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BooXtream EPub Watermark Remover
- fernly 10y agoWould this not qualify as "producing and disseminating technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent" DRM? Because that's a crime under the DMCA. But I'm just askin', you know?
- r3bl 10y ago> Because that's a crime under the DMCA. It's a crime in the U.S., it's not a crime in my country. But this guy has listed American University's email address, so I would definitely remove this software if I were him. In fact, if I were him, I would find someone not from the U.S. to host the repository, make it private, give him the read/write privileges and then occasionally push the changes to a new public repo (so that the .git folder is different and one could not track the changes as they happen). But that's just me...
- gpm 10y agoI don't believe so, the DMCA prevents circumventing access controls not watermarks. I am not a lawyer though!
- dbcooper 10y agoAny idea how this compares to Apprentice Alf's tools?
- voltagex_ 10y agoThis is much newer, but I think it will eventually be included. This tool is an implementation of https://pastebin.com/raw/E1xgCUmb https://pastebin.com/raw/E1xgCUmb
- dbcooper 10y agoThanks. I found the background article from Torrent Freak useful. https://torrentfreak.com/researchers-crack-social-drm-ebook-watermarks-160625/ https://torrentfreak.com/researchers-crack-social-drm-ebook-...
- 4oh9do 10y agoThanks for that. The reading was a bit thick on the polemics, but I also found it an easy to read and understand overview of ebook watermark functionality for someone like me who's unfamiliar with the field.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- jlgaddis 10y agoEvery day I see submissions here that are cracks, keygens, etc., and they always get flagged and killed. I'm not familiar with BooXtream, specifically, but I'm curious what it is about this that is different? This is for DRM, sure, but it seems very similar to me.
- cm3 10y agoThis is a filter of sorts, not a cracker. Think of it like a reverse Instagram filter to restore the original photo. Whether that's within a certain jurisdictions disallowed things to do publicly I don't know.
- dang 10y ago> submissions here that are cracks, keygens, etc., and they always get flagged and killed Those are almost always spammy. If there's something intellectually interesting about the post, that would be different. (Not saying that's the case here.)
- gggggggggg 10y agoA bit of background context https://torrentfreak.com/researchers-crack-social-drm-ebook-watermarks-160625/ https://torrentfreak.com/researchers-crack-social-drm-ebook-...
- legulere 10y agoThat's not DRM, but Watermarking. I don't see any reason why you should object to watermarking. Contrary to DRM it doesn't hurt real costumers at all and only helps finding people that distribute books without compensating the author.
- icebraining 10y agoPlaying Devil's advocate, these watermarking increase the probability that innocent people will be convicted. Under the law, copyright infringement is not a strict liability tort, ie., one must be at least unreasonably negligent in allowing the work to be copied. But with this mechanism, if an ePub containing a watermark appears on a file sharing network, the buyer is always assumed to be the culprit. As an example, imagine the user kept 24 books in a personal Dropbox account for easy reading across devices, and someone stole the account's credentials and released the books. The user is now on the hook for $200k in statutory damages despite being himself the victim of a crime instead of the perpetrator.
- kfrwzwq 10y agoSome reasons why watermarks could be objectionable are covered in the accompanying Torrentfreak article (already linked in other comments here): "'Books should be used as tools for disseminating knowledge and information. What ‘social DRM’ watermarking systems do instead is turn books into tools of surveillance and oppression by monitoring who shares what knowledge, where,' IBI explain. "'We don’t like this, and because the publisher Verso has refused to remove the watermarks themselves, we decided to do it for them, and to show everyone how these systems work.' "But there are bigger issues at stake. While people in the West take the freedom to read books of their choosing for granted, not everyone has that luxury. "'Imagine if a watermarked ebook contains someone's name (as many do). Suppose that someone is reading that watermarked ebook under a regime that bans the particular kind of material covered in that book,' IBI add. "'If the operatives of the regime see the watermark, they would then be able to arrest and perhaps even execute the purchaser of the ebook if they too are living under the same regime.' "But matters of life and death aside, IBI say they believe that people should not only be able to read whatever they want, they should also be able to share that knowledge with others."
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- ycombdev 10y agoI'm interested in a technical sense, but this is not DRM.
- dang 10y agoWe s/DRM/Watermark/'d the title since people were complaining about that bit.
- bhaak 10y agoIt should be noted that BooXtream themselves call this watermarking 'social DRM'.