this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
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Discworld
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I JUST bought the books on humble!
This is great.
This one?
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/terry-pratchetts-discworld-harpercollins-books
Sad it doesn't have quite all of them.
Hmm looks like it's just missing Raising Steam?
And it looks like it's through kobo.com? Do you just get the files or have to use their site/app?
Edit: looks like these books can only be downloaded as .ascm files. DRM-managed adobe files. Very lame.
Welp I just burned $18 as I'm absolutely not going to use Adobe Digital Editions or the Kobo app to read books. Humble's "Use on Any Device" is an absolute lie.
Humble gives you a code to use on kobo.com
Which isn't ideal, but for the price....
Have you tried using Calibre + the appropriate plugin to get them into a format your reader can handle?
Yes. Dedrm doesn't appear to do anything. It doesn't have a button like obok does. But the files won't read.
I saw you mentioned ascm files, those are apparently not actually the books, just a token for them. Have you used Adobe Digital Editions to download the actual books?
Shamelessly copied from an old reddit thread:
And this:
Sorry if this is repeating what you already know and have tried. Hopefully it helps someone.
I did install ADE first and did find the DRM epubs. I also pulled those into Calibre and saw the same thing: can't open or convert because of DRM. Of note I have not configured the Obok plugin because I don't have a Kobo device, but DeDRM is setup as I followed in the post above.
The second quote I can't figure out how to use. Doesn't seem to have an executable and isn't a Calibre plugin as it isn't a .zip.
I've heard it's not too hard to recoup your value for your $18, by making the books actually readable on your devices:
https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader?tab=readme-ov-file#alternatives-to-kobodl
Thanks! I'll have to try that. When I got the epub downloaded from ADE my reader said it was encrypted and even suggested a search to remove the DRM.
Welp, I tried all that but it can't remove the DRM. Guess this is the last time I buy ebooks.
Did it convert it to .epub? If so you can remove epub DRM with Calibre and the DRM recover plugin
It popped up in calibre and knew the title but wouldn't open. I didn't see a dedrm button or option.
You have to install the plugin. You can get it from https://github.com/ramanveerji/DeDRM_tools . It removes DRM automatically when adding a book to the library.
I have that. It imported the 2 certs it found. Still doesn't work.
That sucks, sorry.
I wanted to purchase that same bundle, but I didn't want the hassle of getting DRM books into my device ecosystem, so I skipped it, since I noticed it was through Kobo.
For what it's worth, I've had great luck with purchasing other (explicitly DRM Free) Humble Bundles (i.e. Tor books).
But I can understand wanting one reliable place to shop. It's a shame that the one reliable place to shop for widely compatible eBooks seems to be the high seas, at the moment. Yo ho!
It's not even available everywhere.
Adobe digital editions are very easy to de-drm into epub files.
I tried the calibre dedrm plugin. Didn't work. Spent about an hour going through the read mes and tutorial before giving up. There's better ways to get what I payed for.
Just pirate them, you've already paid.
That's the goal. I do like doing things the right way and learning new skills. But fuck it. Burned on Kobo.
It's the publishers not the marketplaces that insist on DRM. Kobo just picked the off the shelf option.