2600 Magazine as DRM-free Kindle, PDF ebooks

2600 Magazine's Emmanuel Goldstein writes,

We thought long and hard over the best way to jump into the whole digital publishing realm after releasing our first issue on the Kindle and Nook last month. We decided to stand up to the DRM proponents and create something that has no restrictions whatsoever - and see if we could sustain that solely through the support of people who are into the material. This is contrary to what everyone else in the publishing industry is telling us to do - so we figured it had to work.

We've created a 300 page book comprised of the most recent full year of 2600. We're calling it The Hacker Digest, Volume 26. The Kindle version has all of the articles, columns, letters, etc. while the PDF version has all that plus some extra features, such as enhanced covers, full page payphone photos, and the like. This was no easy cut and paste job - we pretty much had a staff of people working day and night on these new versions for over a month, putting together a whole new layout and design. It's the most complete and recent journal of hacking in existence - and not a single tree was harmed in its making.

But now we find out if our idealism is enough to send a message to an industry that still doesn't seem to get it and wants to keep running things the old way. We maintain and hope that it's time for a change and that this is what people want and will ultimately support - if given the chance.

Kindle US edition

Kindle UK edition

PDF edition

VOLUME 26 OF 2600 NOW ONLINE - DRM FREE - IN KINDLE AND PDF FORMATS

• [emmanuel2600]

  PaulR, the digital version consists of an entire year (300 pages), not just one issue. It’s much less than the equivalent in paper.

  • [PaulR]

    Yikes, I didn’t read the description.

    You just made a sale!

• [DataShade]

  Wait, is 2600 really going with the “Give it Away and Pray” model of ebusiness? I didn’t think Michael Masnick was obscure, I expected tech-savvy people to at least have heard of “CwF+RtB,” but I guess not?

  http://www.techdirt.com/rtb.php

• [Jack]

  Kudos to 2600! I first discovered them (and “Emmanuel Goldstein”) back in the early-1990s here on the radio in NYC. Then was introduced to the magazine. Then the website. And now, the e-versions of the magazine.

  True pioneers.

• [Mitch]

  It would be more fun if the published it with DRM and an article on how to break the DRM.

• [Anonymous]

  I already own half of these issues, but I missed 2 this year (traveling, no excuse). This is a GREAT way for me to catch up on 2600. In fact, I would ALMOST prefer it – but I love the smell of a real paper magazine, and holding a real magazine is a treat.

  I am almost 100% digital these days (music, video – and now almost all the way there with books). Like I say, I already own 50% of this content. Even if I owned all of it, I’d still buy it anyway – handy to take around on my iPad, for one, and support 2600 for two.

  Great job Emmanuel! I’ll be buying every one of these you can throw at me. And I have no plans on sharing… this is just for me, for on the go. THANK YOU!!

• [Anonymous]

  Far be it for me to tell all y’all how to run a magazine but can you at least publish a table of contents? $9.95 is kinda steep without a preview of what the content is gonna be. Makes me wanna go out and download it from a P2P site.

• [Anonymous]

  I want to buy the PDF download, but it’s asking for my full name, shipping address and phone number. For a magazine that’s obsessed with privacy and security, you’d think they would realize the problem with that set up. I don’t want to give them that info. I just want to give them $10. They’re not shipping me anything, so why do they need my address? There has to be a better way.

• [johnfoster]

  DRM free doesn’t mean “free” as in “gratis”. it costs $10 to read.

• [PaulR]

  Why is the digital version more expensive than the dead-tree version?

  Why?

• [ethicalcannibal]

  Cool. I put it on my wishlist for next payday.