So far I've been buying books for my ereader on google play, but it requires adobe drm to move them to the ereader or read them on pc. So is there a place to get legit ebooks (and not only underground or old reads) drm-free? I am talking the lord of the rings and other well known books. If not, i might just go back to paper, as then I will truly own them...

if you want to own them then get real printed books

If you want to support the author just buy physical copies. [modded]

[modded: please do not promote piracy - ponczo_]

No, but I have a few ideas of how to get started on your quest.

Unfortunately eBooks are quite subject to the same grift & corruption that is faced in many a publisher vs school relationship.

But you may want to get in touch with your local library, they might have eBooks at a more qualified platform.


After a cusory search I found a few more resources.

And there's a few more platforms out there offering DRM free eBooks.

why not just send the writer money? like a tip

drm free ebooks? didn't know that was a thing... I know Kobo offers a fine selection of free books, some actually free, others less free in a sense that it is the first part of a series but... free

Tolstoy's War and Peace i read through this way.. as a public transportation commuter... those where the days.. surrounded by mini skirts and bubblegum reading through that novel ;)

It really depends on what books you are looking for.

There are some occasional ebook bundles that are DRM-free. For instance, check StoryBundle, Humble Bundle, and Groupees.

Some books are available straight from the publisher, like Simon & Schuster books, including all Star Trek novels.

Older books may or may not be available at Project Gutenberg.


Now as for the stuff you are looking for, I don't think too many famous authors or well-known books are available DRM-free. So most likely what you are looking for doesn't exist, just like most music isn't available as DRM-free FLAC.

Obviously there are ways to remove DRM from ebooks, but as that means technically speaking cracking a protection, I won't describe it in any more detail. If you do that for personal use though, it is at least morally acceptable, not necessarily legally.

There are lots of places. Do you want free stuff, then you have Gutenberg, archive.org, plus many others x I have some more on the main machine I will grab later on.
For buying, again there are plenty of stores, depends on what you want. Surprisingly humble bundle occasional do some good book collections if you like 40k or comics. Groupees occasionally as well.
Storybundle is another, https://storybundle.com/scifi
As for things like lord of the rings, you would likely need to buy that off one of the main stores, you would need to check each one for drm. Not sure many use drm anymore, obviously excluding the likes of Google and Amazon, but heck they can’t even pay tax.

From my experience, stores in English mostly suck in that regard. You can find some publishers' stores (like Baen) that offer drm-free novels from their catalogue. There are some bundles, but good luck finding a bundle that contains something you're interested in.

Seeing that you're from Lithuania: if you happen to know Polish, most of our ebook stores use only a watermark. If you happen to know Russian, then you could check out Litres.

You have to go more by publisher than by shop. Tor/Forge for example switched to DRM free quite a while ago. It doesn't matter where you get their books from.

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

Humble Bundle sells some. DriveThru also sell DRM FREE books.

yes they do just watch out what their current charity is

Kind of connected to the question but are there drm free supplements/add-ons for some of the free stuff on Gutenberg and Archive.org?

I like reading some older classics and things of that nature on occasion but a lot of the free stuff isn't the best for contextualizing the story. Case in point. I was reading a collection of Gogol short stories and while enjoyable I'm certain I missed certain references since I'm not Orthodox Catholic living in the early 1800s Russian Empire. Is there something akin to DRM-free study notes anywhere? I'm sure there are separate files I could read but it would be nice if there was something that turned certain passages or words into hyperlinks. I'd gladly pay for something of that nature. If there isn't, well....I may have a million dollar idea for those studying old literature.

There's tools and addons you can get, like dictionary and bibliography plugins, but to the matter of taste is each.

For those kinds of texts you are going to have to look at commercial ventures. Translations, interpretations and such like is quite complex and takes a lot of resources, so only uni’s get things free. So for something specialised like that, get a decent hard copy book.