Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

List of DRM-Free Bookshops

libreture.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 91 posts

Re: List of DRM-Free Bookshops

#2

Post by EA-3167 »

I think we hugged that one a little hard.

I did manage to get in after a bit though, and... it's not quite what I expected? It's a fascinating resource, but it's essentially a vast collection of quite small and niche stores, magazines, webcomics, and so on. If you're expecting "Amazon/Kobo, but without the DRM" then it probably isn't what you're looking for.

It is very cool though, it's just that "DRM Free" isn't the best description of this eclectic discovery machine of a page.

Re: List of DRM-Free Bookshops

#5

Post by plorg »

After the recent press for Bookshop.org I saw an author I like had a new book and thought I'd try out the service - I am okay with paying slightly more for a book if the money is going to someone other than Amazon. But I should have looked twice, because Bookshop ebooks are not DRM free unless the publisher explicitly opts for it, and DRM encumbered books can only be read on their website or in their app. I know that the copyright landscape is rough for that sort of things, but this was a huge miss. For it to cost $5 more and be tied to a service that is not currently available on any dedicated e-readers is frankly insulting.

Oh, and so far as I can tell they don't label which books are DRM free.

Re: List of DRM-Free Bookshops

#6

Post by geerlingguy »

I'm still a fan of LeanPub and try to buy a book there if possible. It's an older site/storefront now, but still active and with new books mainly in the software/tech space.

It provides a better return for the authors, has a very simple UI/UX without dark patterns, makes it easy to grab newer book versions, and never has DRM.

Not sure if it's listed on the site, as it seems we've hugged it to death.

Re: List of DRM-Free Bookshops

#8

Post by amazingamazing »

in my experience no publisher that's producing many hits will make their stuff drm free, and for good reason.

looking at the archive (https://archive.ph/zPBbZ), almost all of the publishers do not publish popular authors.

it's just too easy to share the books. you can get tens of thousands of books for what, a gigabyte? without drm that stuff will spread like wildfire, but drm can easily be broken by those who know what they're doing - but I guess for publishers, luckily the vast majority of the popular wouldn't bother to break it.

here's one moderately popular author's take:

https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/flowers-and-questions/

Post reply on HN