E-books may have opened up a whole new medium for enjoying the world’s literature, but the DRM – digital rights management – technologies they’re often coupled with have also imposed new restrictions on the way that literature is shared. Enter Unglue.it, a new site from New Jersey-based Gluejar that uses crowdfunding to pay authors to “free” their work as e-books published under a Creative Commons license.
It’s up to rights holders to start an Unglue.it campaign for an already-published book they own the rights to, including setting the amount required and a deadline by which time that needs to happen. Book lovers, meanwhile, can visit Unglue.it to browse through the site’s active book campaigns; if they don’t see one for a book they care about, they can add a title to the Unglue.it wishlist. Either way, just as on Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites, participants can pledge toward a campaign’s goal amount, and they pay only if the target funding goal is achieved.
When a campaign succeeds, Unglue.it will deduct a commission of 6 percent of the funds raised. Then, the book is published electronically DRM-free, meaning it can be shared and read on any device for free worldwide.
Since the site’s launch in May, one book has already been successfully “unglued” on Unglue.it and will be published soon. There are currently four other active campaigns on the site. Authors and rights holders around the globe: time to set your own creative works free?
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