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How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM

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Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM

#361

Post by AnthonyMouse »

semiquaver wrote: post #108
dannyobrien wrote: post #98

Fun 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…

> 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…

> 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 making code available)?

There used to be some debate about whether a prose description is equivalent to computer code even though there are proofs in information theory that they are. English and C are just two different languages in which you can encode the same information.

But we don't even have to go there anymore. LLMs mean there are now machines that can execute a prose description. Code is speech and speech is code.

Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM

#362

Post by choo-t »

babblingfish wrote: post #107
chmod775 wrote: post #47

For books only available through Amazon my workflow used to be buying it, downloading it with their desktop app, importing into Calibre, converting to epub and stripping DRM, then pushing it onto my Kobo. They broke that a while ago by making their DRM even worse, so now I just pirate those books.

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…

> Books have got to be the least expensive form of entertainment out there. The value to cost ratio is incredible.

Hard disagree, lot of video game will give you a better hours of entertainment per dollars ratio.

Lot of sport will do the same, as will board games and roleplaying games. Lot of hobbies are cheaper than books.

Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM

#363

Post by trashb »

neilv wrote: post #90

All the people mentioning Kobo favorably in these comments... is the main selling point that the DRM is easily breakable, or is it a superior reader or marketplace in other ways?

You can sideload books on Kobo over USB they parse the expected formats epub/pdf/html without problems. There is custom firmware available and a homebrew app community.

I find their default interface is also good and can read anything without mayor problems, books, web & comics. My reader Elipsa 2e is also great for taking notes and supports notes in book pages, though that specific model isn't supported by the custom firmware.

Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM

#364

Post by sphars »

Yodel0914 wrote: post #351
anentropic wrote: post #342

TBH I might be inclined to put up with the DRM if the Kindle reader was also usable for other things (PDFs, ebooks purchased from other vendors) But the library management is broken/non existent So it's not just that you can't read Kindle books on other devices, but the Kindle itself is pretty much useless for reading things you purchased from other stores Even though it was cheap and 2nd hand, I regret buying this t…

Have things changed recently? Sideloading books has always been well supported in every kindle I’ve owned, though admittedly my current model is 3 or 4 years old.

Sideloading is still supported. But Amazon removed the ability to download your legally purchased (rented) from the Amazon website - the download and transfer via USB option [0]. So if you previously downloaded those books, you can still manually copy them onto the Kindle.

[0]: https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/amazon-removing-download...

Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM

#365

Post by forinti »

worldsavior wrote: post #348

Can someone tell me another effective way to combat book piracy that is not Amazon's way? I don't understand the author complainant. If you don't like the app, don't use it! Pirate it all you want I don't care, but don't say it's because you didn't like the app. You want books? Buy them physically or find another way to obtain them digitally. There are authors to these books on Kindle, and they don't want their books…

From my experience, making it easier to buy books would help.

I pay money and I want to get back a PDF, mobi, epub, or whatever. That's the kind of interaction I would appreciate.

If you have to have a certain software or a certain hardware in order to read the book you've paid for, I'm going to look for alternatives.

Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM

#366

Post by squigz »

worldsavior wrote: post #348

Can someone tell me another effective way to combat book piracy that is not Amazon's way? I don't understand the author complainant. If you don't like the app, don't use it! Pirate it all you want I don't care, but don't say it's because you didn't like the app. You want books? Buy them physically or find another way to obtain them digitally. There are authors to these books on Kindle, and they don't want their books…

This argument would be more persuasive to me if publishers and stores didn't screw over authors harder than we ever do by pirating their books.

Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM

#367

Post by carlosjobim »

chmod775 wrote: post #114
Aurornis wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so now I just pirate those books. I know someone who wrote a (technical) book and how hard it is to get sales in the age of easy internet piracy. I understand the desire to use the books as you please, but please remember that buying the book and downloading a pirated copy for your own use are not mutually exclusive choices. You can still purchase the book to support the author even if you're not using the exact sa…

I'd rather donate money directly to the author. I will not under any circumstance still reward Amazon for what they're doing.

You would never do that, and nobody is falling for it.

Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM

#368

Post by squigz »

anentropic wrote: post #342

TBH I might be inclined to put up with the DRM if the Kindle reader was also usable for other things (PDFs, ebooks purchased from other vendors) But the library management is broken/non existent So it's not just that you can't read Kindle books on other devices, but the Kindle itself is pretty much useless for reading things you purchased from other stores Even though it was cheap and 2nd hand, I regret buying this t…

Jailbreak it and install KOReader[0], which supports PDFs. You can also install something like Project Title[1] for a fancier UI

https://koreader.rocks/

https://github.com/joshuacant/ProjectTitle

Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM

#369

Post by criddell »

sib wrote: post #125
babblingfish wrote: post #107

Earlier 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 have more than 100 books that I bought with actual money on Apple's iBooks (or whatever it was called back in 2010-2012). I no longer use an iPad and would like to be able to read them on my Kindle. Because of DRM, I can't. I'm all for supporting authors and the various editors, etc., but I feel like I've already done that in this case.

I don't see much of an ethical problem with downloading a pirated version of an ebook that you already paid for but can no longer access. If I did that, I'd have no problem sleeping at night.

Re: How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM

#370

Post by Thorrez »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #130
dannyobrien wrote: post #98

Fun 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.

The law is especially difficult to change because the law is based upon copyright treaties that the country (e.g. the US) has entered into.
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