Baen No Longer Alone

In light of Tor Books’ announcement that it is getting rid of digital rights management (DRM) in July, the folks at Baen Books have followed-up by announcing their entire line of ebooks will also be DRM-free – just exactly as it has been ever since the late 1990s. 

Baen publisher Toni Weisskopf commented:

We expect this strategy to be a winning formula for Tor as it has been for more than a decade for Baen. We heartily welcome Tor/Forge to the DRM-free fold.

Baen Books founder Jim Baen, who died in 2006, was known to be a passionate advocate of ebooks without DRM, according to Baen editor Tony Daniel: 

We have mugs and hats from years ago still around the office with our on-going ebook slogan written on them: “Alone in the Fight Against Encryption.”

Baen Books currently offers well 1,500 DRM-free titles at Baenebooks.com, and almost every title is available in all current file formats and many legacy formats as well, including Mobi, Kindle, Palm, EPUB, Nook, Stanza, Sony LRF, Rocketbook , RTF, MS Reader, and HTML Online versions.

The full press release follows the jump.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Baen Books Welcomes Tor/Forge to the DRM-free Ebook Fold

Science Fiction Publisher Baen Book’s Long-time eBook Formula Finds Emulators

Riverdale, New York—Baen Books welcomes the decision by Tor/Forge Books to release the imprint’s ebooks without digital rights management, which is the formula with which Baen has sold all of its ebook titles since the late 1990s. 

“We expect this strategy to be a winning formula for Tor as it has been for more than a decade for Baen,” said Baen publisher Toni Weisskopf.  “We heartily welcome Tor/Forge to the DRM-free fold.”

Baen Books founder Jim Baen, who died in 2006, was known to be a passionate advocate of ebooks without DRM, according to Baen editor Tony Daniel.  “We have mugs and hats from years ago still around the office with our on-going ebook slogan written on them: ‘Alone in the Fight Against Encryption,'” Daniel said.

Baen Books currently offers well 1,500 DRM-free titles at Baenebooks.com, and almost every title is available in all current file formats and many legacy formats as well, including Mobi, Kindle, Palm, EPUB, Nook, Stanza, Sony LRF, Rocketbook , RTF, MS Reader, and HTML Online versions.

Weisskopf emphasized that Baen’s innovative ebook policy goes a step farther than mere anti-encryption, in that the company offers a popular discount subscription plan, as well as over a hundred of its popular backlist ebook titles for free as part of the Baen Free Library at its ebook site, Baenebooks.com.

For more information contact:

Tony Daniel at: 1-800-ITS-BAEN or [email protected]

Laura Haywood-Cory

Associate Editor

Baen Books