Largest Dutch Publisher Adopts DRM-Free eBooks with Digital Watermarks

As The Bookseller reports, the largest Dutch publisher, De Arbeiderspers, has decided to sell all eBooks in the future without hard DRM protection. The only exceptions are the titles distributed through Apple’s iBooks sales platform.

All others will enjoy DRM-free eBooks, although they will not be entirely unprotected. Instead of the previous hard DRM, digital watermarks will now be used. These are unique markers in the file code that can be assigned to a specific download and user. Should the eBook illegally find its way onto various file-sharing platforms or the like, the file can be traced back to its original license holder.

The first large-scale distribution of eBooks protected by watermarks was done by Pottermore. The Harry Potter eBooks also do not have DRM protection.

Like hard DRM via Adobe ID, these watermarks can of course also be removed, which means that for the illegal distribution of eBooks, it ultimately makes no difference which method is used. However, this is intended at least to ensure that private customers do not share eBooks with friends as easily and carelessly as might be the case with no protection at all.

In any case, the use of digital watermarks improves the handling of eBooks, as there is no longer a reliance on an Adobe ID, and reading programs that do not support DRM can possibly be used. With 1,200 eBooks, the Dutch publisher also has a large offering of titles, with plans to expand its backlist offering in 2013.

One can only hope that other publishers will follow this example and soon leave hard DRM protection behind.