What is the Open Library?
Open Library is a catalog of books with access to 1.7 million scanned versions of books. There are plenty of books that don’t have digital versions. A scanned copy is the only way to get it on to your kindle or other e-reader. Open Library allows you to “borrow” books. It essentially allows you to download a file that requires Adobe Digital Editions to open. Adobe Digital Editions will download the ebook with Adobe DRM preventing you from reading the book past its borrow date.
The problem with this kind of DRM is that it locks you into this platform so you can only read it there. If we remove this DRM however, you’ll be free to use it on whichever platform or device you’d like.
Disclaimer: Removing DRM is highly controversial, and may even be illegal in your county. Technically while you are allowed to “borrow” the book, it is only for the time allotted to you. Just like in a real library, you’ll need to “return” or delete the file once you’re finished. This guide is only intended for those who choose to take responsibility for removing the DRM from their books to allow them to use any eReader.
Guide to Removing Adobe DRM from ePub and PDF eBooks
Assuming you’ve registered, downloaded a book, and installed Adobe Digital Editions, heres what you need to do next:
- Download Calibre and install (Calibre is an outstanding and easy to use e-book manager for nearly every single e-Reader)
- Next you need to download the DRM Removal Tools package. (The latest release is at the top of the page)
- Add DeDRM_plugin.zip into Calibre.
What if I tried to use Calibre to remove DRM and it failed even with the plugin installed?
If it doesn’t work, try to:
1) Remove the DRM’d books from the Calibre library.
2) Restart Calibre.
3) Try adding DRM’d books back to library and try to remove again.
4) If it still fails, remove the plugin, check for updates, and reinstall with newer version.
