Image Comics, publishers of the Walking Dead, Saga and Witchblade series, says it has ditched DRM from all titles.
The company, the third-largest comic publisher after Marvel and DC, announced earlier this week that all titles bought via its website can be downloaded without DRM and in a number of formats including PDF, EPUB, CBR, and CBZ.
Titles will continue to be available via Comixology, Amazon,and Apple.
Image’s move follows last year’s dropping of DRM by fantasy and SciFi book publishers Tor who have since said there was no noticeable increase in piracy following the move.
DRM – Digital Rights Management – can limit a user’s ability to move books between devices and to create long-term backups.
Image Comics’ Ron Richards told comics news site ComicBookResources comics creators and readers would benefit from the move.