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WHSmith Putting DRM In EBooks Without Permission From the Authors

Posted by timothy on from the don't-read-more dept.

sgroyle (author Simon Royle) writes with an excerpt from an article he wrote about discovering that publisher WHSmith has been adding DRM to books without their authors' permission, and against their intent: "DRM had, without my knowledge, been added to my book. I quickly checked my other books; same thing. Then I checked the books of authors who, because of their vocal and public opposition, I know are against DRM – Konrath, Howey, and Doctorow, to name a few – same result. ALL books on WHSmith have DRM in them. Rather than assume WHSmith where at fault, I checked with my distributor, Draft2Digital. They send my books to Kobo, who in turn send my books to WHSmith. D2D assured me the DRM was not being added by them and were distressed to hear that this was the case. Kobo haven't replied to any of the messages in this thread: 'WHSmith putting DRM in books distributed via Kobo'. I'm not holding my breath." Update: 03/22 21:02 GMT by T : Problem resolved. Hanno Liem of the Kobo team wrote with good news that the DRM notices that were appended were done so in error, and since corrected: "The original site has been updated – it was just a bug on our site, and was resolved within a day I think. We're all slashdot readers here at Kobo Operations, and this is kinda painful :p" Thanks, Hanno.

5 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hmmm.... by pokoteng · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's a job for editors, not writers.

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    the game
  2. was it really without their permission? by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm guessing the authors signed some kind of publication contract that authorized WHSmith to make and distribute ebook versions in the first place. Does adding DRM to the ebooks comply with the terms of the contract? Without seeing the contract they signed, I have no real way of knowing what they gave WHSmith permission to do.

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    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    1. Re:was it really without their permission? by stephanruby · · Score: 5, Informative

      His blog has been updated. It was just a mistake.

      Thank you for contacting Kobo Writing Life.
      There is a known error on the WHSmith website that is showing DRM-Free books as DRM ePubs. They’re working on fixing this issue when they update their website in May.
      Even though your books appear as DRM ePub’s, any customers that want to purchase your book from WHSmith are directed to our site to make the purchase. On our site your book is correctly listed as DRM-Free.
      I’m sorry for the inconvenience that this may cause and hope that this has clarified things for you.
      Sincerely,
      The Kobo Team

  3. Due diligence by abigsmurf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Did the author, or the distributors make it clear that they cannot put DRM on the books when supplying to WHSmiths or Kobo?

    Sure WHSmiths may suck for including DRM on all their books but, providing they didn't break any agreements or contract terms, it's frankly the author or the publisher to blame for blindly making their books available to them without checking.

    You can't sell your books to a company that only sells DRM encoded books then act outraged when your books feature DRM.

  4. WHSmith website glitch. It's DRM free by gbesta · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just read through the forum that is linked to on the blog. It appears that it is a glitch on the WHSmith website. Everything is listed as having DRM, even if it doesn't have DRM. When you click the link it goes to Kobo to make the purchase, and the book is listed as DRM free.