As publishers go, O'Reilly has managed to build itself quite a reputation as a forward thinking company. Not only for the way in which it tackles emerging and niche technologies from the developer perspective, but also for being something of a pioneer in making them available in a digital format. The Safari Books Online service being a hugely successful venture, with O'Reilly claiming it generated more revenue than "typically associated with the entire downloadable ebook business."

It has now decided to go one step further and make at least some of its catalogue of titles available without any DRM at all.

Yes, you read that right, DRM-free ebooks. Not free of charge, mind, just free of proprietary security restrictions. O'Reilly does admit that it is investigating digital watermarking options, but that is about it.

This isn't all new news though, as there have been DRM-free PDF books available from O'Reilly for some time now. However, it does signal yet another move towards a thriving digital book market unhampered by the petty restrictions of DRM obsessed publishers.