My Kindle should arrive on Tuesday and I'm looking into buying some books for it. In my research of comparing the Kindle with the Nook, I discovered that both B&N and Amazon put a DRM (Digital Rights Management) on their books, which not only makes it difficult to put books on the opponent's device, but also gives them the right to take the books away from us, which I'm not happy with. I know Smashwords is a good website that sells books DRM free, but I'd like to have other options in case SW doesn't have the book I want. Can anyone suggest other websites that sell books for Kindle, DRM free? Even if they don't have Mobi downloads, my research indicates I can convert Epub into Mobi if the book is DRM free, so a website with Epub works fine.
Does Amazon have DRM on ALL their books? At least for self-publishers, there's an option to use it or not. If you're looking for a book that isn't available on Smashwords and you're trying to avoid Amazon, you may end up looking for some pretty niche stores. There are other online distributors, for sure (iBooks, etc.) but I think they're all going to have the same limits as the Smashwords catalogue.
I'm not necessarily trying to avoid Amazon, I just want to be able to put the books I buy on either device, easily, and have the right to keep said book. I don't like the idea of "buying" a book for full price when I'm practically renting it. I don't know if all Amazon books have DRM. Honestly, I didn't even think to look it up, but now I will! If they aren't all DRM, I'll have to research how to tell which ones are and which ones aren't. Thanks for the idea!
Okay, so apparently not all books on Amazon are DRM protected and you can tell if they are by looking under the product details and looking for this: Simultaneous Device Usage: If it says Unlimited, then the book isn't DRM protected, but if it's not mentioned or if it has a number, then it's DRM protected. I'd still like to have other options of book retailers that sell DRM-free books, if anyone knows of any.
