Earlier this year, Cory Doctorow told his publisher that he wanted to try an experiment: He wanted to sell his books as e-books through the five major online retailers, but only under the condition that they publish his books in a DRM-free format, so that the books could be moved freely from device to device. In addition, each book would begin with text directing the reader to Doctorow's website, where additional copies of the book would be available for free. The results of this experiment may surprise you:

I'm happy to report that Amazon, to its eternal credit, was delighted to offer my e-books without DRM and with the anti-EULA license language, as was Barnes & Noble and Kobo. Why Amazon's Kindle division was happy to do what its Audible division had categorically rejected is still beyond me, but I'll take any sign of fairness I can get. I can only hope that Amazon's other digital divisions catch up with Kindle, and if they do, I'll be eager to have my audiobooks for sale in the Audible store. Amazon is a retailer that has literally revolutionized my life, my go-to supplier for everything from toilet brushes to used DVDs for my toddler. And in addition to selling my own works, I also sell upwards of 25,000 books a year through Amazon affiliate links in my online book reviews. This makes me a one-man, good-sized independent bookstore, with Amazon doing my fulfillment, payment processing, stocking, etc.

Unfortunately, I had no such luck with Apple or Sony. True to my earlier experience with Apple's iTunes store, Apple has a mandatory DRM requirement for books offered for sale for the iPad. I know many Apple fans believe that because Steve Jobs penned an open letter decrying DRM that the company must use DRM because they have no choice. But this simply isn't true. Sony has the same deal.