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Lulu now selling DRM’ed ebooks
December 28, 2009 | 8:43 am
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By Paul Biba
Actually this is back in November, but I missed it in my listing of starred Google Reader feeds and I think it is still newsworthy. From Defective by Design:
Slashdot reported over the weekend that Lulu, the print-on-demand service founded by Red Hat’s Bob Young that has been an important resource for DRM-free and pro-sharing authors, is now selling DRM-infected ebooks.
Together, we have mostly defeated DRM on music. We now need to achieve the same victory with DRM and ebooks. We need to tell Lulu that DRM’ed ebooks are completely unacceptable. We will not let ebook publishers rob us of our right to share knowledge and ideas. With Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Sony continuing to push ebook DRM, we expect companies like Lulu to stand up for the public’s freedom.
Lulu lets publishers of books and magazines sell physical and digital versions of their books, printed on demand, on lulu.com. The service has been popular with authors and publishers who are dissatisfied with (or excluded by) the conventional publishing industry — the same industry that’s pushing ebook DRM. Defective by Design is assembling a list of authors and publishers who will stop using Lulu’s service (or who already have) due to their use of DRM. In the meantime, please contact Lulu and demand that they stop using DRM.They can be contacted at orders@lulu.com and pr@lulu.com.
Sample text:
Dear Lulu,
When I heard you had started selling DRM-infected ebooks I was stunned. Lulu serves a community of publishers who are dissatisfied with the conventional publishing industry — the people pushing DRM — and are instead looking for a better way.Digital Restrictions Management is a threat to everyone’s basic freedom to share knowledge and ideas. I refuse to use your service until you remove DRM from all of your offerings, and I will be telling friends and others through my social network to do the same.
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Comments:
Seems to me that if LuLu makes it an option rather than a requirement, then authors can make their own choices. If you don’t like DRM, don’t buy it. No reason to punish authors who don’t select DRM but find LuLu useful by boycotting their works.
Rob Preece
Publisher
Some authors are strongly for restricting usage of their books (and feel that it is their right to do so). Lulu can choose to support those authors, or they can turn down business in an attempt to push a reader-centric ideology.
What you fail to mention in the article, and I what I find most interesting, is that the cost of the DRM is pushed onto the author! At an additional $0.99 per item, Lulu takes a 2/3 larger cut out of every additional sale.
I was glancing at the Lulu store and the DRM is optional not required.
It’s not optional for the readers.