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When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

bbc.co.uk

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Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#81

Post by manojlds »

bubblewrap wrote: post #66
joe_the_user wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume books are encrypted on the ebook reader and the reader operates by going to Microsoft each time someone tries to open a book and getting an encryption key show the book unencrypted.

That's not how it usually works, does it with Microsoft? It would be very limiting and annoying to be unable to read books without internet access (say on the beach on holidays, for example). Certainly not the case on Kindle. There were cases were people's Amazon accounts were cancelled, so they couldn't buy new books from Amazon. The books they already bought remained on their kindles, though. There were also cases…

Even borrowed Kindle Unlimited books can be read for a while if you don't connect your device to internet.

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#82

Post by tren »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #24
asveikau wrote: post #8

I didn't start buying ebooks from Amazon/Kindle until I realized it was relatively easy to break its DRM. I've never used the files anywhere else but I keep a cracked copy of every purchase just in case. That old story about "1984" being removed gave me too much of a negative impression.

So they still get your money and you deal with the inconvenience? Try buying from https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebooks where possible (DRM-free).

We're a small independent ebook retailer and we're pushing for DRM-free content with publishers. We've added a DRM-free section to the site: https://www.ebooks.com/drm-free and any search that run you can filter by DRM-free content.

We also offer DRM-free PDFs that are correctly formatted, unlike what you'd get from the Google Bookstore (they convert from ePub). This is particularly important for publishers like O'Reilly who no longer sell copies outside a subscription from their site. Some authors help us out a lot by linking to us directly: https://dataintensive.net/buy.html

It's a slow process getting publishers on board, but more are moving across to DRM-free or social DRM (watermarking) which is a step in the right direction.

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#83

Post by patrickdavey »

asveikau wrote: post #8

I didn't start buying ebooks from Amazon/Kindle until I realized it was relatively easy to break its DRM. I've never used the files anywhere else but I keep a cracked copy of every purchase just in case. That old story about "1984" being removed gave me too much of a negative impression.

I also removed the DRM on my first Kindle books, found it way harder with the last book I bought (and gave up)

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#84

Post by ramphastidae »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #19
asveikau wrote: post #8

I didn't start buying ebooks from Amazon/Kindle until I realized it was relatively easy to break its DRM. I've never used the files anywhere else but I keep a cracked copy of every purchase just in case. That old story about "1984" being removed gave me too much of a negative impression.

I do the same with Audible. As far as I can tell, there's no way to remove the DRM that is both easy and free, so against my better judgement, I paid $30 for a program to do it for me[0]. I now have every audiobook I've bought in mp3 format, split by chapter and tagged with the correct metadata. Now I can dump them on a USB drive and plug it into my car stereo for road trips (I don't mind listening to good books more…

Check out OpenAudible.

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#85

Post by flukus »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #23
frosted-flakes wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do the same with Audible. As far as I can tell, there's no way to remove the DRM that is both easy and free, so against my better judgement, I paid $30 for a program to do it for me[0]. I now have every audiobook I've bought in mp3 format, split by chapter and tagged with the correct metadata. Now I can dump them on a USB drive and plug it into my car stereo for road trips (I don't mind listening to good books more…

Keep your $30. Or... Pay me $30 :) ffmpeg -activation_bytes 1CEB00DA -i test.aax -vn -c:a copy output.mp4

Does this leave enough meta data for other book readers? You can listen to them in a generic audio player but I like having something that understand the chapter breaks.

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#86

Post by benj111 »

tren wrote: post #82
hombre_fatal wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they still get your money and you deal with the inconvenience? Try buying from https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebooks where possible (DRM-free).

We're a small independent ebook retailer and we're pushing for DRM-free content with publishers. We've added a DRM-free section to the site: https://www.ebooks.com/drm-free and any search that run you can filter by DRM-free content. We also offer DRM-free PDFs that are correctly formatted, unlike what you'd get from the Google Bookstore (they convert from ePub). This is particularly important for publishers like O'Re…

"We're a small independent ebook retailer"

How does that work? Independent in a physical sense, generally translates to 1 or very few outlets. Online is only ever going to be 1 outlet. Plus none of the independent bookstore features seem amenable to translating to the internet.

So is it ownership structure? 'vibe'?

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#87

Post by darkpuma »

0815test wrote: post #56
r3bl wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inconvenience? It's really not that complicated. You download them from a web interface and you drag and drop them into Calibre (with a de-DRM plugin installed). Done, they're now available together with all the ebooks that you got from other sources. Having all the purchased ebooks in one place is more convenient for me, not less. The alternative isn't a different book store, it's pirating. While I do have an apprec…

> Inconvenience? It's really not that complicated. You're joking, right? DRM-stripping is inherently unreliable, by definition. It's a last resort only , and we shouldn't be expected to deal with it.

> "DRM-stripping is inherently unreliable, by definition."

Which definition is that? I've owned an old model 'Kindle Keyboard' for many years. The only thing needed to strip DRM from those ebooks is to type in the serial number of my kindle into calibre. It's never not worked for me; in actual practice it's very reliable.

I must admit though, these days I typically just go to Library Genesis. Because I'm a dirty rotten thief.

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#88

Post by darkpuma »

jammygit wrote: post #21
tomjakubowski wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like another commenter has said, the DRM on Kindle e-books is pretty easy to break. https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com

Isn't it technically a crime though? That's the kicker: the legislative backing to the schemes. Its a matter of time until this GS are so locked down that circumvention becomes impractical, even if its several years in the future. The 'it doesn't work' argument is temporary unless there is enough pushback (as happened with music, thankfully)

> Isn't it technically a crime though?

Ten years ago, so was smoking dope.

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#89

Post by Tomte »

cbluth wrote: post #60
durability wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this really work?

Yes, it does. You'll have to use the correct activation bytes to decrypt, but those can be retrieved by signing into the audible account.

How do I read those out when logged in?

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#90

Post by darkpuma »

lgeorget wrote: post #74
redwall_hp wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DRM is technically a crime, too. It's infringing upon First Sale Doctrine. You, as someone buying media, actually have rights to what you purchase. The general public has just accepted the industry trampling on those rights and lobbying for laws that conflict with them.

If my understanding is correct, the Doctrine of First Sale only applies if you buy a physical asset, like a CD or an actual book.

Is DeCSS not illegal under the DMCA? Those DRM'd DVDs were no less physical than DRM-less audio CDs.
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