DRM

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A community for the discussion of topics surrounding DRM, Digital Rights Management.

All media that DRM can be applied on can be discussed here, for example books, movies, music or games.

Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures, such as access control technologies, can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. DRM technologies govern the use, modification and distribution of copyrighted works (e.g. software, multimedia content) and of systems that enforce these policies within devices. DRM technologies include licensing agreements and encryption.

Wikipedia

Guides and useful tools

Quick and dirty way to rip an eBook from Android

2025 Guide for freeing books from Amazon (after D&T was removed)

Guide to Removing DRM From Amazon Kindle E-Books

Liberate your Kindle books before leaving Amazon (Tutorial)

How to setup Calibre to remove DRM from ebooks on Linux/Archive mirror

Guide on removing DRM from Kobo & Kindle eBooks (reddit mirror, Archive link)

Extracting content from an LCP "protected" ePub

DeDRM tools for eBooks: a plugin for Calibre for removing Adobe DRM, Obok etc.

Calibre eBook Management

Miscellaneous links

DRM - Frequently Asked Questions by DefectiveByDesign

Guide to DRM-Free Living by DefectiveByDesign

founded 9 months ago

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Yingwu@lemmy.dbzer0.com

Starting later this month, Amazon will let ebooks be offered DRM-free through direct download, even for those published before the change (kdp.amazon.com)

submitted 1 week ago by Auster@thebrainbin.org to c/drm@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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From their Digital Rights Management page (link):

Effective January 20, 2026, verified purchasers can download the EPUB and PDF files of your confirmed DRM-free books.

Also lower in the same page:

Change DRM settings

You have full control over your DRM settings and can change them at any time. Your DRM setting affects future download availability for all customers, regardless of when they purchased your book. After you select not to apply DRM, any verified purchaser will be able to download EPUB and PDF files effective January 20, 2026. If you later apply DRM, no new downloads in EPUB or PDF format will be available. However, readers who already downloaded EPUB or PDF files will retain access to them.

And this applies to older releases too, as per the paragraph and steps immediately after.

And where to download the files, from the bottom of the page:

Reader download access

Effective January 20, 2026, readers can download EPUB and PDF files of your DRM-free books from their Manage Your Content and Devices page on Amazon. Only verified purchasers who have bought your book can access the EPUB/PDF files. Customers who borrowed your books through Kindle Unlimited or other services can't download the EPUB/PDF files, even if the books are DRM-free.

If readers downloaded EPUB/PDF files when your book was DRM-free, they will retain access to those downloaded EPUB/PDF files even if you later apply DRM. However, the option to download EPUB/PDF files will not be available after your DRM setting change is live (approx. 24-72 hours after you publish).

And lastly, found about it after finding a news piece on that (link of the news).

top 5 comments

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[–] CubitOom 21 points 1 week ago

Fuck Amazon

[–] Bonus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago

Too late

[–] HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I primarily buy ebooks from smashwords or directly from the authors. I've not felt the need to make a Amazon account yet, but if this becomes real, I might broaden my horizons a bit.

[–] tabris@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Nah, never give Amazon money. They don't deserve it.

[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 2 points 6 days ago

Sadly if the person seeks to incentivize "DRM-freedom", some concessions need to be made. For ebooks, there's not many major platforms that sell them without copy protection, so if Amazon can be useful, even if momentarily, the chance shouldn't be overlooked.

And in the "unlikelihood" the change is genuine, answering good will with aggressiveness risks reversing the change entirely. And if they're doing it for some ulterior motive, then people should at least remember to keep an eye for their moves and back up everything they can before Amazon tries to pull the rug.