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Comment by kkaranth | Hacker News Reader

Interesting. I'd never purchased a Kindle book because I assumed I couldn't open it with any app of my choice(I use FBReader on Android)

But it'd be real nice to be able to purchase DRM free ebooks, a la GOG for games.

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While it's not DRM free... DeDRM [0] can be run stand alone or as a plug-in to Calibre. I have it auto run when I import a new book to my collection. From there you can do what you like with it.

[0]: https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools

It won't work on newer books. Kindle has a new DRM and if you try to install older versions of the kindle application you will get an error.

That's a bummer. I haven't bought an ebook in a few months, had no idea.

You need to download the books from the "Manage Your Content and Devices" page using the "Download & transfer via USB" link. Those still use the old DRM.

Unfortunately that option is not available for all ebooks.

It depends on the publisher whether or not DRM is included.

Tor[1] doesn't use DRM.

I think it's worth calling out publishers that aren't hostile to readers. Are there others?

[1]: https://www.tor.com/2012/07/20/torforge-e-books-are-now-drm-...

Baen [1] is another to mind that imprint-wide believes that DRM is a waste of time. As another poster pointed out it is interesting that it is mostly sci-fi imprints leading the vanguard of DRM free, in terms of well known commercial publishers.

[1] https://www.baen.com/faq?section=drm-policy

Baen Books as well, regardless of where you buy them.

Typically, my process is:

- If the ebook is available DRM-free, buy that (this is easiest for scifi, <3 Tor/Baen)

- Else, if I can find a reasonably-priced physical copy, buy that (especially from an indie bookseller)

- Else, pirate the ebook

You can only do this on the minority of drm unencumbered books and even then the UI for simply getting at that drm unencumbered file is a complete mess especially if you are buying and trying to read the book on an actual computer.

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