Non-Amazon free books, one NOT readable on Kindle

UPDATE 12/26/09 at 9:43 PM PST - Apologies, the University of Chicago Press book below is a PDF that's protected by Adobe Digital Edition, which I did download to the computer (it's free to pc and Mac users), following instructions there.

  The book, protected by Adobe with "Digital Rights Management" (called "DRM") is readable on the computer.  I browsed the book on my pc and yet managed to forget it needed the Adobe rights protection and that the Kindle would then need the special Adobe digital-rights software for one to read it on the Kindle, even though I'd recently explained the Adobe/Amazon DRM sitation at Kindleboards forum and at the Amazon Kindle forum when people felt it doesn't matter that Amazon hasn't paid Adobe for Adobe's DRM package.

  In August, I explained the possible problem for Amazon in using Adobe's DRM and opined that

' Adobe and Amazon are competitors in some ways, so that might be a problem, but it'd be nice if Amazon could get/buy the full licensing from Adobe for annotating PDFs and also whatever it takes for Adobe's DRM over ePub.

Amazon owns Lexcycle which makes Stanza and focuses on ePub, so it's all possible, but they will have $$business reasons for not doing this (but I think they'll eventually have to, to stay on top of the e-readers stack).'

  I should delete this blog entry so as not to raise hopes as I did re that free-book series, but it's a good example of varied DRM-use.  Amazon is decried by anti-DRM groups because they use DRM on their books to protect them from piracy.

 The DRM Amazon uses, furthermore, is its own (no surprise) -- Sony also used their own until this month, when they switched to Adobe's DRM (with payment to Adobe) which is used over any purchased or rented ePub and PDF formats.
  For mobile e-readers, Sony and other e-reader manufacturers are starting to use "The Adobe® Reader Mobile software development kit (SDK), available by license."

"MOBI" format (which Amazon uses) used to be "the open format" before ePub took hold, which is one reason Kindle users can download easily and read the mostly-free MOBI files from Project Gutenberg (30,000)), Freebooks.com, Manybooks.net and even Fiction-wise (as described in the ongoing free-books blog article here.

  The "free" book by University of Chicago Press below is normally sold and is protected by Adobe's Digital Rights Management protection, but Amazon would have to buy the Adobe rights-software/firmware for use on their Kindle device before the book can be read on the Kindle.  My Bad.

So, for Kindle users, your computer is where you can read the books protected by Adobe, and the instructions for downloading the 'free' book below leads us to the free user-software for Adobe (allowing us to read it on our computers).

  I've corrected the title.   The free Adobe Editions app for PCs and Macs is described by Adobe this way:

' Adobe® Digital Editions software offers an engaging way to view and manage eBooks and other digital publications.  Use it to download and purchase digital content, which can be read both online and offline.  Transfer copy-protected eBooks from your personal computer to other computers or devices.  Organize your eBooks into a custom library and annotate pages.
  Digital Editions also supports industry-standard eBook formats, including PDF/A and EPUB. '

It's similar to the situation of a non-Kindle owner being able to buy any Kindle book for reading, with no Kindle, on their computers after downloading the also free Amazon "Kindle for PC" application (Mac and Blackberry versions coming any day).

Similarly, non-Kindle owners can read a Kindle book (purchased or free) on their iPhones or iPods (with the free Kindle app for iPhone and iPod) w/o owning a Kindle.

So, if Kindle owners really want to read a book that's protected by Adobe's method of DRM, it's not readable on the Kindle unless Amazon has purchased from Adobe the software for use in the Kindle's firmware.  But they can read them on the computer the way non-Kindle owners can read purchased or free Kindle books on their computers. (as of early November).

(Original posting of University of Chicago's free monthly book, below)

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1.   The University of Chicago Press makes available, in PDF* format, each month, a free e-book version of one of their books.  December's is Headless Males Make Great Lovers And Other Unusual Natural Histories.

  From their description: ' The natural world is filled with diverse—not to mention quirky and odd—animal behaviors. Consider the male praying mantis that continues to mate after being beheaded; the spiders, insects, and birds that offer gifts of food in return for sex; the male hip-pocket frog that carries his own tadpoles; the baby spiders that dine on their mother; the beetle that craves excrement; or the starfish that sheds an arm or two to escape a predator's grasp.'

A review in New Scientist says:

' “It’s not just about insect sex—though there is a lot of it here. Marty Crump’s book is a trawl through the whole gamut of weird animal behaviors. Watch out for spine-anointing, toad-chewing hedgehogs; tortoises that stomp the ground to draw up worms; and the mantids of the title that mate more effectively once the female has bitten off their heads.… This beautifully written and charmingly illustrated book combines acute observation with helpful explanation. Nature has never seemed so bizarre and splendid.”—Adrian Barnett, New Scientist '

The regular pricing on this e-book is between $5 to $14 depending on how long you want to keep it, and the paperback copy is $14 while the cloth version is $25.  Here's the page for their explanation of their pricing.
  But until the end of December, this e-book is free.



2. As written last week here, TechCrunch's Paul Carr is offering a free PDF* of his book Bringing Nothing to the Party - True Confessions of a New Media Whore, and you can read about its background and how to get it free here.

* PDFs are now readable on Kindle (US) and Kindle International.  You'd need to download them to your computer and then move them to the 'documents' folder of your Kindle.

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LINKS FOR SEARCHING FOR FREE OR LOW-COST E-BOOKS
Here is the ongoing set of links for various Searches for free or low-cost Kindle-compatible books. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Free or low-cost Kindle books - 12-19-09 - Update

Many of these are likely to be short-term.

Paul Carr and TechCrunch are offering his book, Bringing Nothing to the Party - True Confessions of a New Media Whore, in PDF format, for free, in the U.S., under a Creative Commons License though it is for sale outside the U.S., with rights owned by his publisher and it is still available as a Kindle book (for $9.99) at Amazon.  His friends apparently don't tend to have Kindles and I guess wouldn't want to read it on an iPhone, iPod, or on their laptops etc., so he is making the book available for $0.00 in the U.S.

  He still owns the U.S. rights to his books, despite the frowns of his publisher, W&N, and its parent company, Hachette Livre, about releasing one of his books for free -- Hachette has "decreed that they will not allow any ebooks to be distributed for free, or without DRM."  W&N and Hachette have reminded him that foreign readers would be able to download the PDF e-book from the U.S, which would breach W&N's contractual rights.

  But you can download the PDF version now.  He adds:

' Finally it’s worth saying that, for all of my ego, the book is actually quite a hard thing for me to give away: its 275 pages tell the story of a very strange few years of my life – years that cost me my career, my reputation, the love of my life, and very nearly my freedom.  In other words, it’s a real feel-good Christmas romp. '

Read the background article I link to in the beginning to get the full background.  You can also get the HTML version with linked footnotes.

Midnight in Madrid   By Noel Hynd, Kindle Ed. $0.00 U.S.     10 user reviews, 4.5 stars "...With echoes of classic detective and suspense fiction from The Maltese Falcon to The Da Vinci Code..."	My Bondage and My Freedom   By Frederick Douglass, 1818-1895, Kindle Ed. $0.00 U.S.     8 user reviews, all 5 stars (Hardcover, 2008 - $24.95  Paperback, 2005 - $6.95) "...he ...documents the memories of being owned, how slaves coped during these times, and how he managed to pull himself out of it all." -from James Hiller's review.
Metagame   By Sam Landstrom, Kindle Ed. $1.59 U.S.     53 user reviews, 4.5 stars There are several rave reviews for this apparently quite creative science fiction book by a writer new to the readers.	The Voice: New Testament   By Thomas Nelson, Kindle US Ed.   (with book and chapter navigation) $0.00 U.S.   16 user reviews, 4 stars Very unusual translation using modern expressions -- script-like, and with additions that are noted and sourced.  Controversial for those reasons but liked very much by many.

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LINKS FOR SEARCHING FOR FREE OR LOW-COST E-BOOKS
Here is the ongoing set of links for various Searches for free or low-cost Kindle-compatible books.

Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!