DRM-less Books Really Do Sell More

I’ve seen the theory around for years. In particular, it has been argued about movies and music. However, in the past couple of years I have seen more and more of an argument from people on making digital books unencumbered. The fear was that if books were not tied to the purchaser, then the book would be stolen, pirated. Well, it looks like the guys at O’Reilly decided to give it a try. Turns out, they sold more — A LOT MORE. Who cares if it is pirated if sales go up as a result. Interesting case study.

It’s been 18 months since O’Reilly, the world’s largest publisher of tech books, stopped using DRM on its ebooks. In the intervening time, O’Reilly’s ebook sales have increased by 104 percent. Now, when you talk about ebooks and DRM, there’s always someone who’ll say, “But what about [textbooks|technical books|RPG manuals]? Their target audience is so wired and online, why wouldn’t they just copy the books without paying? They’ve all got the technical know-how.

link: O’Reilly drops ebook DRM, sees 104% increase in sales Boing Boing