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In general, if you're buying from a bookseller which has its own "house device" -- Amazon with the Kindle, B&N with the Nook, Sony with the Reader, etc. -- you can almost guarantee that any book you buy (or get free) will be DRM-restricted. Elsewhere, check the description (especially system requirements) for any mention of ADE, Adobe Digital Editions, which is the most widespread DRM software. Also, check the available formats: if the book can be downloaded as RTF, HTML, or plain text, it's probably clean; if it's only available in a device-specific format, epub, or PDF, then it's almost certainly restricted. If there's no information available, or you're still not sure, then email the bookseller.
Incidentally, the word "protected" should not be used with reference to DRM. That's the publishers' newspeak for "restricted" as they try to spin DRM into something positive for the buyer. Protection is good, so DRM must be good. Except, of course, that there is nothing whatsoever good about DRM. It's far better to say "DRM-restricted" -- it's more accurate, you aren't allowing the proponents of DRM to choose your vocabulary for you, and you're not spreading their anti-consumer propaganda for them.
DRM manages rights like prisons manage freedom. I'm still not sure who said that (RMS?) but it's exactly right. The only way DRM "manages" rights is by taking them away, and the only thing it "protects" is device lock-in.
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