The industry debate over whether or not to remove DRM from ebooks has moved from philosophical and strategic differences of opinion to a potential contract (and territorial) dispute that threatens to strand some authors in the middle. On opposing sides are Little Brown UK–a substantial sci-fi and fantasy publisher through the Orbit imprint–and Tor, which shares some authors with Orbit, and lifted DRM from their entire list of ebooks as of July. Little Brown UK ceo Ursula MacKenzie corresponded recently with at least some agents, reportedly to express concern about the impact of Tor’s new DRM-free policy on LBUK’s publishing […]
