Tor to Drop E-Book DRM

Tor Books president and publisher Tom Doherty has announced the company will stop selling e-books encrypted with digital rights management (DRM) software starting this July. This change encompasses the Tor, Forge, Orb, Starscape, and Tor Teen lines.

Doherty wrote, “Our authors and readers have been asking for this for a long time… They’re a technically sophisticated bunch, and DRM is a constant annoyance to them. It prevents them from using legitimately-purchased e-books in perfectly legal ways, like moving them from one kind of e-reader to another.”

Tor titles are expected to remain available from current e-book retailers, and to become available from retailers who exclusively sell DRM-free e-books.

While several prominent genre publishers — including Baen and Night Shade Books — already sell DRM-free e-books, Tor is the first imprint of a “Big Six” trade publisher to embrace DRM-free digital publishing. Tor is the largest publisher of SF/fantasy in the world.