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| oldtech:calibre:gibberingmanifesto [2025/05/07 16:43] – created ifixcoinops | oldtech:calibre:gibberingmanifesto [2025/05/16 14:40] (current) – ifixcoinops |
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| (If you're thinking "Well shit, the pirates have won and the publishers haven't just let them but practically forced them to," yes, you're right. I told you the ebook industry was messed up.) | (If you're thinking "Well shit, the pirates have won and the publishers haven't just let them but practically forced them to," yes, you're right. I told you the ebook industry was messed up.) |
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| | If you wanna read old books out of copyright, Project Gutenberg has an abundance of free books for you, and you can fill your ereader to the brim with pre-1920's classics (and more recent books with permissive copyright terms) 100% legally. |
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| Indie authors are well-represented on smashwords.com, and last I checked they didn't use or allow DRM at all, so anything you buy from there you should be able to read on a vintage ereader no problem. | Indie authors are well-represented on smashwords.com, and last I checked they didn't use or allow DRM at all, so anything you buy from there you should be able to read on a vintage ereader no problem. |
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| Some indie authors sell DRM-free epub files on their own websites (they'll often make a big deal of telling you they're DRM-free), and they //definitely// deserve your money. Lately a lot of Incredibly Indie Authors (like the trans furry solarpunk anarchists on the Fediverse) have been publishing books on itch.io or gumroad, and they're well worth checking out too. | Some indie authors sell DRM-free epub files on their own websites (they'll often make a big deal of telling you they're DRM-free), and they //definitely// deserve your money. Lately a lot of Incredibly Indie Authors (like the trans furry solarpunk anarchists on the Fediverse who all hate DRM) have been publishing books on itch.io or gumroad, and they're well worth checking out too. |
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| Personally I think that if you buy a book, you should be able to read it on whatever you've got handy, and the overwhelming majority of people agree with me. It doesn't take much to argue that the massive waste of resources including rare earth metals and conflict minerals that goes into replacing perfectly functional ereaders with new ones is a much greater and more material evil than downloading books from shadow libraries. You could even argue that the only "morally correct" way of consuming encrypted ebooks is to pirate them and then put some money in whatever tip jar the author's set up on their own website. But then this would be a gibbering manifesto. Back to the actual guide. | Personally I think that if you buy a book, you should be able to read it on whatever you've got handy, and the overwhelming majority of people agree with me. It doesn't take much to argue that the massive waste of resources including rare earth metals and conflict minerals that goes into replacing perfectly functional ereaders with new ones is a much greater and more material evil than downloading books from shadow libraries. You could even argue that the only "morally correct" way of consuming encrypted ebooks is to pirate them and then put some money in whatever tip jar the author's set up on their own website. But then this would be a gibbering manifesto. Back to the actual guide. |
