all books are DRM-free if you download them from the right place ;)
Yes, but from some of those places the authors receive no compensation.
They chose the DRM path, so they brought this fate upon themselves.
Show HN: DRM-Free Books
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Re: Show HN: DRM-Free Books
#42> 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...
Re: Show HN: DRM-Free Books
#43Re: Show HN: DRM-Free Books
#44My 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.
DRM-less on Apple is fairly useless in that the file isn’t exportable or readily found in your filesystem.
Re: Show HN: DRM-Free Books
#45Re: Show HN: DRM-Free Books
#46Re: Show HN: DRM-Free Books
#47> 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.
Same. Ironic that a quirk of modern technology would put classical literature back in fashion.
This happens more than you might expect.
There are several films which became popular staples on television after copyright expired, wasn't renewed, or was improperly registered in the first place (prior to automatic copyright assignment enacted in 1976). It's a Wonderful Life is the canonical example, though there is a long list of other public domain films in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_in_the_public_do...>.
A Wonderful Life fell back into copyright, at least partially, when the musical score was bought by Republic Pictures in 1993.
https://library.law.uconn.edu/2022/12/08/its-a-wonderful-lif...>
Ted Turner started the Turner Broadcasting System by buying up small local stations with loose licencing arrangement allowing them unlimited reruns of old films and television shows. Shifting to cable distribution for his "superstation" eventually grew into CNN.
(Mentioned in an HN comment about a month ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48038175>.)
I strongly suspect that the popularity of Shakespeare, which grew rapidly through the 19th century, had to do with the demand for popular entertainment combined with the prohibitive cost of contemporary works for many performing companies.
The rise of radio and need to fill airtime likely lead to the popularity of classical music, out of copyright and hence readily available for broadcast, at a time when broadcast rights were at best poorly defined and restricted, if at all. (The concept first appeared in law in 1928, wasn't standardised until 1961, and wasn't globally adopted under the Berne Convention until the 1970s/1980s, or later.)
https://thelaw.institute/copyright-and-related-rights/evolut...>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention#Adoption_and_...>
Re: Show HN: DRM-Free Books
#48All of Cory Doctorow books are DRM free. https://shop.craphound.com/
Do you know if you can buy as a gift for someone else?
Many of his books are Creative Commons licenced, at least in digital form. E.g., Little Brother:
https://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/>
You can see his other titles on Craphound: https://craphound.com/>.
Re: Show HN: DRM-Free Books
#49I made a virtual bookshelf the other day https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48687201
Maybe I can plug some of the books into the virtual shelf