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[-] Localhorst86@feddit.org 51 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Back when Randall Munroe released his "What if" in eBook format, it essentially was only available with DRM.
When I emailed him about it, asking for a place to buy it without DRM, he responded with DRM unfortunately being mandated by his publisher, and finished his email with a link to this comic of his:
https://xkcd.com/488/

[-] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 236 points 6 days ago

Don't buy Amazon products. Fairly simple concept.

[-] LaggyKar@programming.dev 67 points 6 days ago

The problem is some authors signing exclusivity deal with Amazon, which means breaking the DRM and converting it is the only way to read it on a different e-reader.

[-] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 107 points 6 days ago

Too bad. Then theres no sale unless I can crack the DRM ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[-] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 42 points 6 days ago

This. All of these problems are solved by people not giving money. But often it seems difficult for people to actually stand behind principle when the time comes -- convenience is a helluva drug.

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[-] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 35 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

The problem is some authors signing exclusivity deal with Amazon

Well then those authors can go straight to corpo-sellout hell and die a painful death, I'd rather never read a book again than buy from amazon.

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[-] desmosthenes@lemmy.world 159 points 6 days ago
[-] dantheclamman@lemmy.world 42 points 6 days ago

It is remarkable how many books available for free on Gutenberg are sold in the same format on Amazon (it'd be one thing if they were special editions, new translations etc, but they're the same!)

[-] nyan@lemmy.cafe 20 points 6 days ago

People out to make a quick buck are banking on suckers not knowing about Project Gutenberg, or failing to check it, or not wanting to do a couple of extra steps to get something onto their Kindle.

[-] Paradox@lemdro.id 22 points 6 days ago

Check out standard ebooks. They take public domain books and "clean" them up with really good typesetting, spelling fixes, and other things. All free too

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[-] beejjorgensen@lemmy.sdf.org 116 points 6 days ago

I will never, ever purchase a book I can't remove the DRM from.

And there are people out there who are absolutely fanatical about book preservation. They will photograph every single page and run it through OCR and recreate an ebook just so it gets preserved. DRM is absolutely pointless and stupid.

[-] ReverendIrreverence@lemmy.world 29 points 5 days ago
[-] Jrockwar@feddit.uk 26 points 5 days ago

I would recommend people buy their books off ZLibrary instead, where they come with no DRM.

[-] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 51 points 6 days ago

This entire thing has been made needlessly complicated. Easy fix though.

  1. Get whatever ebook you want.
  2. Borrow some code from GitHub and teach a raspberry pi with a camera and a few servos to snap pictures of pages, turn the pages, snap again into a PDF.
  3. A script then parses all the images and OCRs them for the final PDF.
  4. You now own a backup of your DRM book, which you own forever. Pretty sure this is actually legal under DMCA since you are taking a backup of something you allegedly own. The encryption circumvention is irrelevant.
  5. now, break the law and throw the PDF on the internet to everyone. Go little bot! Go go go!
[-] ysjet@lemmy.world 19 points 6 days ago

The encryption circumvention is irrelevant.

Oh you sweet summer child, judges will bend over backwards to slap people with multi-decade-to-life charges for 'hacking,' even if the 'hacking' is just the rightsholder accidentally presenting data to you.

[-] tomkatt@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago

To be fair, if you OCR the pages via camera, you haven't actually circumvented DRM. That means it's a completely legal backup, as the DRM on the original file was untouched and unaltered. This definitely does fall under fair use.

[-] ysjet@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

Theoretically, yes. Realistically, judges historically believe anything prosecutors tell them about hacking and circumvention.

There's been people thrown in jail for the rest of their life for the crime of clicking a public URL that the company didn't intend to be public.

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[-] myfunnyaccountname@lemmy.zip 61 points 6 days ago

Why not just remove the Amazon from the ebooks?

[-] mesamunefire@piefed.social 72 points 6 days ago

Kobo is cool Now just fyi. Works well with calibre.

The biggest issue I have is ebooks are almost all excusevly sold on amazon. I would give authors my money and not sail the high seas if it ment no DRM.

[-] roofuskit@lemmy.world 31 points 6 days ago

I'm sorry but the idea that most ebooks are exclusive to Amazon is absurd. While they are trying and would love that to be true, it's just not.

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[-] Comrade_Squid@lemmy.ml 27 points 6 days ago
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[-] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 52 points 6 days ago

amazon: finally we defeated piracy

one kid with a computer: snickers

[-] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 25 points 6 days ago
[-] BitsAndBites@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

I bought my first ereader this summer and got a Kindle and hated it. Returned it and got a Kobo. Its fantastic, I can just load my ebooks like it's an external drive. I dont have to email all my ebooks to Amazon just to get them on my own device.

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[-] Corridor8031@lemmy.ml 30 points 6 days ago

It annoys me so much that they have convinced anyone that this stuff is for protecting against piracy of something like that, while this is just another tool for them to force you into using their platform and ecosystem. It does nothing against piracy.

[-] MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Yeah you can easily pirate any book, or even just get them free at the library. This just fucks over the authors and people who want to buy their books legally. People don't buy books because they have to, they want to.

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[-] _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 49 points 6 days ago

There’s no such thing as “impossible” when it comes to piracy.

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 15 points 6 days ago

There's no impossible because if you can see it, it can be captured and digitized, but there is a level of complication that can make it unreasonable. They could make it unreasonable to crack the drm outright and require you to screenshot/OCR it. Then they can limit the OS to make to difficult to automate capture.

Bottom line, they're just kicking payers off their network when it's easier to pirate it than to buy it through their service.

[-] czl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 6 days ago

Something something, piracy is a service problem. That’s why Spotify et al. still thrive, but more and more the Netflixes of the world are being replaced with yaaar

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[-] Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world 14 points 6 days ago

Just wait until you can only stream books, not download them, with random words replaced with synonyms using an algorithm that lets them track down who the originator of any scanned copies is.

That might sound ridiculous, but streaming-only to prevent perfect copies and hiding purchaser identifiers in the data are both DRM techniques that have been explored in other media already. There's no limit to how anti-consumer publishers can get when they think there's slightly more money to be had.

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[-] selkiesidhe@sh.itjust.works 29 points 6 days ago

I have five published books, all without drm. Amazon better not put that shit ON my books. It's not there for a reason; I want people to share.

[-] CMDR_Horn@lemmy.world 15 points 6 days ago

The real question is how can I find out what those 5 book are without you doxing yourself.

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[-] ToxicWaste@lemmy.cafe 16 points 5 days ago

again displaying, that DRM only hurts legitimate users. a pirate has never had the problem of backing up, moving or sharing his library...

[-] LoafedBurrito@lemmy.world 34 points 6 days ago

I don't know why people buy an stuff like this and get surprised when this happens.

Plenty of other electronics that you have full control over.

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[-] Chivera@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago

Anna's Archive

[-] Mellibird@lemmy.myserv.one 19 points 6 days ago

Once they started mentioning stuff like this I sold my Kindle and got a moann. Its a little odd to use at times, but I love the size and the fact that I can just throw whatever book on there that I want. I use Anna's archive for whatever book I'm looking for or go through my friend's calibre library and I have over 200 books on my reader. I can also use libby with no issues. Its been fantastic breaking away from being stuck in the kindleverse.

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[-] grahamja@reddthat.com 18 points 6 days ago

I bought a digital movie from Amazon prime in 2015. It fell off and they didnt give me a refund. The music I got from a burnt CD in 2004 is still on the C: drive of my current PC. I don't think it pays to do the right thing in the long run.

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[-] BoloMKXXVIII@piefed.social 25 points 6 days ago

Why are people "buying" DRM infested books? They don't own anything. "Their" books can be taken away at the whim of the seller. Their rights can change with a change to the EULA. There are other legal ways to use e-readers (not Kindles) that let you keep and back up what you buy.

[-] kaotic@lemmy.world 21 points 6 days ago

I mean, this is how you get me to stop buying Kindle books.

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[-] cloudy1999@sh.itjust.works 11 points 5 days ago

We'll soon be back to monks transcribing at this rate.

[-] SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 25 points 6 days ago

Amazon can go suck a fuck!

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[-] Corelli_III@midwest.social 19 points 6 days ago
[-] ronweasleysl@lemmy.ml 8 points 5 days ago

I have a pocketbook instead of a Kindle cause of this lol

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[-] fading_person@lemmy.zip 20 points 6 days ago

There are so many alternative ereaders that are better than the kindle, that I don't get why people buy it.

I once borrowed one from a friend and it didn't even let me organize media in directories from a pc. The directory structure got all messed up and it was a pain to follow my study sequence. Any cheap Chinese ereader would allow that.

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[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Amazon is making it impossible for me to consider a Kindle.

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this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025
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