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Do you know wikisource? [1]

It contains hundreds of thousands of public domain books that you can read online or download. You can even download the whole collection as a zimfile [2], readable with kiwix [3]. Obviously all without DRM/phone home spywares/forced updates/remote control.

[1] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page

[2] https://wiki.kiwix.org/wiki/Content_in_all_languages

[3] https://www.kiwix.org/en/

There's plenty of websites where you can download drm-free pdfs/mobis of most of the world's texts (at least I can attest for English, I'm less familiar with other languages).

I also usually buy paper books. If you buy the book, you shouldn't feel particularly guilty for "acquiring" the pdf/mobi. :)

DRM-free books should be a suitable replacement, no?