03-26-2009, 10:01 AM | #1 |
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Kindle Books From Amazon Without DRM
As I understand it, some of the books that Amazon sells for Kindle have no DRM. Alas, I can't see any way to tell which ones they are. Since I consider books without DRM more valuable (for obvious reasons that have been covered many times) and I have the impression I'm not the only one, I was thinking it might be good to set up a list here of which books are known not to have DRM and are therefore better values for the money.
So to start off: Analog Science Fiction and Fact (magazine, not book, I know) has no DRM. Anybody else know one? Or more? |
03-27-2009, 07:02 PM | #2 |
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I think some publishers never had DRM, but it would generally be a pain in the neck to list all the books separately.
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03-27-2009, 07:13 PM | #3 |
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If we know what books don't have DRM, maybe we can figure out which publishers don't use it.
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03-27-2009, 07:41 PM | #4 |
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How do you find out which one has DRM and which does not?
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03-27-2009, 08:56 PM | #5 |
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If the file name is entirely numbers, then it probably has no DRM.
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03-27-2009, 10:07 PM | #6 |
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In my case, I found out about Analog not having any because I wanted to move them onto my new Kindle 2 and Amazon support said they could only move the last 3 months worth. So just on spec I tried copying the previous 7 months across with the USB cord. They work fine; ergo, no DRM.
There may be other ways to check; I don't know what they are, though. |
03-27-2009, 10:12 PM | #7 | |
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I don't even think you need to change the extension, just open it in some kind of Mobi reading software, but I'm not sure. |
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03-27-2009, 10:35 PM | #8 |
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As AnemicOak says, rename from .azw to .mobi (or .prc) and try to open using any MOBI Reader.
There is a 2-byte int near the start of the file that are either set to 0 (no DRM) or 2 (standard DRM). This is one of the checks that kindlefix.py uses when "fixing" a MOBI file (there is obviously no need to fix a Kindle AZW file, but the needed check is in this python script). So if should be easy for someone to write an "isdrmfree" script. Unfortunately my Python skills are below novice level. |
03-27-2009, 11:11 PM | #9 |
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The easy way is to copy the book from your Kindle to a PC, change the file type from .azw to .mobi and then try to open the book in Mobipocket Reader.
By the way, Mighty Hammer Down by David J. Guyton was DRM-free. |
03-28-2009, 01:29 PM | #10 | |
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See the attached python script, kindledrm.py, which reports the status of an AZW ebook. Note that kindledrm is not touching the file's DRM, it just looks at a 2-byte integer in the header that indicates the presence of DRM.
Using a windows command for loop (see the readme in the .zip) I found the following DRM-free AZWs on my Kindle: Quote:
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03-28-2009, 05:43 PM | #11 | |
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03-28-2009, 11:55 PM | #12 |
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thanks for the suggestion about the python scripts. I don't know anything about python and am a little intimidated about learning, but I will keep them in mind.
Since python scripts do lots of things, I don't see what could be wrong about including information about installing python in the wiki. For my part, since I have 2 Kindles, the easiest way would probably be for me to just use the USB cords to copy files from one Kindle to another and see if they will open. Unless I wanted to check boodles of files, but I only have a dozen or so Amazon e-books, and of course all my e-books from other sources are DRM-free, since that's what you have to use in Kindle. But I appreciate the pointers and they may be helpful to other readers, who may have more e-books than I do. I'm very interested to see Startide Rising and White Witch, Black Curse are DRM free. I may go out and buy those; I've read Startide Rising but don't have it in E, and White Witch Black Curse looked interesting. If they're DRM-free, they're good deals. --Okay, that's weird. Just a sec (clunking and scrabbling noises) very weird. I can't find a Kindle version of Startide Rising at Amazon. I found White Witch, Black Curse, though. I have downloaded a couple of samples from the series and will see if I like them. Thanks for the tip. And good to know that Asimov's is DRM free--I will have to think about whether I want to subscribe to that on top of Analog. Weird about Startide Rising; I wonder if they pulled it? Or maybe it was one of the extra large print ones? |
03-29-2009, 12:02 AM | #13 | |
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03-29-2009, 12:50 AM | #14 |
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FWIW I doubt White Witch, Black Curse is DRM free (never seen a Harper Collins book that is). What Wallcraft listed was a sample and AFAIK no samples have DRM. It's a good book, but as Daffy says not one to start with you'd want the first book in the series.
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03-29-2009, 09:11 AM | #15 | |
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