International Day Against DRM and Deals on DRM-Free Books

Today, May 4th 2012, is the International Day Against DRM. As DefectiveByDesign.org notes, DRM has largely been defeated in the world of music, but it remains a problem in the world of ebooks.

A number of publishers have curtailed your rights by rigging their ebooks so that you can't do what you can with a dead-tree book: you can't freely lend, borrow, resell or donate them. Some DRM systems even firmly tie them to a specific reading device; buying a new device means buying those same ebooks all over again!

Among the things you can do today are:

• Pledge to take action on May 4th
• Put up a banner or widget for Day Against DRM (or make your own!)
• Share a link to this page on your social networks
• Start your own event for May 4th
• Read a long article by Katherine Noyes over at PCWorld, entitled It's Time to Give Digital [Restrictions] Management the Boot.

There are also a couple of Day Against DRM deals you might want to check out, including:

• Michael Hartl's Ruby on Rails Tutorial. From Friday, May 4th to Saturday, May 5th, 2012 at 3 p.m. Eastern (GMT -4) or noon Pacific (GMT - 7), use the coupon code IH8DRM to get 50% off any Ruby on Rails Tutorial product. This is by far my favorite Rails tutorial (and yes, it's 100% DRM-free). If you've been meaning to learn Rails 3.2, you don't want to miss this!
• 50% off all No Starch Press ebooks today only. Use the coupon code NODRM to get this deal. And yes, their books are DRM-free.
• 50% off all O'Reilly ebooks and videos today only. From now until midnight Pacific (GMT - 7), use the coupon code DRMFREE to get 'em at half price.