Amazon’s Comixology To Offer DRM-Free Comics For Download

Well this is surprising (and in a totally good way) -- Comixology, the cloud-based digital comic book distributor founded in 2007 and acquired by Amazon this past April, is now allowing customers to backup  comics stripped of Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection. DRM-free backups are available to save in PDF or CBZ format.

"We're excited to make this DRM-free backup option available to our customers and publishers today," Comixology co-founder and CEO David Steinberger said in a statement. "Our customers can keep a copy locally and continue to do their reading on Comixology in our industry-changing Guided View."

Comics

There's a bit of a buzz killing caveat in that not all of Comixology's 50,000 comics are now available to save sans DRM. Instead, it's up to the publishers whether they want to distribute DRM-free comics through Comixology or not. As you might suspect, top dogs Marvel and DC have no interest in DRM-free comics at this point, though there are several smaller publishers on board with the idea, including Image Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, Zenescope Entertainment, MonkeyBrain Comics, Thrillbent, and Top Shelf Productions.

Books available for DRM-free backup will have a badge beneath the description. If it's already part of your collection, just punch the format you prefer (beneath the "Read Book" button) to start your download. You'll also see a new Backup tab in the My Books section on your desktop or tablet.