New York - Publisher Penguin's audiobooks unit has removed its titles from the website of digital audio retailer eMusic, over fears of digital piracy on a new eMusic service that sells audiobooks in the unprotected MP3 format, The New York Times reported.

Pengiun Audiobooks was one of five publishers who signed up for the MP3 audiobook retail service, which launched last month on eMusic.

"At this moment we're not going to have our titles on eMusic or with anyone else who sells non-DRM until the landscape shakes out and we feel very comfortable and confident that our titles will not be pirated," Penguin Audio publisher Dick Heffernan told The Times.

"We wanted to take a chance and see how it would work out, and our very senior management at this moment decided that we didn't want to do that. We hope to possibly come to some kind of agreement down the road."

David Pakman, CEO of eMusic, told The Times the store is selling over 500 audiobooks a day, and will soon announce the signing of three new publishers.

Related Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/business/media/22emusic.html

http://www.emusic.com

http://www.penguin.com