I’m looking to change my reading and buying habits away from Amazon and need an alternate source for my ebooks. Where can I buy ebooks that won’t expire or have their licence revoked and will allow me to download a copy of that ebook I can store on my own system regardless of the websites status?

  • mipadaitu@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    5 months ago

    Calibre and DeDRM can strip Amazon’s DRM and let you save the books forever.

    https://github.com/noDRM/DeDRM_tools

    You need a registered Kindle, but you don’t need to actually use the Kindle to make it work. Just download the ebook from the Amazon website “for Kindle XYZ” and then import and convert the ebook in calibre.

    • pezhore@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      This is unfortunately the closest answer to what the OP is asking.

      To the best of my knowledge, outside of independent authors like Cory Doctorow selling drm-free from their own sites, I’m not aware of any place to shop for ebooks that are not tied to some online DRM scheme.

      Humble Bundle books are another option, but it’s highly dependent upon if you want what they’re selling.

  • alienghic@slrpnk.netEnglish
    3·
    17 days ago

    Librature has a list of DRM free individuals and small presses https://libreture.com/bookshops/

    Oh I forgot also if you check the details on kobo, some of the books are sold DRM free. Mostly I think it was from Tor, but could be other publishers as well.

    • ElectroVagrant@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      Thanks for this! I think I may have come across it at some point but never bookmarked it for whatever reason, corrected that now!

  • cosmic_cowboy@reddthat.comEnglish
    2·
    5 months ago

    Anna’s Archive is a good option if you’re wanting to sail the high seas. Very easy to navigate, and almost all titles are available in multiple formats (I.e. PDF, epub)

  • mesamune@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    5 months ago

    If you get it off Amazon, you can use Calibre to download the ebook. Then convert to ebook .epub and now it’s yours forever. I don’t like this but some books are not possible to get it legally without Amazon.

    Or use baen to buy. Or if your really lucky off the authors official website.

    • Chee_Koala@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      Head’s up - since Jan this year, this route is ONLY available if you have registered a Kindle with them. The new format used by amazon cannot be “unencrypted”, even by calibre, without a Kindle “unencrypting” it for you or providing it’s key or whatever the dark magic required is.

  • Aceticon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    5 months ago

    Since the beginning of the whole eBook trend I’ve refused to buy e-books from Amazon exactly because of their DRM, and recently I went looking around for an alternative and discovered Smashwords were I can buy the books and get them at least in ePub format (some also in other formats). They’ve been getting a steady stream of money from me ever since. (No, it’s not a subscription, it’s me being an avid book reader).

    No idea of how good or not they are compared to other alternatives, but they seem to have more than enough choice for my needs and do satisfy my criteria, - the same as yours - which is that I when I download a book I get to keep it and read in any way I see fit.

  • version_unsorted@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    5 months ago

    A lot of publishers have DRM free content if you buy directly from them.

    Verso, Tor, NoStarchPress to name a few

  • earthwalker31@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    1·
    5 months ago

    A lot of (bigger) bookstores also sell ebooks on their websites. There it usually depends on the publisher if they have DRM or not, so just look around.