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By Stephen Windwalker

windwalker1-thumb For those of us — readers, authors, and publishers included — who hope to make DRM-free ebooks the standard not only on the Amazon Kindle on other devices as well, there has been plenty of good news lately. The Teleread blog is well-positioned to be the hub of the effort, and its founder, blogger-novelist David Rothman, is advancing the effort each and every day. We are all key participants here, and we have been joined by DefectivebyDesign.org, authors Cory Doctorow and Steve Jordan, and others.

Sentiment is also swinging our way in a wider public. In an online survey of ebook enthusiasts conducted by my Kindle Nation email newsletter over the past couple of weeks, over 80% of the respondents with views on the DRM issue believe that DRM restrictions on Kindle store content have got to go: 413 identified with the statement that “I believe that it is important for Amazon to remove Digital Rights Management (DRM) from titles in the Kindle Store,”while only 92 selected “I believe that it is important for Amazon to maintain Digital Rights Management (DRM) for titles in the Kindle Store.”

Over 600 others expressed no view on the issue, and a significant number of these added comments to the effect that they needed more of an understanding of DRM and its implications, so it is clear that there is much work to be done to educate readers, authors, and publishers on the issues. But at a bare minimum, the survey indicates that Ian Freed, Amazon’s vice-president for Kindle, may need to revise his comment to NPR’s Laura Sydell last month that “[w]e’ve had very few if any customer responses that the choice we made with DRM was a problem.”

But that’s not all. As TeleRead Editor Paul Biba reported earlier today, leading publisher O’Reilly Media has made DRM-free editions of 160 of its titles available in the Kindle Store with a very strong accompanying statement on DRM: “We strongly believe DRM (Digital Rights Management) encryption adds unwelcome cost and complexity to any digital system, frustrates legitimate customers who respect copyright and want to pay for their content, and is demonstrably ineffective at preventing unauthorized copying — much of it done by people who either (a.) wouldn’t otherwise pay, or (b.) resort to piracy when there’s no legitimate sales channel. Other publishers are free to make their own decisions on DRM, but Kindle’s compulsory DRM was inconsistent with our views on digital distribution.”

Each new day shakes loose pebbles near the top of the mountain. I’ve been corresponding this week with bestselling suspense writer J.A. Konrath, author of a terrific series of mysteries about the exploits of Chicago P.D. detective Lt. Jacqueline ‘Jack’ Daniels. Not only is Konrath one of my favorite authors, but he is also a guy I deeply respect because he is willing and able to think creatively about what’s really going on in the world of books these days.

“Not only do ebooks cost too much, DRM is a disgrace, for a myriad of reasons, and the “text to speech” feature is not something the publishing world should be concerned about. No one in the publishing industry seems to have learned anything from the collapse of the music industry,” Joe said in email messages to me this week.

Konrath may be hamstrung by his publisher — at least temporarily — when it comes to releasing DRM-free Kindle editions of the novels that he has published with Hyperion at the price points he may choose. But he has shown a willingness to back up his sentiments right where it matters to readers:

“I just made eight of books available on the Kindle for a bit more than a dollar each. In the Kindle store search for ‘Konrath’ and ‘Haknort’ to find my new titles.

“I did this because I’d gotten over a dozen emails from people saying how hard it was to convert the free pdfs on my website to something that looked nice on Kindle. They were right–the conversion was a huge pain in the butt.

“Amazon won’t let me, or anyone else, post ebooks for free. So I charged a very small amount, and have already been rewarded with appearing on a few Kindle bestseller lists, even though the books’ descriptions aren’t live yet.

“Build it, and they will come.”

Here are links to some of these titles:

Origin

Suckers

Shot of Tequila

The List

I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do, and that you will tag them as “drmfree” and “kindle” if you visit their pages. (The “kindle” tag will make it easier to distinguish DRM-free ebooks from music, software, and other content at Amazon).

One book, one author, one publisher, one online mega-retailer at a time, sooner or later, we’re going to be looking at a DRM-free world.

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About Stephen: He’s been writing about Amazon’s strategic innovations since his niche bestseller on online bookselling in 2002, and his latest Kindle guide, for the Kindle for iPhone app, is entitled No Kindle Required. Stephen is also publisher of the free weekly Kindle Nation email newsletter.

 
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