I’ve been rapidly barrelling toward a DRM-free-only self-hosted future, and part of that is DRM-free books. In an attempt to get out of Amazon’s clutches, I looked for where I can buy DRM-free books, like Project Hail Mary. The answer I came up with was: nowhere. Everyone is following the same playbook. Why would I buy from your store if you’re doing exactly what Amazon is doing? I’m already shopping on Amazon, and I want something better.
(The answer is that I can break the DRM on other stores, but I can’t on Amazon. When it’s this difficult to get DRM-free books, I wouldn’t blame people for resorting to piracy.)
Why on earth would I buy from Epic if I have any other option? What are you doing better?
I’ve only been getting comics from bundle sites since they give you epubs and PDFs. Kind of a necessity for a non-Amazon eReader.
I appreciate my Kobo eReader though, and it’s possible their online store will be DRM-free? Or, it could be per-book; when I put my own up, they had a checkbox to turn on DRM which I left off.
Kobo is where I ended up buying from, because I can break the DRM there, but it wasn’t trivial to figure out. For comics, I use Global Comix; they seem to be universally DRM-free, at least what I’ve seen so far. Failing that, Google at least tells you on a per item basis what the DRM situation is for books and comics.
I’ve been rapidly barrelling toward a DRM-free-only self-hosted future, and part of that is DRM-free books. In an attempt to get out of Amazon’s clutches, I looked for where I can buy DRM-free books, like Project Hail Mary. The answer I came up with was: nowhere. Everyone is following the same playbook. Why would I buy from your store if you’re doing exactly what Amazon is doing? I’m already shopping on Amazon, and I want something better.
(The answer is that I can break the DRM on other stores, but I can’t on Amazon. When it’s this difficult to get DRM-free books, I wouldn’t blame people for resorting to piracy.)
Why on earth would I buy from Epic if I have any other option? What are you doing better?
Yeah, GOG is at least offering DRM-free games. That gives them one big plus over Steam and is why I maintain a library on both.
On the other hand, I can’t name a single thing Epic does better than Steam and GOG.
Free games
At the cost of having to play them through the Epic Launcher? Nah, too rich for me, boss.
Many games are DRM free on Steam too. Cyberpunk 2077 for example. The Steam DRM is at the publisher/developer’s discretion, not Steam’s.
Steam DRM itself is also trivially bypassed which is surely intended.
FWIW a lot of games on Steam are also entirely DRM-free it’s just not overly obvious without checking on PCGamingWiki.
I’ve only been getting comics from bundle sites since they give you epubs and PDFs. Kind of a necessity for a non-Amazon eReader.
I appreciate my Kobo eReader though, and it’s possible their online store will be DRM-free? Or, it could be per-book; when I put my own up, they had a checkbox to turn on DRM which I left off.
Kobo is where I ended up buying from, because I can break the DRM there, but it wasn’t trivial to figure out. For comics, I use Global Comix; they seem to be universally DRM-free, at least what I’ve seen so far. Failing that, Google at least tells you on a per item basis what the DRM situation is for books and comics.
Buy from Kobo, download from Anna?
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