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Comment by Moru | Hacker News Reader

This is true not just for Kindle books. It's also your games library on Steam and all other similar stores. GOG.com is probably the only online game store where you realy own the stuff you "buy".

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Yes, but with Kindle at least you can strip the DRM of your eBooks.

There's a Calibre plugin[1] that does it.

If you really care about ebooks that you purchase, I highly recommend installing this plugin. It automatically strips DRM off books you download and open with Calibre.

And keep a back-up of the (DRM-free) books somewhere that's not Amazon / a cloud. Because a cloud is simply a computer that you do not own.

[1]http://www.geoffstratton.com/remove-drm-amazon-kindle-books

Note how this is in most jurisdictions illegal. You are now pirating, except you paid for it.

If by "most jurisdictions" you mean pretty much just US, then sure.

Is it really illegal? At least in the US cracking DRM for personal backup is not infringing AFAIK.

https://gizmodo.com/its-perfectly-legal-to-tell-people-how-t...

This is what makes ROMs for games for game consoles fully legal assuming you ripped them from physical copies. Not sure how anyone would prove you didnt generate the copy yourself.

Um, citation needed for that claim.

Well, but that's like saying that you can download cracks for video games, so it's all fine. There are ways to make steam games work without steam, yet I wouldn't consider that to be a solution.

I sorta used to do this so I wouldnt need to pop in a CD just to play some games cause the CDs were getting really scratched up as things were.

Or take this actual example: you buy a CD with a game, install it, and it doesn't run :( You go to the forums and there is a crack which also apparently fixes some crashes? You download and apply it, and lo, the game runs :)

In fact, I believe in some jurisdictions it's actually legal: since you bought it, you're allowed file and sandpaper it to make it actually work.

The last time I tried actually doing this, it was a huge pain in the ass: https://www.sonyaellenmann.com/2018/09/back-up-kindle-files-...

I have a Kindle; it took me about five minutes to follow the instructions once, and it was automatic after that.

I was going to throw in https://www.humblebundle.com/store, but then I realized that the myriad of various "bundles" that they keep launching nowadays (at least as far as games are concerned) and also their store only sells Steam keys. I think the games in the "Humble Indie Bundles" which come out once or twice a year are still mostly DRM free, but that's about it. You can't even search their store for "DRM free", so I guess that's not a thing there...

HumbleBundle is a classic case of moral decline once institutional priorities overcome the actual mission. It went from "nice idea to support indies and pay-as-you-wish" to just another bargain-price channel for any company, expanding for its own sake.

I still remember when the first set of games made a million dollars, and the devs were like “That’s enough money. Let’s open-source these games :D”

Can you imagine anybody in the industry saying “That’s enough money” today?

I don't think it is fair to pin this on steam. Plenty of games on steam run without steam, and require no installation - just copy them over to a different PC. They often come with binaries for all supported OSes at once, so your windows install will work on linux too.

It is the game publishers that choose to use steam drm. Often the same publishers publish on GOG without the drm (since gog, admirably, does not offer a drm option to them), but it is not steam that is forcing the drm on you. Your issue is with the game publisher.

No, it's in the agreement when you sign up for Steam. You don't own, you license.

Well the only owner is the copyright holder

The only game I play of game I'd notice if it where taken away is counter strike global offensive, which wouldn't really run all that well without valve backing it, so I'm okay with that.

Gog also forces me to use their stupid launcher now, and tries to trick me into "connecting all my accounts".

I don't see any compelling reason for me to prefer them over Steam, anymore.

How does it force you?

Dark patterns most likely. They hide the downloads as much as possible. But to play some games multiplayer you need the gog launcher.

What are you talking about? The DRM-free downloads are right there under "Backups" tab?

My single-player games all launch "gog galaxy" when I start them through the start menu.

Honestly, if I'm going to fight against my software, I might as well be pirating.

Genuine question: why do you consider the linked accounts a trick? I find the single launcher integration quite useful and don't see the privacy loss. Am I missing something?

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