If publishers drop digital rights management controls on eBooks, will piracy increase? One prominent publishing example saw “no discernible increase in piracy.”
Macmillan’s Tor imprint dropped its DRM over one year ago, and Tor UK editorial director Julie Crisp wrote an essay looking back at the imprint’s progress since then. The article included commentary from authors and this key passage:
Protecting our author’s intellectual copyright will always be of a key concern to us and we have very stringent anti-piracy controls in place. But DRM-protected titles are still subject to piracy, and we believe a great majority of readers are just as against piracy as publishers are, understanding that piracy impacts on an author’s ability to earn an income from their creative work. As it is, we’ve seen no discernible increase in piracy on any of our titles, despite them being DRM-free for nearly a year.