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 1 week ago

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Is it ethical to DeDRM lent library ebooks? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This isn't a debate about the legality of the matter, but on whether it's ethical to DeDRM ebooks that you've checked out from a library. The publishing company and author are usually paid for each copy that you've lent, which is often why eBooks exhaust large parts of a library's budget. If you are able to loan a book for a month, but you DeDRM it and don't share it anyone else, and therefore instead finish it in two months, is this ethical? Or have you intentionally reduced the potential for more revenue to the author by instead not lending it twice? Do the publishers predatory licensing fees for libraries make this more ethical?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I don't De-DRM borrowed ebooks as I don't own them (I borrow the book I don't buy it, it's a renting contract between myself and the library and the publisher, I want to respect it). I do remove DRM from books I purchased because like with a printed book I expect to fully own what I purchase. At least I did so, since I quit entirely purchasing DRMed ebooks. If I need more time to read a borrowed ebook, I can add extra time to my renting of it.

My opinion is that by not respecting the contract we do no harm to the publishers but we put the very existence of ebook rental at risk, maybe even of public libraries.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Interesting argument! While I have no qualms DeDRMing bought books, I do feel a bit more bad about trying to DeDRM lent books.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's what I said (maybe failed to make it clear?): I play by the rules and don't De-DRM rented books ;)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Yes, sorry, I got your point and I'm leaning towards your side of the argument. I think I was the one being unclear.

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