recognition of the fluidity of the market.
And, besides, pirating books is no more difficult than pirating movies – I would imagine it’s easier, since no images are usually involved. So DRM is not terribly effective, in addition to serving as a hindrance to customers.
But there is a more subtle strategy at work here, I suspect, one that seeks to undermine the dominance of Amazon in the e-book market, which arises at least in part because the Kindle is the most popular e-reader around. And with DRM, anyone who has a Kindle would simply keep buying new versions of the device if she wanted to maintain her library of titles.
By allowing e-readers to move content across devices, Macmillan CEO John Sargent (who, as Paid Content points out, had to have approved this move) seems to be signalling to readers that they do not have to be tethered to Amazon and its devices any more.
This makes sense considering that Sargent and his publishing company have been the most vocal of the Big Six publishers in pushing back against what it considers to be Amazon’s artificially low e-book prices, which (or so the allegation goes) the online retail giant uses to lure people to buy the Kindle. DRM has unwittingly served as a useful tool for Amazon. Notes Mathew Ingram of GigaOm, “If the publishers dislike the power Amazon has over them, they need to recognize they shoulder much of the blame, since they helped to forge the DRM chains that have kept them shackled to the company’s platform.”
Nor would this be Macmillan’s first swing at Amazon. Back in 2010, Macmillan and Amazon battled over e-book pricing, with Amazon eventually caving to Macmillan’s demands for higher prices. (Above: Jeff Bezos of Amazon / Photo by Andrew Harrer, Bloomberg News)
Today, Macmillan (along with Penguin) is one of two publishers refusing to settle a Department of Justice lawsuit that alleges that five publishers colluded with Apple against Amazon in e-book pricing. Sargent has been unapologetic regarding his association with Apple, saying that it was necessary “to support an open and competitive market for the future.”
So as it heads to federal court, Macmillan seems to also be battling Amazon on the licensing front, trying to wean readers off its devices.
Macmillan already has a rare win against Amazon; we will see if it wins again.
