What happens when an ebook is shared illegally? How do you prevent ebook sharing? It’s a difficult crime to track. It is frustrating for the publisher or author. But it is also costly. It is estimated that $300 million a year is lost to ebook piracy. When it comes to solutions to prevent ebook sharing you have two options: Social DRM and Active DRMs. EditionGuard offers both options.
What Is EditionGuard Social DRM?
EditionGuard Social DRM technology provides protection against piracy by embedding visible and/or invisible watermarks into the ebooks you sell. The visible watermark will display the personal information of the buyer, such as: name, email, and phone number. In addition to embedding the visible watermark at the beginning of the ebook, you can add it randomly throughout the ebook to prevent ebook sharing.
Social DRM Pros
The biggest advantage of EditionGuard social DRM is that it is compatible with enarly every reader, including kindle. This means it can be easier to reach a wider reading audience. You don’t need to have a lot of technical proficiency to employ the use of EditionGuard social DRM. Just choose it when you’re uploading your ebooks or managing your titles, and our tool will take care of all the details. The other big advantage of social DRMs is that when your reader buys your book, there is nothing they have to do to be able to access the ebook.
EditionGuard Social DRM Cons
Since EditionGuard Social DRM embeds personal information into the ebook as a deterrent, it only works to prevent the reader from sharing the ebook with a stranger. The result is that those who buy your ebook may feel comfortable sharing the ebook title with a friend or several. Of course, readers do this with print books as well.
What Is EditionGuard Adobe DRM
EditionGuard operates on the Adobe® Content Server (“ACS”). ACS is the industry-proven server software solution that protects PDF, EPUB and MOBI files. It provides enterprise-grade encryption with Adobe DRM to prevent ebook sharing. As an Adobe partner, we work with the technology for more than a decade and have made it convenient for businesses of all sizes to get started easily and affordably with simple integrations and a robust API.
Pros of Selecting EditionGuard Adobe DRM
Adobe DRM is fully customizable: With Adobe DRM’s active protection, your library or business (think corporate training, coaching professionals, etc) can rent books for a certain period of time and cancel access at any time. Since the eBooks require Adobe Digital Editions to be read, you can always have control over who can read your eBooks and for how long.
Cons of Selecting EditionGuard Adobe DRM
The biggest con to Adobe DRM is that there are some ereaders with which it is not compatible. Adobe DRM protected books cannot open on Kindle or iBooks. Which may limit the number of readers you are able to reach. There are also download fees associated with Adobe DRM. Finally, readers must have or create an Adobe ID in order to access the ebooks they purchase.
Even though there are a few drawbacks for some authors and publishers, Adobe DRM is the gold standard. It is the only digital rights management platform trusted by both Google books and Barnes & Noble. Enterprise level security is an advantage if you’re a serious author or publisher, making it the best choice for securing your ebooks.
