Free e books

Crusader said:
Just be aware that there are loads of titles made available without the author's consent. See - https://www.npr.org/2020/03/30/8237...demn-the-national-emergency-library-as-piracy

Authors are also in dire circumstances so support them whenever you can.
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While I understand their displeasure that the library is loaning out more than one copy of their work at a time during this crisis the whole format shifting argument is disingenuous at best. Like when record companies had a fit when we converted out CDs in MP3s for our iPods.

These books, mostly in hard copy, were donated to the libraries by people who purchased them, and then digitised.
 
bwana said:
While I understand their displeasure that the library is loaning out more than one copy of their work at a time during this crisis the whole format shifting argument is disingenuous at best. Like when record companies had a fit when we converted out CDs in MP3s for our iPods.

These books, mostly in hard copy, were donated to the libraries by people who purchased them, and then digitised.
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It's not just that. The ebooks they offer lack DRM (contrary to what they say). With normal ebooks from a library the library gets a certain amount of loans, title can only be loaned to one patron at a time and the authors are paid a very small royalty per loan (depending on country).
 
Crusader said:
It's not just that. The ebooks they offer lack DRM (contrary to what they say). With normal ebooks from a library the library gets a certain amount of loans, title can only be loaned to one patron at a time and the authors are paid a very small royalty per loan (depending on country).
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They've got something on them because I could not upload one to my kindle because of DRM.

And yes - I get their ire at having multiple copies being loaned out at one time but these are extraordinary times and may even help prevent piracy in the future.
 
bwana said:
They've got something on them because I could not upload one to my kindle because of DRM.

And yes - I get their ire at having multiple copies being loaned out at one time but these are extraordinary times and may even help prevent piracy in the future.
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They might have fixed it or it might be on certain items. I know tests done by authors showed that their titles didn't have any DRM.

As for preventing piracy I'm not sure since this is technically piracy in itself. I'm all for digitizing out of print titles, but titles from living authors are a bit iffy since they don't get any royalties.
 
Crusader said:
They might have fixed it or it might be on certain items. I know tests done by authors showed that their titles didn't have any DRM.

As for preventing piracy I'm not sure since this is technically piracy in itself. I'm all for digitizing out of print titles, but titles from living authors are a bit iffy since they don't get any royalties.
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People are borrowing books from the library in good faith, who's to say they won't continue to do so when it's one loan per copy again.

They're digitising books in their possession. Authors wanting to be paid twice for the same book seems a little greedy to me.

Anyway I borrowed a book, it had DRM, I couldn't load it on my Kindle so I returned it. Which are the ones you've borrowed without DRM? I'm happy to see if they've since added it. :)
 
bwana said:
Anyway I borrowed a book, it had DRM, I couldn't load it on my Kindle so I returned it. Which are the ones you've borrowed without DRM? I'm happy to see if they've since added it. :)
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I've got more than enough reading material. Piles and piles of physical books so don't need to use this.

You could check Gareth L. Powell's books if they are still up there. I know he had issues with his.

As for authors wanting to be paid multiple times. Most SA bestsellers only sell like a 1000 copies and most books take years to write I can understand their frustration.
 
Crusader said:
You could check Gareth L. Powell's books if they are still up there. I know he had issues with his.
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One book, The recollection, is available to borrow and it's definitely encrypted.
 
As someone mentioned above, get Caliber. Once installed search for books, most of the free ones will be from gutenberg. With Caliber you can convert almost any book format to epub format which comes in handy if you have pdf files for example. Also get the android app called CoolReader. It reads books aloud in addition to just being a great reader (You can also search and download ebooks) and can handle epub format. I have about 120 ebooks on my phone.
 
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