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The Calibre Content Server

manual.calibre-ebook.com

41–50 of 145 posts

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#41
post #4

I've always just used Calibre because it's a nice way for me to strip DRM and then archive my books. I've never really used it any kind of active way. Since I buy pretty much everything from Amazon, I already effectively have a content server. Does anybody have a link to an online server (with public domain books)? I'm curious to see what the presentation is like. What's the typography like? Does the screen dim after…

I've yet to run into an Amazon-purchased book that Calibre can't liberate, and I haven't even updated Calibre since installing it a few years back. Where are you seeing this turn up? If I need to be looking for alternate sellers or finding some workaround, better to know it ahead of time, I suppose.

Does this mean if you used kindle unlimited you could effectively keep the books forever?

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

KFX just started rolling out in recent months. As the parent post said, the only way right now to "crack" is to dodge it. To have Amazon send you a copy of your book for a older device or older version of the PC software that doesn't support KFX, so they have to send you a crackable format instead. I haven't done anything with Barnes & Noble in quite some time, but I've been curious to try a eBook purchase from there…

That explains why I haven't seen it! I haven't updated Kindle for PC in years, either. Thanks for the info! I might have to give B&N a try myself, although at the moment the only books on my list are preordered.

Most of the DRM removal tools are based on Apprentice Alf's DeDRM library. Here's the Github issue related to KFX:

https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/issues/38

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've yet to run into an Amazon-purchased book that Calibre can't liberate, and I haven't even updated Calibre since installing it a few years back. Where are you seeing this turn up? If I need to be looking for alternate sellers or finding some workaround, better to know it ahead of time, I suppose.

Does this mean if you used kindle unlimited you could effectively keep the books forever?

As mentioned just up thread, if you don't purchase in the most recent KFX DRM format, you can strip the DRM. However AFAIK this is illegal to do for Kindle Unlimited ebooks. You are not supposed to keep them, just borrow.

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#44
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I get that this is what they're aiming for but home server with Plex is justified by the massive size a video and even music collections can reach.

I think a lot more people share their music and video collections than their book collections despite the file size differences. Maybe it's because there isn't a book-Plex?

I've never heard of plex except in eve online context, but people have been sharing calibre content server links for many years

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've yet to run into an Amazon-purchased book that Calibre can't liberate, and I haven't even updated Calibre since installing it a few years back. Where are you seeing this turn up? If I need to be looking for alternate sellers or finding some workaround, better to know it ahead of time, I suppose.

Does this mean if you used kindle unlimited you could effectively keep the books forever?

If you are going to pirate the book, you might as well just go straight to something like Pirates Bay. It's much easier.

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#46
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you differentiate between DRM-free and DRM-protected books on Amazon? Up until I have read this comment, I didn't even know that Amazon support DRM-free books.

Tor doesn't put DRM on any of it's titles. For an example, look up Cory Doctorow's book Walkaway . At the bottom of the book description it says: > At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. Unfortunately, they don't always tell you. If you look up Little Brother (another of Doctorow's books), it doesn't say anything about DRM even though the book do…

Ah, well, at least the sentence is consistent and does not change. Something like:

    site:amazon.com "At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied."
Gives me ~37.4k results (out of ~5m Kindle books, assuming that Google indexed every single one of them).

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are your ebooks so large?

They contain a lot of colour images and diagrams. Books on biology and art. Granted other topics including fiction are usually in the ballpark of a few megabytes.

Kilobytes even

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#48
post #4

I've always just used Calibre because it's a nice way for me to strip DRM and then archive my books. I've never really used it any kind of active way. Since I buy pretty much everything from Amazon, I already effectively have a content server. Does anybody have a link to an online server (with public domain books)? I'm curious to see what the presentation is like. What's the typography like? Does the screen dim after…

My response is to avoid buying ebooks from Amazon if possible. Most of my purchases are from Weightless Books [1] which sells only DRM free books and magazines. Granted, this is a limited and small market (SF related stuff) but if I have a choice of getting a book DRM free from a vendor or getting it from Amazon, I would avoid Amazon, even if its price was cheaper. [1] https://weightlessbooks.com/

[deleted]

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#49
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't you just put your library and database on git or Dropbox? It should just work, unless you're accessing them from two devices at the same time.

Wouldn't that trigger copyright defender algorithms and cause your Dropbox account to be suspended?

AFAIK they only run the DMCA checksum when the file/folder is shared. Keeping it inside your own account is OK.

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#50
post #7
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know how everybody shares their tv and movie collections with Plex? I suspect this is a way of doing the same thing with books.

Yeah, I get that this is what they're aiming for but home server with Plex is justified by the massive size a video and even music collections can reach.

Plex can also transcode, which is more important if your video is on a bunch of different formats that might not have hardware support on all your devices.
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