Monthly Archives: April 2012

May 4, 2012 is International Day Against DRM

Posted on by

 May 4th is International Day Against DRM. The day is intended to protest crippling Digital Rights Management solutions which prohibit people from freely accessing and sharing files that they have legally purchased.

While most music files are now available DRM free, it is still a huge problem in the ebook world. Publishers, are, however, beginning to take notice. Tor Books recently announced that their titles are going to be offered DRM free.

There are a number of small presses that offer their titles DRM free. Please leave a comment with the name and website of small presses that offer freely accessible files.

Learn more at http://www.defectivebydesign.org/dayagainstdrm.

DOJ files suit against Apple, Big Five

Posted on by

As has been hinted at for weeks, the Department of Justice has filed a civil suit against Apple and the so-called “Big Five” publishers: Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster.  Random House did not initially sign on to the ageny model, so it is not a part of the U.S. lawsuit. The DOJ has alleged collusion and price-fixing over the agency pricing model. Here’s a link to the DOJ filing. The level of detail in the filing is amazing and very muh at odds with rumors that the DOJ “had no evidence of any wrongdoing.”

According to this article from Bloomberg, Hachette, Simon & Shuster, and Harper Collins are rumored to have settled with the DOJ. The article further states that Penguin intends to fight.

In Macmillan’s response, CEO John Sargent says that they will fight the suit.