4 ms·

While I try to buy non-DRM books when I can, I'm still willing to buy DRM'd books as long as the DRM is pretty breakable(and I back them up immediately most of

While I try to buy non-DRM books when I can, I'm still willing to buy DRM'd books as long as the DRM is pretty breakable(and I back them up immediately most of the time). If the books on Amazon, Google, B&N, etc were to suddenly have unbroken DRM, I'd stop buying DRM'd ebooks until that issue was "fixed". Every ebook DRM format(except maybe Apple) is already trivially removable, so I wish they'd drop the farce and go DRM free already.

adrianN 7y ago
Breakable DRM is there for legal reasons. IANAL but you can make copies of copyrighted materials for private use, but you are not allowed to circumvent copy protection mechanisms.
- skrowl 7y ago
  I believe it is legal to break DRM for purposes of backup / personal use on unsupported devices / etc in the United States, but I'm also not a lawyer.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - extra88 7y ago
    It is not legal. Making backup copies for yourself works as a fair use defense of copyright infringement but DRM breaking is a separate matter; that's why that part of the DMCA is reviled, it prevents people from doing what copyright otherwise permits them to do. There is an exemption for breaking DRM on ebooks to enable their use with assistive technologies used by people with disabilities. There are some audiovisual exemptions for educational use that encompass "multimedia ebooks" but only for specific purposes. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/10/26/2018-23241/exemption-to-prohibition-on-circumvention-of-copyright-protection-systems-for-access-control https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/10/26/2018-23...
criddell 7y ago
> Every ebook DRM format(except maybe Apple) is already trivially removable AFAIK, Amazon's latest DRM on KFX files hasn't been broken yet. That came out in 2015. Some people get around it by getting the book in the older format, but then you lose all the advanced typography stuff that KFX supports.
- calcifer 7y ago
  Removing DRM from KFX works since March [1]. [1] https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2019/03/30/dedrm-tools-6-6-3-released/ https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2019/03/30/dedrm-tools-6...
  - criddell 7y ago
    I think Amazon patched their PC client and e-reader firmware to fix the hole. I don't think the DeDRM works on a KFX you download today.
ggg2 7y ago
that's the sort of elitist behaviour that plagues digital world. dvd locked by region? don't worry, more expensive models can be bypassed by those two button presses, only the poor is really impacted. tracking users and OS security bugs, don't worry, the latest $600+ devices will get a patch. only poor, used device buyers and developing countries models will be affected by not receiving a patch. the modern world now is divided into the elite and the not-economically-viable-to-port-security-patches. And everytime we, the elite, dismiss something as a nuisance because we are the elite, we are making things irreparably worse. my sugestion: do not give in to drm because you can work around it. instead pay the extra cents and get a used hardcopy. the convenience of a ebook is lost if you have to work around a drm anyway. and that way their drm sales drop to zero and they have to rethink this whole falacy. The number of people accepting DRM content is used as a sales pitch by Pearson printing to force universities to use DRM text books that can't be resold! again, screw the poor, right? PS: sorry for the rant. DRM makes me salty.

adrianN 7y ago

Breakable DRM is there for legal reasons. IANAL but you can make copies of copyrighted materials for private use, but you are not allowed to circumvent copy protection mechanisms.

skrowl 7y ago
I believe it is legal to break DRM for purposes of backup / personal use on unsupported devices / etc in the United States, but I'm also not a lawyer.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- extra88 7y ago
  It is not legal. Making backup copies for yourself works as a fair use defense of copyright infringement but DRM breaking is a separate matter; that's why that part of the DMCA is reviled, it prevents people from doing what copyright otherwise permits them to do. There is an exemption for breaking DRM on ebooks to enable their use with assistive technologies used by people with disabilities. There are some audiovisual exemptions for educational use that encompass "multimedia ebooks" but only for specific purposes. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/10/26/2018-23241/exemption-to-prohibition-on-circumvention-of-copyright-protection-systems-for-access-control https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/10/26/2018-23...

criddell 7y ago

> Every ebook DRM format(except maybe Apple) is already trivially removable AFAIK, Amazon's latest DRM on KFX files hasn't been broken yet. That came out in 2015. Some people get around it by getting the book in the older format, but then you lose all the advanced typography stuff that KFX supports.

calcifer 7y ago
Removing DRM from KFX works since March [1]. [1] https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2019/03/30/dedrm-tools-6-6-3-released/ https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2019/03/30/dedrm-tools-6...
- criddell 7y ago
  I think Amazon patched their PC client and e-reader firmware to fix the hole. I don't think the DeDRM works on a KFX you download today.

ggg2 7y ago

that's the sort of elitist behaviour that plagues digital world. dvd locked by region? don't worry, more expensive models can be bypassed by those two button presses, only the poor is really impacted. tracking users and OS security bugs, don't worry, the latest $600+ devices will get a patch. only poor, used device buyers and developing countries models will be affected by not receiving a patch. the modern world now is divided into the elite and the not-economically-viable-to-port-security-patches. And everytime we, the elite, dismiss something as a nuisance because we are the elite, we are making things irreparably worse. my sugestion: do not give in to drm because you can work around it. instead pay the extra cents and get a used hardcopy. the convenience of a ebook is lost if you have to work around a drm anyway. and that way their drm sales drop to zero and they have to rethink this whole falacy. The number of people accepting DRM content is used as a sales pitch by Pearson printing to force universities to use DRM text books that can't be resold! again, screw the poor, right? PS: sorry for the rant. DRM makes me salty.