dbplogoThey’re nowhere near as big as Tor, but the Bookseller reports that Duncan Baird Publishers, a UK publisher of illustrated mind, body, and spirit and cookery books, has announced it will be removing restrictive digital rights management (DRM) from 150 of its current and 80 future e-book titles in order to provide a better experience for readers. It is not clear from the Bookseller piece what percentage of Duncan Baird’s overall catalog this represents.

Duncan Baird is writing to authors to tell them of its decision, which has met with mixed response. “There are some authors who are obviously scared about digital piracy and we have to prove to our authors that the fact is DRM is a poor deterrent and anyone who wants to can scan in and use it as a PDF file if they want to,” [Duncan Baird marketing director and head of digital Vicky] Hartley said.

“Those authors who are more digital savvy are more understanding. Once we explain we are putting readers first, authors are more persuaded.”

I wonder how many more publishers are going to join the DRM-free party, and how soon? It’s great to see the pebbles starting to tumble. Hopefully the avalanche is soon to follow.

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