Well, it’s that time of decade again. Someone in Congress has finally—or, rather, once again—taken note of how the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions step all over consumer rights and introduced legislation to try to balance the scales. Ars Technica reports that three Democrats and a Republican, including California rep Zoe Lofgren, have introduced the Unlocking Technology Act of 2013. This act would rewrite the anti-circumvention provision to make DRM-breaking illegal only if it’s done in order to “facilitate the infringement of a copyright.” Non-infringing uses, such as ripping DVDs, unlocking cell phones, and so on, would presumably be allowed....

Honestly, I hadn't even heard about this until I woke up this morning and checked my phone, but apparently today—that's Friday, May 3, 2013—is something of a holiday in the digital publishing community. It's the fifth annual International Day Against DRM. Huh. The organization behind the holiday—which in reality is more of an awareness-raising movement—is known as Defective by Design. As the DBD website explains, "We are a participatory and grassroots campaign exposing DRM-encumbered devices and media for what they really are: Defective by Design. We are working together to eliminate DRM as a threat to innovation in media, the privacy of...

Piracy is the dirty word that companies like to throw around when it comes to digital rights management, or DRM. Many publishers and even retailers use DRM in an effort to avoid having their books stolen on the Internet. One year ago, Tor, a sci-fi and fantasy imprint of Macmillan, dropped DRM from all its books. Besides receiving positive reactions from authors and readers, something else occurred that just might break the hearts of other retailers and publishers. “We’ve seen no discernible increase in piracy on any of our titles, despite them being DRM-free for nearly a year,” UK editorial director Julie...

I am four months into my DRM-free year, and so far have spent just a fraction of my usual book budget. In my highest year—the year agency pricing came out, and I binged in preparation—I spent $1,300, for an average of $108 per month. This year, I am down to less than $20 per month, and most of it spent on a handful of Kindle Deals of the Day, and the odd indie read. So, where has my book spending—and my reading time—gone in April? My one book purchase this month was a study guide for a course I'm taking. That...

For this third month of my DRM-free year, the big event was Read an E-Book Week. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed with the offerings. Most authors seemed to simply re-list whatever they had last year—some of these books didn't interest me then or now, and others I had already explored. A few others had impressed me in previous years and then had nothing new on offer. I have downloaded fewer and fewer books in each successive Read an E-Book Week year... Thank goodness for the message boards! A MobileRead poster alerted me to a publishing company called Bev...

Yesterday morning, we brought to your attention a rather unusual situation that had been taking place in the WH Smith e-retail store: Kobo e-books that were meant to be DRM-free had been listed on the WH Smith site as having digital rights management software added. Even books that had been authored by Cory Doctorow, perhaps the most vocal opponent of DRM today, were listed as having DRM installed. After contacting both Kobo and WH Smith and requesting statements about the situation from both, we heard from Kobo's Toronto-based media relations manager, René d'Entremont. And while his message wasn't exactly the picture of clarity,...

Could there possibly be a modern author better known for his extremely anti-DRM stance than Cory Doctorow? Certainly not many, at any rate. But Kobo owners visiting the WH Smith e-retail store and attempting to buy Doctorow's books would be forgiven for thinking otherwise: They've all been saddled with digital rights management. (Scroll down for the incriminating screen shot.) The Bangkok-based author Simon Royle brought this truly odd turn of events to our attention this morning; if you happen to be a regular reading of the KBoards, you may have already seen the thread Royle created just after 7 a.m. this morning. "I was happy...

DRM opponents should be sending love letters to the Japanese Digital Comics Association. As of March 26th, its “streaming manga” website JManga (which I covered here before) will stop selling new manga—and as of the end of May, manga already purchased will become unavailable to view. And there is no way to download and back up manga files that have been purchased from this site—they can only be read online. At the end of May, loyal customers can kiss goodbye all the money they have ever spent at the site. Unused purchase points will be refunded as Amazon gift cards, but...

For anyone who is still not convinced that DRM, as a concept, is a terrible idea, the recent Sim City debacle illustrates why. The short version is, software publisher EA so feared ‘piracy’ of the latest Sim City incarnation that they crippled the game to require a live Internet connection (to its authentication servers) at all times—not just on startup, but during play too. They dressed up the requirement in a sort of social play feature, which, to be fair, did add some cool features to the game. But there was no solo player mode. You had to play in the ‘social’...

The story of Joanna Cabot's DRM-free year continues with the dispatch below, from FEB 2013. JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC It's been a busy month for me, work-wise, so I haven't had that much reading time—I logged just five books this month, which is pathetic. But this doesn't reflect my daily reading. I have a few longer-term books I'm reading (a book of daily essays, some reference books) which should bump my total when they're done, but that won't be for some time. I...

Well here's a terrible idea. DBW just posted a press release about Edition Guard, which brings Adobe DRM to indie authors and small presses who want to sell books direct from their website. Have we learned nothing in recent years? DRM doesn't stop piracy. It's ridiculously easy to crack. All DRM does is punish non-tech savvy readers who don't know how to seek out the tools to get rid of it. Even if DRM worked, Adobe DRM is a terrible platform. It only allows activation on six devices. So what happens when you purchase your seventh device? You have to contact Adobe...

At the end of 2012, I made a pledge to limit my e-book spending to only DRM-free e-books this year. I made this pledge for a number of reasons, the primary two being that firstly, since the whole rise/fall of agency pricing debacle, the books I want to read seem to be unreasonably expensive, and secondly, these very expensive books since to have an increasing quantity of typos and quality control issues, which makes the high price especially galling. I still am allowing myself to borrow books with DRM—I use my public library regularly, and feel that the function of DRM...