If you want to know which of your ebooks are DRM free and which have been protected by copyright, have no fear; you don’t need to open each book individually to find out. Instead, a simple click on each title from within the iTunes user interface will tell you what you need to know. These simple steps will let you know if a book has DRM protections or if you’re free to share it with others.
1. Open iTunes.
2. Select the target ebook.
3. Choose File.
4. Choose Get Info.
5. Look at the “Media Kind” field.
- If it says “book,” it is a web download.
- If it says “purchased book,” it’s a DRM free iBook purchase/download.
- If it says “protected book,” it has a copyright attached.
6. Use accordingly to avoid lawsuits
I think you mean to say "If it says 'protected book,' it has DRM attached."
Plenty of unprotected books, such as those sold by Baen, are fully copyrighted.
All books are copyrighted by default unless they are in the public domain or the author has specifically released them (into Creative Commons, for example). Your first sentence should read: "If you want to know which of your ebooks are DRM free and which have been protected by DRM …"
The other commenters are correct. The lack of DRM doesn't mean that the digital book is without copyright. It simply means that the publisher is trusting you NOT to screw with the copyright.
According to copyright laws, a copyrighted digital books CANNOT BE
*sold to someone else
*loaned to someone else
*copied onto a CD or whatever and sold
*posted online for others to read or copy
For specifics about these matters, go to my blog, http://mbyerly.blogspot.com/ , and click on the copyright label.
A vast majority of authors make very little money so be kind and don't steal from us.