What is eBook DRM and Why Do Publishers Need it?

eBook DRM in simple words is the copyright protection enabled to protect a file making it accessible only to the one who purchases it.

Every time someone downloads an eBook and shares it with others, the copyright owner of the book loses revenue because instead of buying the physical book, people are actually sharing it for free.

The very nature of the internet makes file sharing easy and monitoring piracy virtually impossible.

Also Read: Secured Cloud eBook Distribution

Therefore, there was an urgent need to find an alternate route to protecting the copyright of digital content. eBook DRM, or Digital Rights Management, thus, came into being.

Digital rights management uses technology to protect the copyright of the content. Basically, with DRM, control of the digital content passes from the content owner to a computer program.

A company may take several routes to DRM. For example, they can block the forwarding of sensitive emails on their servers. Digital publishers can restrict access to the copying and printing of their content.

Also Read: Using DRM to Securely Distribute Textbooks Online

Table of Contents

I. Top 6 Advantages of eBook DRM

1. eBook DRM Adds an Extra Layer of Protection
2. eBook DRM Saves on the Marketing Costs
3. eBook DRM Increases ROI
4. eBook DRM Helps Maintain IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) Control
5. eBook DRM Prevents IPR Theft
6. eBook DRM Ensures Regulatory Compliance

II. How to Create a DRM-protected eBook?

III. Conclusion

For digital publishers, the main benefit of DRM is that it adds an extra layer of protection to their eBooks and other copyrighted content.

The Internet offers both risks and rewards to digital publishers. First, publishers gain from reduced costs of publishing. It is relatively simple to publish an interactive eBook, and once published, you can make any number of copies you want at no additional, or minimal, overhead costs.

As a digital publisher, you can also take advantage of low-cost online sales and marketing initiatives, and thereby, save on the marketing cost.

On the flip side, peer-to-peer sharing sites open up avenues for free sharing of copyrighted material, and thus, if your content gets shared on these sites, you will lose revenue.

However, if your eBook is DRM-protected, you can stop this piracy, and, consequently, revenue loss.

Know More: Ensure Secure Distribution of Digital Books with DRM

As mentioned above, the Internet makes it possible to publish eBooks at minimal costs and then further achieve savings through no print run costs. Besides, there is value to be unlocked through instant delivery worldwide with zero delivery charges.

All this value achieved can be lost if your content is not copyright protected. With DRM protected eBooks you can significantly increase your ROI by ensuring you get paid for your intellectual property rather than losing it.

Also Read: The advantages of DRM for eBooks & publishing industries

Control not only who views your content but what they do with it. With DRM, you can define a lifecycle by setting an expiry date. Once this date is reached, the buyer of your eBook would no longer be able to view the content.

By implementing DRM on your published work, you can prevent theft of your IPR, either deliberately or otherwise. Besides, you can also monitor who has actually viewed your documents and if they have tried to pass on their authorization to others, and who these other people are.

Know More: Leveraging Digital Publishing Platforms with DRM for Secure Content Distribution

As a digital publisher, you require best practices to ensure that your content is strongly encrypted and comes with user’s license so that no unauthorized person has access to it.

Your business may involve dealing with a lot of people outside your company network, which means that you would need to provide authorized access to confidential information to such people.

The responsibility of maintaining this confidentiality is solely yours. To ensure confidentiality of data, you would need to comply with several regulations, for example, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) which aims to ensure secure control of business information.

By implementing DRM protection, you can store sensitive information such as personal data and distribute it to the right people without any loss of control.

Here is a step-by-step guide to create a DRM-protected interactive eBook from a PDF file:

Step 1

Shortlist the digital publishing platform to use to publish your eBook. Ensure that it provides DRM encryption to secure your eBook against piracy with your choice of industry standard.

Step 2

Choose between the fixed layout or re-flowable format of content. A fixed layout is an exact rendition of a printed page, and in reflowable format, the content is fluid and fits the size of the screen.

Step 3 

Create the master layout and add the tentative number of pages.

Step 4

Create the artwork for layout, design, animations, interactions, etc. There are several online resources that allow free download of audio/video files, animations etc. However, there are several sites that sell high-quality, unique photos for a price.

Step 5 

First add the static images and text, and then proceed to placeholders for animations, interactions, simulations, and audio/videos.

Step 6

You can use the ePub3 software to add videos, animations and multimedia features to the eBook. The other option is to create 6 animations in the HTML5 format.

Step 7

You can also use ePub3 to create simulations and interactive elements to the eBook. The software also enables you to publish your courses in the HTML5 format, which can be embedded in the eBook.

Also Read: In more detail about the DRM Protection eBook

To survive and thrive in the digital world, it’s not enough to publish digital content – you also need to secure it with DRM protection. By collaborating with the right technology partner, you can ensure that your content is safe in the form of DRM-protected secure eBooks and it reaches the right audience at the right time.

Contact our expert team now and get started!

To know more, please write to us at KITABOO@hurix.com.

Read More About: eBook DRM and secured digital publishing.

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