#DRM-free

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The Cory Doctorow Humble Bundle

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then San Francisco (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

It's been 21 years and 29 days since Tor Books published my first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. In the years since, Tor has published every one of my novels, sending me around the USA and Canada to talk about them. Now, they've teamed up with Humble Bundle to sell 18 of my ebooks on a name-your-price basis, with part of the proceeds going to benefit EFF:

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/cory-doctorow-novel-collection-tor-books-books

I've been associated with EFF even longer than I've been published by Tor! My first novel came out while I was working EFF's first-ever booth at CES. I split my time between the booth and my motel room, where I paid $0.25/call to dial up to Earthlink's local number and manage the launch-day publicity. Over the years, I've benefited immensely from Tor's editorial and publicity departments, working with brilliant publishing people like Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Patty Garcia, Dot Lin, Laura Etzkorn, Elena Stokes, Sarah Reidy, Lucille Rettino, and of course, Tor founder Tom Doherty.

But I like to think that it was a two-way street. Tor and I have come a long way together on ebooks: most visibly, they allowed me to publish several novels under Creative Commons licenses (my first book was the first ever CC book, coming out just weeks after the licenses themselves launched). As my editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden said at the time, "Ebooks have the worst hours-in-meeting-to-dollars-in-revenue ratio of anything in my publishing career. Why not?"

https://craphound.com/down/download/

Just as important – but less visible – was Tor's willingness to let me insist that all my books be published without DRM, meaning that anything you buy on say, Amazon, can be moved to any reader program if you decide to start getting your ebooks elsewhere. This worked so well that in 2012, Tor became the first major publisher in the world to ban DRM on all its ebooks, flying me, John Scalzi and Charlie Stross to New York City to announce it this at a big, splashy event at Book Expo America:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130512022634/https://tor.com/blogs/2012/06/tor-books-announces-e-book-store-doctorow-scalzi-a-stross-talk-drm-free

Tor's unique status as the sole major DRM-free publisher in the world was well timed! That same year, I curated the very first Humble Ebook Bundle, which was very top-heavy with Tor titles, and raised more than $1,000,000 for the writers, publishers and charities associated with it:

https://web.archive.org/web/20121017215636/http://www.humblebundle.com/

That opened the floodgates to a series of Humble Bundles, tempting other major publishers to dabble with DRM-free, including Simon and Schuster:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-I5QyAfglU

And Harpercollins:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHMLfeCrCrE

Now, 12 years after that inaugural Humble Ebook Bundle, I find myself honored by being the subject of a bundle of my own (it helps that I've written a hell of a lot of books in the intervening years). Included in the bundle are (nearly) all of my Tor novels and novellas: The Lost Cause; "The Canadian Miracle" (a Lost Cause story); Red Team Blues; Radicalized; Walkaway; "Party Discipline" (a Walkaway story); Pirate Cinema; Rapture of the Nerds (with Charlie Stross); For The Win; Makers; Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town; Eastern Standard Tribe, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Little Brother, Homeland, Attack Surface, and "Lawful Interception" (a Little Brother story).

(The sole exclusion is The Bezzle, which came out two weeks ago and is already a USA Today national bestseller!)

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

Also included in the bundle is Poesy the Monster Slayer, my 2020 picture book for the littlies:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627/poesythemonsterslayer

All these books are delivered as DRM-free epub files. The Bundle runs for the next three weeks, and the minimum buy-in is $18 – that's just $1/book (full retail value is $187). Of course, you can name a higher price, and, as with all Humble Bundles, you can adjust the final split to share out the money between me, EFF, and the Humble folks.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/03/humbly-bundled/#eff-too

[hanakogames]

Save 50% on pretty-much-everything for Black Friday 2023

[bornangelauthor]

eBooks Now on my website!

DRM-Free and from the author so there's no paying the Corporations and you can have your books anywhere you want to read them!

If you like DRM-Free Ebooks, I now have Ebooks listed on my website store. These books are Fast passed, character driven, Paranormal/Urban Fantasy with Paranormal Romance, Crime thriller, and a twist of Mythology with a heaping ton of Paranormal creatures though the focus is Angels both created and born. Also featuring Fated Mates, Serial killers, Vigilante Justice, and more!

Comp titles for the Born Angel Universe:

If you like The Dresden Files, The Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Novels, The Sookie Stackhouse Series, ACOTAR, Vampire Diaries, Vampire Academy, Succubus Blues, the Mercy Thompson Series, Immortal Instruments, Dark Hunters, and Good Omens. You're sure to LOVE these series.

[savingcontent]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is now available on GOG, with previous installments joining the GOG Preservation Program

Continue reading S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is now available on GOG, with previous installments joining the GOG Preservation Program

[catgirlforeskin]

I’m like one of those egg-cracker girls but for tabletop. Nothing is more satisfying than convincing a GM to stop running 5e for their group and start a different rpg, and hearing about how their mewling worms of players complain but ultimately go along with it because lord knows none of them have the spine to find a new group or GM themselves.

Remember that when your DnD players give you all the work, they also give you all the power. Each will whimper and beg like a dog when you crack the whip and tell them they’re learning Mausritter this week, you need only wield it

[cakesmelons]

You remember the harem timeline where dream fucking dies? No? Too bad 'cause I gotta rush- **sonic speeds to school

[unpretty]

serial reader is a neat app idea but i'd like it better if i could pop my own epubs in there

[hapigairu]

I don't really care about DA, but everytime I see content about the newest entry, this is what my brain imagines:

[melonymint753]

[krissiefox]

Lethal Company (PC) Game Review

Lethal Company is a survival horror game that came out roughly a year ago, which I was introduced to by my little brother. You play as a scrap scavenger working for a cold and ruthless company, and must travel to different planets looking for items inside of abandoned structures. Every time you visit a planet you are given a quota to meet, and if you fail to do so, then you will be killed by your own employers upon leaving the planet!

As a survival horror game, it is very effective and atmospheric. The graphics are intentionally murky, being seen through your characters dirty helmet. Every planet is populated by all sorts of freaky creatures and monsters that can be encountered both indoors and outdoors. The sound design is fantastic, with lots of creepy ambience and unsettling background music when you're wandering inside the old structures. There are little bits of humor here and there but most of the time things are quite eerie.

Gameplay wise, Lethal Company is quite difficult for me, even when playing online co-op. It's very dark inside of buildings, and I feel it's almost mandatory to have a flashlight with you, which you unfortunately can only get by purchasing one (though they are pretty cheap) . I would have preferred a flashlight just being built into the players suit or something, but the game does seem to have a robust modding community, so perhaps someone has made a mod for that!

While the game's multiplayer mode can take away from the horror experience in some ways, it also has some nice features to it and some features that add horror in different ways! For example, some monsters in the game can hear if people are talking on their microphone, and will discover you unless you keep quiet. Another great spooky feature is that players voices can no longer be heard if they die, and they also have limited range, meaning if you get separated from your group, you won't be able to hear anyone and you'll be all alone with the monsters looking for you. Other nice general game-play features for the multiplayer include things like being able to save your teammates by teleporting them back to the ship if a monster is after them, or working with a friend to watch for monsters while they carry a large scrap object around.

Outside of the excessively dark environments at times, Lethal Company is a great horror title and a cool spooky multiplayer experience as well. I definitely recommend giving it a look, and it's also DRM free (at least in single player mode)!

More screenshots below!

[netscapenavigator-official]

I know this is an improper use of this meme format, but

I’m honestly tired of Tumblr Dot Com users trying to promote CDs, DVDs, and BDs are the best way to “own your media” in 2024. They’re not. They never were. They never will be. (You stupid sluts.)

With the exception of M-Discs. M-Disc BDs, and the even rarer format (M-Disc DVDs), are adequate for archiving. In fact, it’s what they’re designed to do. But good luck finding some that won’t blow the bank. And they’ll most likely be 128 GB or less, so you’re still better off just running two cheap Walmart HDDs in parallel.

[decepti-thots]

this is getting actually silly now tbh

[g66lol]

These days, almost all of us are creating media and sharing it online.

One problem is finding good music that doesn't infringe on copyrights. 

Even if you're not trying to monetize your creations, platforms like YouTube and Twitch will put ads on anything you create that uses copyrighted music.

I hear some podcast hosts are doing this now, too.

I'm starting a record label that ONLY provides music that is #DRMFree and #CreativeCommons.

You go to the website, choose a genre you like and listen to some music.

Then you buy the albums you like or even just individual songs.

It's immediately available for download and you can then put them in whatever creations you want.

You own the music forever.

Don't worry about your Twitch and YouTube videos being demonetized.

With our DRM-Free Creative Commons music, you'll be able to use your music as you please, on any device you want.

Buy some music now to help raise funds to get the record label off the ground:

If you prefer #InstrumentalHipHop, check out the beatMage: https://megabyteghost.bandcamp.com/album/a-day-at-the-carnival-with-the-beat-mage

If you like #Industrial music, check out megabyteGhost: https://megabyteghost.bandcamp.com/album/dead-mans-switch

And if you like #DarkAmbient music, check out Prefecture.Audio: https://megabyteghost.bandcamp.com/album/prefecture-audio-ii-swamp

[metamatar]

i wonder if other people have this weird relationship with digital objects too but i can't really think of my lovingly organised music or book collection on my hard drive as something i own or something that is mine. most of it is pirated so maybe that adds to it? i just think of it as a really opinionated archive. the possibility of infinite replication makes it something that automatically belongs to everyone. its just a subset of the commons.

[savingcontent]

GOG re-releases 100 improved classic games as part of the new GOG Preservation Program

Continue reading GOG re-releases 100 improved classic games as part of the new GOG Preservation Program

[molags-balls]

I downloaded the GOG edition of Skyrim Special Edition as it’s still on 1.6.629. It has been so much more stable than the Steam version and idk why. I have the exact same mods but it loads up faster and has less stutter.

Plus it’s DRM free. You get an offline installer so you can actually own the game. Since it’s DRM free you don’t need to connect to Bethesda for the Anniversary Edition creations. They’re included as a separate offline installer. It also makes updates optional.