Amazon Kindle gets its DRM stripped (for the time being)
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted December 23rd 2009 6:44PM
posted December 23rd 2009 6:44PM
If there is one near universal gripe folks have with the Kindle, it's the DRM-laden files. It's no wonder, then, that the thing has been a lightning rod for the "information wants to be free crowd," almost since the beginning. Sure, we've seen Mobipocket, .epub, and .pdf files used on the device, but if you really want to bedevil Bezos the thing to do would be to altogether circumvent the DRM from your Amazon e-books -- and it looks like an Israeli hacker named Labba has done just that. For the time being, the hack, which allows you to convert your legally obtained e-books to unencrypted PDF files, is available as a Python script. We're sure that the process will be streamlined for us civilians soon enough -- let's just hope that it happens before the hole gets plugged and your e-reader auto-updated. This is one way to keep hold of your legally purchased Orwell, eh?
It's interesting that this is being reported as something new. The scripts to remove the Amazon DRM schemes have been around since shortly after the Kindle was launched. There are also scripts for removing DRM from .lit, epub and ereader files.
@Bugsy Yeah, I was puzzled by this one as well. I've had the requisite python and perl scripts standing by since shortly after I bought my Kindle, in case I ever decide to jump ship to another ereader ecosystem and want to take my 150+ legally purchased books with me. Doesn't seem to be anything new here.
@Bugsy It's Kindle4PC that is newly hacked. The Kindle's got a device-wide PID. Kindle4PC uses a per-book PID.
Also, it is important to note that only .mobi based books can be decrypted, not TOPAZ (this is nothing new either).
And it doesn't get converted to PDF, the DRM just gets moved and you get an unencrypted .mobi file to be used with any device that can read Mobipocket material.
@jhoff80 Interesting. It sounds like this hack is even more labor intensive than the previous Kindle one. At least with the Kindle, you only have to run the PID script once per Kindle, not for each book.
BTW, there is a set of perl scripts doing the rounds that will convert the deDRMed .mobi files into HTML, PDF and a couple of other formats. They're easy to find with a bit of Googling.
@Kutjara Of course, once you have removed the DRM from the mobi file, you can do whatever you want with it (and I highly recommend Calibre for that).
@jhoff80 Thanks for the tip about Calibre. It looks much less clunky than the perl script method I've been using.
@jhoff80 Kindle for PC was hacked by i♥cabbages not Labba, so its still hard to understand what is going on with this story.
@jhoff80 Also, disregard the "Kindle4PC" annotation, for some reason I thought it was named that way, not that I was intentionally using '4' instead of 'for' lol.
Power to the man, errr slug.
@fatslug You're trying too hard.
Yeah! Free stuff. I love the internet!
@Steve2000 Maybe, but ultimately it's about controlling what you own, and protecting the content from future abuse in the form of remotely-enabled "book" burnings.
@paul34 Did you just compare what Amazon was forced to do, to a book burning?
@Steve2000
Not sure where you got that idea, Steve. If you read my post, I said "future abuse." This was meant to refer to any sort of future attempt to control the free flow of information. Enforcing a list of banned books is significantly easier when you have direct and easy control over people's collection of books.
As far as the 1984 fiasco, the proper way to handle it would have been to contact all the people who purchased it, and to ask them for permission for Amazon to take it off their Kindles. Preferably, giving the user the option to initiate the "return" from their end. If there was some legal issue with a book you bought from Barnes and Nobles, would it be kosher with you if the manager of the store kicked down your door, pushed you out of the way, and stole the book you paid money for out of your house? No, of course not. Amazon has no ethical justification for doing what they did.
I'm still waiting to see an ebook reader that supports magazines, news papers, and comics with colour but with a similar screen without eye strain and no DRM
Is that so much to ask!
@OCEAN CLAK
You mean color e-ink? It's in development.
@OCEAN CLAK
Might as well ask for a pony. A magic pony!
@Carld
Boy version of a pony, and you know some girls do get a pony, so there's hope.
@Carld
Pwnies!
Personally, I have no issues with DRM... as in "i will not buy anything with DRM". Reasons: remember Walmart's music store? you PAID for music then autorization servers were removed, now you could no longer transfer music.
I will support DRM when it gives me the convenience of physical media.
The kindle sound interesting. I will get one when i can loan a book to my friends. You know, like i can now with meatspace books. I still believe that DRM is there to harass people willing to play by the rules.
I used to work for e-ink about 10-15 years ago.........its amazing how popular the product became. back then it was just in development......
@(Unverified) Why aren't ya working there anymore? Must be some cool things back in the lab nowadays...
Too bad its illegal. STUPID DMCA! ARGH!!!!!!!!
I'm sure thew's also a law against making that stuff illegal, some bill, with rights, somewhere in some attic.
@Wwhat +1
hurray.......... hope they can run Pandora on it some day.
"We're sure that the process will be streamlined for us civilians soon enough" You mean noobs!?
Well, I guess I'll be the first one to say it. As a writer, I have avoided submitting my printed work for Amazon Kindle, not only because they only pay you a measly 33% of the sale, but because there is no protection for work to be copied. With hacking and converting into .pdf, it is more likely people will "share" with others and I don't get paid.
Does anyone understand that most writers spend years and years of their time on books? Why do you believe that you should get them for free? Because they are just small, easily obtainable digital files?
@victorweb While it is true you will lose some business to pirates those people are unlikely to buy your material anyway. The benefit to having your objects pirated is exposure. I find most people who may pirate a book have friends who aren't as technically apt and when they find out about your book are more than likely to buy the book. Spreading the word on your book and it's good qualities can do a world of good for your book sales. In terms of the Kindle store while it does stink that you only get 33% of the sale that's one sale you probably wouldn't have otherwise. I only read books in digital format now that I have a Kindle, if you don't have your book in the store it will be scanned and pirated elsewhere and be fairly easily obtainable. Don't worry about the security of DRM because that security is only a pacifier companies use to get big companies to digitize their content. It will be removed, always.
Just buy your books from the Sony store which are not DRM'd and are in open .epub format. The books are probably signed to track illegal distribution, but otherwise DRM free.
If you value not being vendor locked, go with the Sony (quite ironic for me to say this about a tradionally proprietary company).
@jaek The Sony store uses the open ePub format but uses Adobe's encryption and DRM technology.
I know this is a way old-school concept, but in a worse-case scenario, would it be possible to set up a scanner with OCR and a page-flipping script on one of these things?
It would take a bit of time, but you'd end up with a pretty good text file that would be a snap to edit/correct.