6 ms·

Lego robot that strips DRM off Kindle books

80 points by steven2012 13y ago

sebastianavina 13y ago
tomorrow announcment: Amazon restricts number of "next page" presses per hour. also: now words will be written with captcas
SeanLuke 13y ago
> but unlike those DRM-circumvention tools, this setup does not violate the law. A pretty bold claim.
- cdcarter 13y ago
  It SEEMS to exclusively exploit the analog hole, but I'm sure that if it went to the right judge this would fall apart.
  - andrewaylett 13y ago
    Do you think you'd get away with photocopying and scanning a paper book? It probably doesn't violate laws against circumventing DRM, but using it is still potentially copyright infringement. What it does do that might be useful is legitimately strip DRM from files that aren't protected by copyright or for purposes which are allowed by copyright, where you might otherwise be in trouble for breaking DRM.
    - jrockway 13y ago
      Do you think you'd get away with photocopying and scanning a paper book? For personal use? Absolutely.
      - brechin 13y ago
        Just because you can get away with it doesn't mean it's not illegal. After all, do you think you'd get away with stripping DRM from your own e-books for personal use? Probably.
      - kleiba 13y ago
        Sending a copy to a web server is possibly not covered under personal use, but that depends on the country I guess. But of course he could simply run the OCR locally on his computer instead.
    - nwh 13y ago
      Same setup used to circumvent US encryption exportation laws. Tens of thousands of pages of code, printed and scanned from books.
benologist 13y ago
Summary of http://allthingsd.com/20130906/how-a-man-in-austria-used-legos-to-hack-amazons-kindle-e-book-security/ http://allthingsd.com/20130906/how-a-man-in-austria-used-leg...
advisedwang 13y ago
Pretty sure this is still circumventing an anti-piracy measure, so falls fowl of DMCA.
- lambada 13y ago
  The person in question is in Austria, so as far as he's concerned a DMCA claim isn't worth the paper it's written on.
  - aspensmonster 13y ago
    That didn't stop the MPAA from marshalling itself and a legion similarly aligned interests into a quite magnificent beast to behold in Sweden when they finally got sick of The Pirate Bay. The DMCA might be an American piece of legislation, but copyright treaties pretty much guarantee that all of the western world is subject to U.S. Law.
    - lambada 13y ago
      Except for the fact that they worked the TPB case under Swedish Law. You could (possibly) argue that they sponsored US-style legislation in Sweden, but to claim that TPB went down for violating US Law is misleading. It serves to erase the various subtle differences that exist in laws throughout the world. For instance, the UK has no such thing as Fair Use - we have a weaker concept of Fair Dealing. Under F.D. such things as making a copy of a CD onto a Computer as an MP3 is illegal (though there are plans to legalise that). I've met several people who believed that such a thing was "Fair Use", precisely because of the "All Copyright Law is US Law" mentality.
      - aspensmonster 13y ago
        Thanks for the details! Indeed I hadn't realized that the Pirate Bay trial convictions were based specifically on Swedish law. I figured that international treaties had been involved somehow. Though of course, you've hit the nail on the head: the laws are so similar, and with outcomes so similar, that all copyright law might as well be emulating U.S. policy, even if there are subtle differences in implementations.
infocollector 13y ago
This might be also of interest to ebook lovers: https://register.blib.us https://register.blib.us (A Privacy friendly platform for accessing and searching your books from anywhere).
- theon144 13y ago
  I have a dillema. You are, beyond any shadow of doubt, spamming the hell out of the service on HN. On the other hand, the service does look pretty cool.
  - infocollector 13y ago
    Thanks for your comments. I apologize and will stop posting links on topics I thought were relevant to Blib. We tried to submit Blib on "show hn", but that did not fly (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6272213 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6272213). Its hard to advertise/show/market/demo when one is on a shoe-string budget, or a better way to put it is: We haven't learnt that art as coders.
mbrubeck 13y ago
In a MetaFilter thread, one of the commenters pointed out that the story being copied in the video is "Kiosk" by Bruce Sterling, a story about (among other things) the government trying to hold back a social revolution triggered by 3D printers: http://web.archive.org/web/20080115084153/http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/fiction/bs01.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20080115084153/http://www.sfsite....
jessedhillon 13y ago
This must be why none of the new Kindles have page forward/backward buttons, despite their providing a decidedly superior experience to the awful touch UI. Kidding (probably)

80 points by steven2012 13y ago

tomorrow announcment: Amazon restricts number of "next page" presses per hour. also: now words will be written with captcas

SeanLuke 13y ago

> but unlike those DRM-circumvention tools, this setup does not violate the law. A pretty bold claim.

cdcarter 13y ago
It SEEMS to exclusively exploit the analog hole, but I'm sure that if it went to the right judge this would fall apart.
- andrewaylett 13y ago
  Do you think you'd get away with photocopying and scanning a paper book? It probably doesn't violate laws against circumventing DRM, but using it is still potentially copyright infringement. What it does do that might be useful is legitimately strip DRM from files that aren't protected by copyright or for purposes which are allowed by copyright, where you might otherwise be in trouble for breaking DRM.
  - jrockway 13y ago
    Do you think you'd get away with photocopying and scanning a paper book? For personal use? Absolutely.
    - brechin 13y ago
      Just because you can get away with it doesn't mean it's not illegal. After all, do you think you'd get away with stripping DRM from your own e-books for personal use? Probably.
    - kleiba 13y ago
      Sending a copy to a web server is possibly not covered under personal use, but that depends on the country I guess. But of course he could simply run the OCR locally on his computer instead.
  - nwh 13y ago
    Same setup used to circumvent US encryption exportation laws. Tens of thousands of pages of code, printed and scanned from books.

benologist 13y ago

Summary of http://allthingsd.com/20130906/how-a-man-in-austria-used-legos-to-hack-amazons-kindle-e-book-security/ http://allthingsd.com/20130906/how-a-man-in-austria-used-leg...

advisedwang 13y ago

Pretty sure this is still circumventing an anti-piracy measure, so falls fowl of DMCA.

lambada 13y ago
The person in question is in Austria, so as far as he's concerned a DMCA claim isn't worth the paper it's written on.
- aspensmonster 13y ago
  That didn't stop the MPAA from marshalling itself and a legion similarly aligned interests into a quite magnificent beast to behold in Sweden when they finally got sick of The Pirate Bay. The DMCA might be an American piece of legislation, but copyright treaties pretty much guarantee that all of the western world is subject to U.S. Law.
  - lambada 13y ago
    Except for the fact that they worked the TPB case under Swedish Law. You could (possibly) argue that they sponsored US-style legislation in Sweden, but to claim that TPB went down for violating US Law is misleading. It serves to erase the various subtle differences that exist in laws throughout the world. For instance, the UK has no such thing as Fair Use - we have a weaker concept of Fair Dealing. Under F.D. such things as making a copy of a CD onto a Computer as an MP3 is illegal (though there are plans to legalise that). I've met several people who believed that such a thing was "Fair Use", precisely because of the "All Copyright Law is US Law" mentality.
    - aspensmonster 13y ago
      Thanks for the details! Indeed I hadn't realized that the Pirate Bay trial convictions were based specifically on Swedish law. I figured that international treaties had been involved somehow. Though of course, you've hit the nail on the head: the laws are so similar, and with outcomes so similar, that all copyright law might as well be emulating U.S. policy, even if there are subtle differences in implementations.

infocollector 13y ago

This might be also of interest to ebook lovers: https://register.blib.us https://register.blib.us (A Privacy friendly platform for accessing and searching your books from anywhere).

theon144 13y ago
I have a dillema. You are, beyond any shadow of doubt, spamming the hell out of the service on HN. On the other hand, the service does look pretty cool.
- infocollector 13y ago
  Thanks for your comments. I apologize and will stop posting links on topics I thought were relevant to Blib. We tried to submit Blib on "show hn", but that did not fly (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6272213 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6272213). Its hard to advertise/show/market/demo when one is on a shoe-string budget, or a better way to put it is: We haven't learnt that art as coders.

mbrubeck 13y ago

In a MetaFilter thread, one of the commenters pointed out that the story being copied in the video is "Kiosk" by Bruce Sterling, a story about (among other things) the government trying to hold back a social revolution triggered by 3D printers: http://web.archive.org/web/20080115084153/http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/fiction/bs01.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20080115084153/http://www.sfsite....

jessedhillon 13y ago

This must be why none of the new Kindles have page forward/backward buttons, despite their providing a decidedly superior experience to the awful touch UI. Kidding (probably)