Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being found not guilty supports my contention. But that case was about distributing circumvention software, not traditional speech. Obviously distributing software that bypasses DRM is directly addressed by the law.
> Being found not guilty supports my contention. It does, but you're still bankrupt.
How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM
311–320 of 538 posts
Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM
#312It's hard-coded to the .com store, but that's trivial to change.
The main problem is that every line is treated a `
` element. Which means the rendering is askew. That's fine if you're reading a PDF-style document with hard-coded line breaks, but a bit annoying for a reflowable ePub.
Commas are sometimes rendered as apostrophes. Full-stops are also sometimes mid-dots.
Given that the glyph shapes never change, it might be better to "bake in" the shapes rather than manually decoding them. Didn't take too long on my laptop to do the perceptual mapping, but could speed things up for others.
Nevertheless, an excellent demonstration of how pointless DRM is.
Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
> they made it against the law to even tell anyone. I’m no fan of the DMCA, but I am pretty skeptical of your apparent claim that this post itself is a potential violation of 17 USC § 1201. Obviously the act of circumvention itself qualifies, as does the code in the GitHub repository the post links to, but can you point to any prosecution of someone for a _prose description_ of circumvention (as opposed to actually m…
> but can you point to any prosecution of someone for a _prose description_ of circumvention (as opposed to actually making code available)? I'll do you one better: 2600 Magazine was prohibited from saying which website hosted DRM-circumvention code: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_City_Studios,_Inc._v... They were legally prohibited from saying, on their own website, words like "You can get DeCSS from http:/…
Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
Books have got to be the least expensive form of entertainment out there. The value to cost ratio is incredible. Consider buying books to support authors and publishers. If you can't afford it, then libraries are nice too. I personally know people who pirate books, but pay hundreds of dollars a year for streaming services or battle pass type video games. It blows my mind. Books are so cheap people! I recently bought…
> I personally know people who pirate books, but pay hundreds of dollars a year for streaming services or battle pass type video games. It blows my mind. I personally know people that pirate everything and PAY FOR PIRATING SERVICES. This blows my mind even more! I know that globally it's probably still cheaper to pay for those services rather than paying for 4 different streaming services each month, but god, if I go…
Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM
#315Fun fact: this is one of the few situations in the US where a prosecutor could claim that this is criminal speech (though I hope and trust they would not, and if it did it would get thrown out by any court respecting the First Amendment). Not a civil issue, like libel or fraud, but the sort of talk that can get a policeman to come and drag you off to jail. If you've ever wondered why DRM is so roundly hated by engine…
OTOH this is not DRM nor copy protection. It is just obfuscation.
Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM
#316Fun fact: this is one of the few situations in the US where a prosecutor could claim that this is criminal speech (though I hope and trust they would not, and if it did it would get thrown out by any court respecting the First Amendment). Not a civil issue, like libel or fraud, but the sort of talk that can get a policeman to come and drag you off to jail. If you've ever wondered why DRM is so roundly hated by engine…
That law should be changed. If you distribute your intellectual property with DRM, that work should forever be exempt from copyright protection. You get to choose one or the other, but never both, because DRM effectively removes the work from the public domain in perpetuity. Even accidentally releasing a demo or preview with DRM should invalidate copyright on that software/movie/book/whatever.
Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Why rules for us but not for them? Fair use exists for both people and corporations. Just because a corporation copies something in a way that is fre use, that doesn't mean that people should be able to freely copy it.
How could training of AI models possibly be considered fair use?
Equally cynically, it's fair use because if it isn't, the entire economy collapses overnight.
Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but can you point to any prosecution of someone for a _prose description_ of circumvention (as opposed to actually making code available)? I'll do you one better: 2600 Magazine was prohibited from saying which website hosted DRM-circumvention code: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_City_Studios,_Inc._v... They were legally prohibited from saying, on their own website, words like "You can get DeCSS from http:/…
The USA has a lot of criminalised speech, despite the 1A. The most obvious historical example is "I am going to assassinate the president tomorrow at noon", but recently there have been a lot more things you can't say, such as "Fuck Donald Trump" which got someone arrested and deported.
But yes, obviously serious threats of violence are not protected speech.
Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM
#319Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I personally know people who pirate books, but pay hundreds of dollars a year for streaming services or battle pass type video games. It blows my mind. I personally know people that pirate everything and PAY FOR PIRATING SERVICES. This blows my mind even more! I know that globally it's probably still cheaper to pay for those services rather than paying for 4 different streaming services each month, but god, if I go…
It isn't about the price. The level of service and the quality of the product you get by pirating is simply better. Streaming services break up shows and have s1-3 on one platform, 4-5 on another, and the rest on another still. You'll "buy" a movie on amazon prime video only for them to remove it so you can't watch it anymore. Prime video, a service you have to pay for now has ad breaks while watching shows. Even jus…