FREE/BARGAIN — DRM-Free

[eschwartz]

This thread is for pointing out free and bargain DRM-Free ONLY titles to each other. Please don't post any self-published books (unless you have read them yourself, think they are excellent, and you're not connected to the author in any way) and please do a search before posting to avoid duplicates.

As always -- if a deal could span multiple subjects, please cross-post to ALL applicable deals megathreads.
This is pretty much the one time when double-posting is not only allowed, but encouraged. Seize the opportunity!


Keep in mind, most freebies last only for a day or two, so grab them fast!

Permalinks:

• Open Books (by calibre) -- collects info about DRM-Free books, some are free or bargain-price.
• Tag search: drm-free ebook -- past and present single-thread deals (or otherwise) marked as DRM-Free. Remember to add this tag to any other threads you find about DRM-Free deals.

Some people are ideologically interested in buying ebooks only if they are DRM-Free (no one here needs to be reminded of why DRM can be annoying ), but it can be difficult to tell which ones those are in the other stickies.

[ATDrake]

The Wildside Press (who've changed their system to require a login and cart checkout) freebie for this Tuesday is:

The Fritz Leiber Minipack by the late Fritz Leiber (ISFDB, Wikipedia) containing an introductory sampler of three stories by the sword & sorcery pioneer.

Fritz Leiber (1910-1992) has long been a favorite author of mine. As a teenager, I thrilled to the adventures of his sword & Sorcery heroes, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. And his science fiction. And his fantasy, and his horror stories. Was there nothing beyond his talents?

Unfortunately, his work is being forgotten. Wildside Press released a collection of some of his classic short fiction, The Fritz Leiber MEGAPACK®, late last year. And here is a sampler of three of his great stories.

Enjoy!

Also, a reminder that the Humble Audiobook Bundle Worlds of Doctor Who containing the Big Finish audio dramas and some sort of Android game, expires tomorrow at Wednesday 11 AM, and that the Humble Books Bundle Be the Boss full of assorted business management/career productivity/marketing creativity books is still good for the next week and will have more books added tomorrow.

There's also a Humble Weekly Bundle Rifftrax full of Mystery Science Theater 3000-style satiric video commentary tracks to bad movies, good until Thursday, if you're interested.

[ATDrake]

New Humble Bundle is up, and it's a really nifty one for:

Humble Book Bundle Lonely Planet, chock-full of specific travel guides, general travel & other tips, visitors' travelogues, culture-introductory cookbooks and guidebooks, photo artbooks, and other related writings by the eponymous specialty publisher.

More-than-average is currently just under $9 with more titles to be added next week, top-tier is $15. This is an auto-buy for me, as I love reading about cultures, travel, and food, even if I don't really do the activities pertaining to 2 out of the 3.

Have bundle. Will travel. Explore the world and see the sights with ebooks from Lonely Planet!

Pay what you want for Lonely Planet's Best Ever Travel Tips, Lonely Planet's Best Ever Photography Tips, The World's Great Wonders, Best in Travel 2016, and The Lonely Planet Book of Everything.

Pay more than the average price to also receive From the Source Thailand, From the Source Italy, How To Survive Anything, Volunteer: A Traveller’s Guide to Making a Difference Around the World, The World, and You Only Live Once.

Pay $15 or more for all of that plus Wine Trails, Lonely Planet’s Wild World, Lonely Planet's Beautiful World, and The Travel Book.

Also, last week's Humble Book Bundle Be The Boss has updated with two more of its business management/career self-help titles, which you will have automatically received if you splurged for the more-than-average or top tiers or have upgraded your total paid amount to be eligible.

[GtrsRGr8]

Deleted by GtrsRGr8, due to concerns.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

<snip>
Also, last week's Humble Book Bundle Be The Boss has updated with two more of its business management/career self-help titles, which you will have automatically received if you splurged for the more-than-average or top tiers or have upgraded your total paid amount to be eligible.

It looks like last week's HB has gone bye-bye.

[ATDrake]

^

No, it's still there. Humble Bundle just switched the links so that the regular "books" URL now redirects to the Lonely Planet one first which is otherwise at "morebooks", and the Be the Boss bundle is now at the new "getbooks" extension instead.

Which is a silly way to do things since it breaks linkage for people who are actually interested in finding the BTB bundle from mentions that might have been posted prior to the change, but at least one can still see the button for the BTB bundle near the top of the page.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

^

No, it's still there. Humble Bundle just switched the links so that the regular "books" URL now redirects to the Lonely Planet one first which is otherwise at "morebooks", and the Be the Boss bundle is now at the new "getbooks" extension instead.

Which is a silly way to do things since it breaks linkage for people who are actually interested in finding the BTB bundle from mentions that might have been posted prior to the change, but at least one can still see the button for the BTB bundle near the top of the page.

Thanks. I checked a couple of times, but I must have been clicking on the wrong link. doh!

[koland]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

...

This pdf is made available by the nice people at monoskop.org, a somewhat weird, but interesting and useful, website dealing with "writings on art, culture, and media technology."

Title: The Land Where the Blues Began.

Actually, I can't find any evidence that monoskop.org has permission to disseminate that or any other of the files they host. It appears from the Help page that anyone can create an account and upload files there. This particular one is still in print, definitely not out of copyright, with The New Press listed as the publisher for the paper edition.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by koland

Actually, I can't find any evidence that monoskop.org has permission to disseminate that or any other of the files they host. It appears from the Help page that anyone can create an account and upload files there. This particular one is still in print, definitely not out of copyright, with The New Press listed as the publisher for the paper edition.

I found this:

Monoskop.org, a project founded by media artist Dušan Barok, is a wiki for collaborative studies of art, media and the humanities that was born in 2004 out of Barok’s study of media art and related cultural practices. Its significant holdings - about 3,000 full-length texts and many more excerpts, links and citations - include avant-garde and modernist magazines, writings on sound art, scanned illustrations, and media theory texts.

As a wiki, any user can edit any article or upload content, and see their changes reflected immediately. Monoskop is comprised of two sister sites: the Monoskop wiki and Monoskop Log, the accompanying text repository. Monoskop Log is structured as a Wordpress site with links hosted on third-party sites, much like the rare-music download blogs that became popular in the mid-2000s. Though this architecture is relatively unstable, links are fixed on-demand and site mirroring and redundancy balance out some of the instability.

Monoskop makes clear that it is offering content under the fair-use doctrine and that this content is for personal and scholarly use, not commercial use. Barok notes that though there have been a small number of takedowns, people generally appreciate unrestricted access to the types of materials in Monoskop log, whether they are authors or publishers.

Located at:

http://www.fvckthemedia.com/issue61/pirate-libraries

[ATDrake]

New Humble Bundle is up, and it's for:

Humble Audiobook Bundle: Smart Fun! The Best of National Public Radio, featuring DRM-free mp3s of Exactly What It Says In The Title from the notable radio programming organization (Wikipedia).

It's mainly humour programs (including a set of interviews with "funny" people including Futurama voice actor Billy West and a documentary series on early comedians), but there's also a Star Wars radio drama adaptation, and a reading of the non-fiction Annoying: the Science of What Bugs Us by its authors.

Current average is under $8 with more titles to be added next week, top tier is $15.

This bundle is ON AIR. Many classic shows have made their way through the public radio airwaves, and now they're making their way through the mp3waves!

Pay what you want for Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us, NPR Funniest Driveway Moments, The Best of Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!, and Star Wars: The Original Radio Drama.

Pay more than the average price to also receive NPR More Funniest Driveway Moments, NPR Laughter Therapy: A Comedy Collection for the Chronically Serious, Fresh Air: Just for Laughs, The Best of Pop Culture Happy Hour, and Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me! The Best of Not My Job.

Pay $15 or more for all of that plus Car Talk: 25 Years of Lousy Car Advice, Lake Wobegon Family Reunion, and NPR Laughter Therapy: Funny for a Living

Also, last week's Humble Comics Bundle Image featuring Creators Own Worlds has updated with another volume of Brian K. Vaughan's Hugo Award-nominated science fiction epic Saga, another volume of Kieron Gillen's Phonogram, and an introductory volume of Canadian comics creator Jeff Lemire's Descender.

And there's a daily free #1 issue comic offer when you sign up for the newsletter (contents also included in your purchase if you make one).

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by koland

Actually, I can't find any evidence that monoskop.org has permission to disseminate that or any other of the files they host. It appears from the Help page that anyone can create an account and upload files there. This particular one is still in print, definitely not out of copyright, with The New Press listed as the publisher for the paper edition.

Sorry to take so long to respond. I had actually made the post on a different thread than I had planned to and just in the last hour or so found your post and cromag's.

I have taken down the post. I won't be posting anymore ebooks located at monoskop.org.

Believe it or not, I am very conscientious about stuff like you brought up. I run across a superfluity of ebooks (mostly pdfs) offered for free download on various websites. I pass on a huge number of those, because of concerns. For example, I found, a few days ago, a really desirable ebook of fairly recent publication, and one that is pretty expensive if you have to buy it. The issue? It was posted on an Italian website. The book is in English, but the website posting it is Italian (with no "English" option that I could find). I know nothing about the Italian language. I know even less about Italian copyright laws (my understanding is that even if a book is out of copyright in the U.S., a person in the U.S. for example, yours truly) cannot legally download the book for free from a website located in a country where the book is still in copyright). I gathered that the website was of a non-profit, but that was about all. Early today, I closed the tab on my browser for that webpage (meaning that I've given up on posting the ebook on it).

Some examples of free ebooks that I feel comfortable posting are those which come directly from the publisher, those found on reliable third-party websites such as archive.org and books.google.com, and those on reliable websites which clearly state that the offerings are open access. In other words, ones which are squeaky clean. Not to fear, that still leaves an enormous amount of acceptable ebooks, far more than I can possibly post myself.

Concerning The Lands Where the Blues Began, the publisher (The New Press) is a non-profit. It seems to me that that may increase the likelihood that the book was posted with their permission. However, we just don't know that permission actually had been granted. It seems to me that when permission has been granted, it would be helpful if the uploader of the ebook would upload also a scanned (i.e., facsimile) copy of the letter, or whatever that they've received from the publisher/copyright holder, along with it, in order to give assurance to everyone else that the person has permission to have it posted on a third party's website.

[koland]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

...I have taken down the post. I won't be posting anymore ebooks located at monoskop.org.

Believe it or not, I am very conscientious about stuff like you brought up. I run across a superfluity of ebooks (mostly pdfs) offered for free download on various websites. I pass on a huge number of those, because of concerns. For example, I found, a few days ago, a really desirable ebook of fairly recent publication, and one that is pretty expensive if you have to buy it. The issue? It was posted on an Italian website. The book is in English, but the website posting it is Italian (with no "English" option that I could find)....

Some of the sites do give the appearance of permission, but I could not find any permissions at monoskop, but instead a very old (and often non-US hosted or college student) attitude that anyone that had an objection to their "hosting" files could file a takedown. The implication that anything still hosted there was by permission (rather than just not discovered, yet).

I also found a fairly recent book posted as a PDF recently, when I was searching out info on the book. I'm sure the original is in the public domain world-wide, but the translation I was hunting for does not appear to be (I had thought it might be older than it is). One of the top sites that turned up, though, was what appears to be an Asian college site of some sort (I'm not entirely sure which Asian nation, as I can't read much of of the site) and I really doubt they had permission to be hosting the book, as it is fairly recently copyrighted by a well-known publisher here in the States.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by koland

Some of the sites do give the appearance of permission, but I could not find any permissions at monoskop, but instead a very old (and often non-US hosted or college student) attitude that anyone that had an objection to their "hosting" files could file a takedown. The implication that anything still hosted there was by permission (rather than just not discovered, yet).
<snip>

My perception is that if someone posts a copyrighted video or image on, say, YouTube or Instagram, the onus is on the copyright owner/holder to make the host take the item down. Then the copyright owner/holder has to constantly monitor the site(s) to make sure that someone (else) doesn't post the same item again. The host is never subject to any kind of legal action (unless he doesn't take the item down when asked).

But it seems that when it comes to posting copyrighted ebooks, it's somehow a different situation. The hosting person or organization is legally liable and can be sued to the high heavens, even if he or it quickly responds with a takedown when the copyright owner/holder advises him of the problem. They are cut no slack.

At least that's the way that it seems to me. If my perception is reality, my question is "why the difference?" I think that I can say that it has nothing to do with the relative value of the video/image versus the book. For example, a blockbuster movie hit can make far more money than the book that it might have been based upon.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by koland

I also found a fairly recent book posted as a PDF recently, when I was searching out info on the book.

Searching a title which is out of print and not in ebook you can often find sites offering it as a PDF or other download, either free or if you register and give a credit card either for a small 'membership' for just for verification.

Of course the free download may contain malware and the credit card information may be sold on so this is very unsafe.

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

My perception is that if someone posts a copyrighted video or image on, say, YouTube or Instagram, the onus is on the copyright owner/holder to make the host take the item down. Then the copyright owner/holder has to constantly monitor the site(s) to make sure that someone (else) doesn't post the same item again. The host is never subject to any kind of legal action (unless he doesn't take the item down when asked).

But it seems that when it comes to posting copyrighted ebooks, it's somehow a different situation. The hosting person or organization is legally liable and can be sued to the high heavens, even if he or it quickly responds with a takedown when the copyright owner/holder advises him of the problem. They are cut no slack.

At least that's the way that it seems to me. If my perception is reality, my question is "why the difference?" I think that I can say that it has nothing to do with the relative value of the video/image versus the book. For example, a blockbuster movie hit can make far more money than the book that it might have been based upon.

The difference probably has to do with the type of site. When e-books get posted illegally by users to filehosts (think Mega, MediaFire, etc.) they usually don't sue them but DMCA the file like with stuff on Youtube or Instagram. And a lot of pirated e-books get posted to all the filehosting sites.

When the file is hosted on a site where the sole purpose is to share out illegal e-books (or videos, or music) then the site is likely to get sued, not DMCA'd. Or at least not just DMCA'd. They may try DMCAing the stuff first, but get fed up and sue the site later.

A lot depends on who's on the copyright holders' shit-lists though. They went after Hotfile and Megaupload even though both sides not only honored DMCA notices, but also had built special tools to allow copyright holders to take down infringing links without going through the DMCA process.