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The publishing division Tom Doherty Associates, the section of Macmillan that releases science fiction and fantasy books through Tor, Forge and others, announced that it will stop selling e-books with Digital Rights Management (DRM) by July of this year.

The DRM system aims to stop users from pirating e-books, but many have complained because the DRM technology stops them from transferring a digital book they鈥檝e legitimately bought from one e-book reader to another, such as from a Kindle to a Nook.

Tom Doherty, founder of Tom Doherty Associates, noted this problem in his statement about the change.

鈥淥ur authors and readers have been asking for this for a long time,鈥� Doherty said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e 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.鈥�

Fellow sci-fi publisher Baen Books has also supported taking DRM off e-books and sells their own electronic titles in multiple formats, setting the titles at costs that are the equivalent of or less than the price of buying the book in paperback form.

Tor author John Scalzi wrote on his blog that he鈥檚 never seen DRM be particularly useful.

鈥淒RM hasn鈥檛 stopped my books from being out there on the dark side of the Internet,鈥� Scalzi . 鈥淢eanwhile, the people who do spend money to support me and my writing have been penalized for playing by the rules鈥�. So the idea that my readers will, after July, 鈥榖uy once, keep anywhere,鈥� makes me happy. 鈥�

Bookseller Magazine editor-in-chief Neill Denny told that he鈥檚 heard opinions for and against DRM software in the publishing industry.

"Some people think that it is an impediment and has been cracked anyway so we don't need it,鈥� Denny said. 鈥淏ut others say that it continues to restrict piracy.鈥�

After the change takes place, Tor titles will also become available at e-book merchants that only stock DRM-free titles.

Molly Driscoll is a Monitor contributor.