Random House Germany to replace hard DRM with digital watermarks

Random House Germany (Verlagsgruppe Random House) has announced it will switch from ‘hard’ DRM to ‘soft’ DRM, also known as digital watermarking, as of 1 October, reports the Bookseller. Random House Germany CEO Frank Sambeth says the transition is part of ‘an ever-widening industry consensus’ in Germany, as it follows similar moves from publishers including Holtzbrinck, Verlagsgruppe Bonnier, Bastei Lübbe, Hoffmann und Campe and dtv. In a statement, Random House Germany said soft DRM, which involves employing a traceable watermark on each sale or loan that can include the terms and purchase details, offers ‘reasonable protection against misuse’. ‘We want to promote interest in digital reading further, and make it as simple as possible for readers to read ebooks,’ said the publisher. As previously reported by Books+Publishing, HarperCollins US began using digital watermarking technology for its ebooks in September 2014 to increase security, but did so in addition to hard DRM.

Category: International news