Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a term you may come across when publishing an ebook. When you apply DRM to a file, you protect it from Internet piracy.

I’m a strong proponent of applying DRM to all the books you publish online. I urge you to avoid the websites that publish PDF files alone. This is because PDF files are far too easy to duplicate and share. Pretty much anyone can download and attach your PDF file to an email and send it to another person. You can imagine how quickly a file can spread that way.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) of MOBI Ebooks

Amazon (Kindle) uses a file format known as MOBI to publish ebooks online. This is a much safer format to publish your ebook in. It can only be read on certain devices (e.g., Kindle readers). As shown in the image above, you can choose whether to apply DRM to your Kindle MOBI file. Doing so provides an extra layer of protection by preventing others from copying and pasting the text from your file. Instead, it becomes a read-only document on the Kindle reader.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) of EPUB Ebooks

Kobo, and most other ebook publishers, use a more common file format known as EPUB. Again, Kobo gives you a choice as to whether or not you apply DRM to each ebook you upload to their website. It’s the same deal as it is with Amazon’s Kindle. Doing so provides you with an extra layer of protection against the Internet pirates.

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