#drm-free

I was thinking about a quote from A Civil Campaign, and I remembered this disc that came with my hardcover edition of Cryoburn. I thought the files were all on my laptop (which would make it easy to copy/paste the quote), but I didn't see the folder right way, so I grabbed the disc and stuck it in my laptop, and there is so much more that I'd forgotten about!

The fourteenth book in the series came with the all 14 books & four shorter stories, plus a bunch of essays, interviews, photos, speeches, and more! They're all DRM-free. The only caveat? "This disk and its contents may be copied and shared, but NOT sold. All commercial rights are reserved. That’s it."

Why? Well, they figure if you share her books, more people will buy them.

They're not wrong. I think "The Flowers of Vashnoi" (2018) and Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen (2016) are the only two I don't own as a physical copy (the former is a short story; the latter a novella), and I do own them both as an ebook and as an audiobook. The others I own as ebooks, audiobooks, and physical books. Did I pre-order the hardcover of Captain Vorpatril's Alliance in 2012? OF COURSE I DID.

I recommend this series all the time. I've gifted it to my dad. My two oldest kids picked The Warrior's Apprentice as one of their book club selections when they were teens.

2010 wasn't that long ago, but this disc (sorry, "CD-ROM") feels like an artifact from another century. It warns you that "for the disk to work properly you need to have your computer logged on to the Internet". Worried about file formats? "Any sound samples on Baen disks are all MP3, and the pictures are all JPG extensions, which will open automatically in any web browser you're using on your computer, whether PC or MAC." Can't figure out how to use a CD-ROM? "[T]here is nothing mysterious about the disk; if you are having trouble, your neighborhood guru can probably help you out, but she'll be dreadfully condescending about it."

When you select a book, you are given 7 format options, one of which is "Mobipocket for Kindle/Palm/Blackberry!" I selected epub and dragged the download into Calibre, where it opened without issue.

I don't see it in the fancy CD-ROM menu, but hidden in the novels folder on the disc is The Vorkosigan Companion. That's a 15th book.

By the way, the link to Baen's free collection still works, with 81 titles included!

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