Show HN: DRM-Free Books

[TeaVMFan]

https://frequal.com/Perspectives/DrmFreeAuthors.html

After several years of mandatory DRM lockdowns from most commercial book sources, now authors have a choice when it comes to DRM for their books. Pick authors and books that are DRM-free, or download DRM-free classics that are out of copyright.

https://frequal.com/Perspectives/DrmFreeAuthors.html

[kreyenborgi]

Bookshop.org lets you filter by drm when you search.

https://www.bloomsbury.com has drm free stuff, and after https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42811332 i respect them even more.

Also might be worth scanning old mentions of such https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

[tren → kreyenborgi]

We also do the same at ebooks.com, there's a DRM free section too - https://www.ebooks.com/drm-free

[TeaVMFan → kreyenborgi]

The bookshop.org filter works nicely. After searching for a keyword, pick "Formats/Ebook/DRM-free". I'll add a link and a note.

[Abishek_Muthian → kreyenborgi]

libro.fm for DRM free audio books, buying from there supports local book shops.

[Groxx]

All of Brandon Sanderson's epubs from his website ( https://brandonsanderson.com -> https://dragonsteelbooks.com ) are DRM-free: https://support.dragonsteelbooks.com/support/solutions/artic...

[technothrasher]

> DRM-free classics that are out of copyright.

I started down this road with a few books about two years ago, and I have so many now on my list to read that I hardly ever get to reading a modern book.

I read a lot from Standard Ebooks. But one thing to keep in mind with them- they do edit the books to make changes for readability. Not necessarily a big deal, but something to know.

[bluebarbet → technothrasher]

Same. Ironic that a quirk of modern technology would put classical literature back in fashion.

[devindotcom → technothrasher]

Curious: edit for readability in what way? Surely just layout stuff, not changing the content of the books?

[loloquwowndueo → devindotcom]

I believe they’d change the spelling of a word if it’s archaic and obscure in the original text.

https://standardebooks.org/about/what-makes-standard-ebooks-...

[philips]

All of Cory Doctorow books are DRM free.

https://shop.craphound.com/

[TeaVMFan → philips]

I added a link, thanks! Mr. Doctorow seems to include 3 formats in every purchase (PDF, MOBI, and EPUB), which should cover just about any device.

[AtheistOfFail → philips]

Do you know if you can buy as a gift for someone else?

[itsdesmond → AtheistOfFail]

By the very definition you can buy them and send them to whoever you want. Just, you know, don’t read it yourself and you’ve done it.

[themadturk]

My own novel, The Immortal Remains, is DRM-free on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google, and other platforms (maybe Apple as well, I'm not sure). Other authors, such as Cory Doctorow, sell their books DRM-free as well.

[akkartik → themadturk]

The uncertainty is part of the problem. Funny that even authors are not sure :)

I can't tell on https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Remains-Lee-Hauser-ebook/dp/... that it's DRM-free. Amazon loses money in the small this way, but probably considers it more important to train people to not care.

[itsdesmond → themadturk]

DRM-less on Apple is fairly useless in that the file isn’t exportable or readily found in your filesystem.

[teo_zero]

> More Authors with DRM-Free Books

> On Amazon, look for books that offer EPUB and PDF downloads.

Isn't this like saying "to find a needle in a haystack, just look for anything that's metallic"? Technically correct, but not really helping...

[rickcarlino]

I wish someone would build something like hiring.cafe but for DRM free digital content. One search query => uniform search results with direct link to purchase page on relevant marketplace. Basically just scrape and index every DRM free content marketplace and put it behind a single search interface.

[dest]

Remove DRM from ebooks you bought with https://github.com/esn/knock

[Lio]

The Pragmatic Programmers have always sold DRM free commercial book (to my knowledge).

https://pragprog.com/

Having commercial publishers that will sell you high quality books without DRM is brilliant and I'll always support that.

[babblingfish]

I don't see any mention here of books sold by Tor. All their books are DRM-free.

[kreyenborgi → babblingfish]

Can one buy Tor books without going through Amazon? I had trouble doing that last I tried.

[bentley → kreyenborgi]

I’ve bought Tor books from Google Play and gotten DRM‐free EPUB files from it.

[chocochunks → kreyenborgi]

Yes, Kobo, Google Play Books both carry them.

[themadturk → kreyenborgi]

At least some Tor.com ebooks are available DRM-free through Amazon. Honor Of The Queen, 2nd in the Honor Harrington Series, specifically says it's sold without DRM on Amazon.

[mrec → themadturk]

Huh? The Honor Harrington books are published by Baen (who are all DRM-free).

[babblingfish → kreyenborgi]

You can buy them from bookshop.org

[archargelod → babblingfish]

Love their browser. Very convenient for downloading no DRM e-books you bought.

[TeaVMFan → babblingfish]

I added it to the list of DRM-free sources at the end, thanks!

[murats]

Useful list. I wish more book stores made DRM status obvious before checkout.

[Nzen → murats]

It feels like this list, if it focuses on individual authors is - if successful - overwhelming in scope. There are, what, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of authors ? If 1%, for argument's sake, this list would have thousands of links.

Nonetheless, I'll promote an author of both non- and fiction ebooks I've bought from, Michael W Lucas [0].

[0] https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/

[boznz]

Add both my Sci-Fi/Techno-Thriller ePub books to this list DRM Free, and Free as in Beer if you download them off my website. https://rodyne.com/

[Leptonmaniac]

So this is a similar idea to Project Gutenberg?

[utopiah]

FWIW https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide/ebooks

[ChuckMcM]

No Starch Press sells all of its books with DRM as well.

[Imustaskforhelp]

So after seeing this project on the front page of hackernews. I decided to add my EPUB reader on a submission as well[0]: https://epub.mirror.forum

and although I already previously had the idea of showing books from gutenberg but your idea made me find more importance in it and I ended up doing so in two different implementations: https://guten.mirror.forum and https://gutencf.mirror.forum, so I thank you for that!

[Offtopic: I am/was also surprised to see that there is a lack of API or platforms if suppose I created this app and I wanted to give users genuine ways to pay. Aside from the walled gardens of Kindle or specific apps, I am unable to give my users a way to just search books, pay for them and download it (atleast to my understanding at the moment) which is a sad thing :-( ]

I hope people are able to give love to my submission at [0] / the link down below. Cheers and take care and have a nice day if a real human is being out there reading this :-D

Hope you like or enjoy it and find it useful!

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48710584

[teravor]

all books are DRM-free if you download them from the right place ;)

[themadturk → teravor]

Yes, but from some of those places the authors receive no compensation.

[jMyles → themadturk]

If their wallet address is available on the internet, that's an easily solved problem.

[qurren → themadturk]

They chose the DRM path, so they brought this fate upon themselves.

[shmerl]

Nice. Good to know that Tor books are DRM-free.