Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you buy DRM-free tech books from O'Reilly?
All O'Reilly ebooks are DRM-free. http://shop.oreilly.com/category/ebooks.do
And you can resell their DRM free ebooks. Just let that sink in for a minute.
How To Strip DRM from Kindle E-Books and Others
61–70 of 111 posts
Re: How To Strip DRM from Kindle E-Books and Others
#62I've always just sort of tolerated the Kindle.
Lately I've been doing most of my reading via Safari. I pay for the "library" level plan and feel it's worth every penny, in spite of the horrendous mobile app. Every few months, I spend Safari token on an ePub copy of something particularly good.
I'd like to see all publishers offer the option to purchase a print + DRM-free digital copy for not much more than print alone just as O'Reilly and Pearson do today.
Re: How To Strip DRM from Kindle E-Books and Others
#63All you lawyers: Is removing / tampering with Kindle DRM legal in this case? Considering we bought the material?
I am not a lawyer, but I do know a little bit about DRM. I believe the DMCA makes cracking all forms of DRM illegal except in certain cases which are outlined by the Library of Congress every three years. The last time the exceptions were updated was July 2010 [1], so they will be up for review again in 2013. If I'm interpreting the current guidelines correctly, you can only crack ebook DRM if it is preventing you from using text-to-speech (presumably for blind people or people with poor eyesight).
[1] http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2010/Librarian-of-Congress-120...
Re: How To Strip DRM from Kindle E-Books and Others
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
They can't take them away from you if you backup your DRM-free books on a different media.
Why should the grandparent jump through the hoops though? Also, isn't stripping DRM from Amazon ebooks against the TOS? Potentially exposing him/her to some legal trouble?
O'Reilly will put your ebooks into your Dropbox folder if you let them. Amazon could do that. Problem solved.
Link: http://shop.oreilly.com/category/customer-service/dropbox.do
Re: How To Strip DRM from Kindle E-Books and Others
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
It all comes down to the end user agreement you agree to when purchasing the ebook. Content providers are within their right to define how they want their copyrighted works to be used - though a judge could potentially throw out the end user agreement in court. So, if Amazon stipulates that you should not tamper with or remove the DRM from the ebook, it's a violation of your purchase agreement if you do. Basically, y…
EULAs can't override laws. Even if you break the EULA for legitimate purpose - you aren't necessarily breaking any laws.
Nobody said anything about breaking laws.
EULAs are technically legally binding contracts, and breaking them leaves you liable in civil court.
Re: How To Strip DRM from Kindle E-Books and Others
#66Sadly, I would be glad to pay a reasonable price for books without DRM, but my options are still quite limited. I've been waiting patiently for Tor's ebook store to open (promised "by the end of summer 2012"). Baen is fine for a couple genres, but I don't trust Smashwords because of sockpuppet reviews. I don't want to pirate, I am glad to give authors their fair share.
Baen also has a problem with OCR'd text. I downloaded a Greg Bear book from them a few weeks ago and it was clearly OCR'd without a second look towards quality. It had so many typos and spelling errors that it was practically unreadable. I returned it for a refund. To be fair Amazon also has this problem. It's hard being an ebook consumer when 90% of books either have DRM or are unreadably OCR'd.
I tried doing this with some case studies in graduate school - any open sourced OCR is very difficult to deal with.
Of course, this was a couple years ago. Can anyone recommend a library or API that offers a decent OCR?
Re: How To Strip DRM from Kindle E-Books and Others
#67Re: How To Strip DRM from Kindle E-Books and Others
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
They can't take them away from you if you backup your DRM-free books on a different media.
Why should the grandparent jump through the hoops though? Also, isn't stripping DRM from Amazon ebooks against the TOS? Potentially exposing him/her to some legal trouble?
Backups are 'jumping through hoops' now?
As others have said, breaking the DRM for personal uses (backups, changing devices) should be perfectly legal in the US and probably most of Europe as well.
Re: How To Strip DRM from Kindle E-Books and Others
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Baen also has a problem with OCR'd text. I downloaded a Greg Bear book from them a few weeks ago and it was clearly OCR'd without a second look towards quality. It had so many typos and spelling errors that it was practically unreadable. I returned it for a refund. To be fair Amazon also has this problem. It's hard being an ebook consumer when 90% of books either have DRM or are unreadably OCR'd.
I've never experienced this with Amazon. Presumably it is a publisher problem, not a retailer problem. What publishers have you experienced this with?
It's endemic in the industry. With a few exceptions, try downloading any book printed before, say, the year 2000. A good example is the Kindle copy of Dune that Amazon sells. Spend $15 ($3 more than having the print version delivered to your doorstep!) on one of the most famous science fiction books of all time only to find that it's riddled with spelling errors, grammar errors, and word omissions. (Or just read the Amazon reviews that tell you as much.)
Another good example is the older Dark Tower books. I bought book 3 a year ago and it was in the same unreadable state. I also returned it for a refund.
New books aren't a problem, they're designed with ebooks in mind. It's just older books that the publisher quickly OCR'd and spammed Amazon with to make a quick buck.
Re: How To Strip DRM from Kindle E-Books and Others
#70I have started going back to real books for any book I might want to keep, loan, or give to a friend when I'm finished. It would be nice not to be screwed over by DRM yet again. I like my Kindle, but it doesn't help me read. It helps Amazon make money. The only thing it does is for me is to help me carry lots of books around easily.
Not buying eBooks from suppliers that infest them with DRM doesn't mean not buying eBooks. I love my Kobo reader with all my heart and it has massively increased my consumption of fiction. Just don't support and buy eBooks from suppliers that use DRM. Baen Books is my favorite for science fiction. (www.baenebooks.com) O'Reilly Media for technical books. ( http://shop.oreilly.com/category/ebooks.do ) Calibre eBook sto…
For all fans of fantasy and science fiction, the dragonmount.com is also a DRM free webshop for ebooks. (I have no affiliation with said site, btw. Just a happy customer).