Comment by Causality1
7 years ago
I forget which store it was, but back in the day when I bought e-books to read on my PDAs they came encrypted, with the credit card number I used to buy them being the decryption key, so I was completely independent of the store to read them and could share them with anyone I trusted with my card number. It seems like a quaint solution to modern sensibilities but thoroughly satisfying on a moral level.
These days I buy the digital version on Amazon but don't download it. I pirate the copy I'm actually going to read and archive.
Some (few) stores offer DRM-free PDF versions, usually with a personalized watermark.
I feel like that's a good compromise, I get a DRM-free PDF and I can only share it with people I trust not to put it online. And the watermark is a non-issue because it doesn't bother/impact me.