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switching.social @switchingsocial

The kobo.com sells lots of non-DRM eBooks! :blobaww:

However, they also sell lots of DRM eBooks, all mixed together with the non-DRM, and no filter to sort them out :blobcry:

This makes it very difficult to look for non-DRM books on .

So, to solve this problem switching.social presents the Unofficial Kobo Search page, which lets you find non-DRM books available on your country's Kobo site:

switching.social/unofficial-ko

Any feedback very welcome.

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DerGatt @dergatt@mastodon.social

@switchingsocial that's a neat idea.
How about leaving the text field blank and only search for DRM free books or have a tick box to toggle between DRM and non DRM.
So people can't accidently deleted it and get different results.

switching.social @switchingsocial

@dergatt

You're right, and in fact that was the original plan, but I'm not a developer and I don't know how 😕

If anyone knows how to automatically insert "drm-free" into search query forms without it appearing in the text field, please let me know.

Albatroz Jeremias @ajeremias@coletivos.org

@switchingsocial
sounds like advertisement.. what is this kobo? why should i even buy anything from a company which supports drm? :confused:

switching.social @switchingsocial

@ajeremias

Kobo has the widest range of popular non-DRM eBooks, so being able to search through that non-DRM range is very useful. (By the way, it's the publishers that decide whether to use DRM or not.)

They also make nice eReaders that support the non-DRM ePub format. Kindle doesn't support ePub at all, probably because they don't want people sideloading books from other sources.

Basically, Kobo don't lock people down anywhere near as much as Amazon/Kindle does.

Albatroz Jeremias @ajeremias@coletivos.org

@switchingsocial
cool nice to known :) its alway good to support 'our projects'.. very good clarification ;)

switching.social @switchingsocial

@ajeremias

You are right to be careful, they are a large multinational corporation and may change policies in future.

But that's why non-DRM files are great, because we aren't tied to the company that sells them 👍

By the way, if anyone's interested, there's also unofficial libre firmware for Kobo eReaders:

github.com/lgeek/okreader

cybre ebeth @ebeth@cybre.space

@switchingsocial
thank you so much for this!

Benjamin @Benjamin@writing.exchange

@switchingsocial would it be possible to make it a search of all non-DRM ebooks.

switching.social @switchingsocial

@Benjamin

Covering other sources as well as Kobo, you mean?

Christopher Rozruch @krozruch@ppp.marginalie.eu
@switchingsocial Sounds good. I often point people in the direction of Verso not because they are wonderful at supporting customer choice. You can download without DRM or through Amazon. Their catalogue is wonderful https://www.versobooks.com/pg/verso-ebooks
It includes The Writings of Aaron Swartz https://www.versobooks.com/books/2077-the-boy-who-could-change-the-world
Christopher Rozruch @krozruch@ppp.marginalie.eu
@switchingsocial Also, I should do this more myself, but readers with e-books looking into DRM etc. ought to try to contact any small publishers they know (and [would] support) to discuss the example of, for example, Verso, and others (like Tor?) who support Creative Commons and the like. They may not know there is a market, and indeed, it may at times appear contra-intuitive to them that this may help them find an enthusiastic audience.
switching.social @switchingsocial

@krozruch

Yes, readers telling publishers they want books without DRM is a good idea.

If you're interested in publishers / indie bookshops without DRM, you might want to check out Libreture's list:

libreture.com/bookshops/

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