• Localhorst86@feddit.org
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    6 days ago

    Back when Randall Munroe released his “What if” in eBook format, it essentially was only available with DRM.
    When I emailed him about it, asking for a place to buy it without DRM, he responded with DRM unfortunately being mandated by his publisher, and finished his email with a link to this comic of his:
    https://xkcd.com/488/

  • Jrockwar@feddit.uk
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    6 days ago

    I would recommend people buy their books off ZLibrary instead, where they come with no DRM.

    • BitsAndBites@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I bought my first ereader this summer and got a Kindle and hated it. Returned it and got a Kobo. Its fantastic, I can just load my ebooks like it’s an external drive. I dont have to email all my ebooks to Amazon just to get them on my own device.

      • BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk
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        6 days ago

        I’ll be switching to kobo next time round, but I’ve never not been able to dump books onto my kindle by usb. I do it with my phone over USB sometimes. Since when has not doing that been a thing?

    • sunbytes@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I’ve been with them for a couple of years now. Unfortunately the devices just doubled in price but I’m very happy with them otherwise.

  • Corridor8031@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

    It annoys me so much that they have convinced anyone that this stuff is for protecting against piracy of something like that, while this is just another tool for them to force you into using their platform and ecosystem. It does nothing against piracy.

    • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      Yeah you can easily pirate any book, or even just get them free at the library. This just fucks over the authors and people who want to buy their books legally. People don’t buy books because they have to, they want to.

      • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
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        6 days ago

        Yep, I could pirate all my books and audio books if I wanted. All it would do is fuck over the author tho.

        As much as I hate audible it’s the only legal choice I have for many of the books I listen to. Since basically every other legal option has out of the nearly 500 or so audio books I have less then 50 of them.

        It’s annoying.

    • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca
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      6 days ago

      Books were among the first things to be pirated and are still among the easiest because the amount of data is so small. People we’re doing that on dial up Internet.

    • fodor@lemmy.zip
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      6 days ago

      And to repurchase. Never forget that aspect of the scam. Sell but don’t actually sell, make the customer keep on paying.

  • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works
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    7 days ago

    This entire thing has been made needlessly complicated. Easy fix though.

    1. Get whatever ebook you want.
    2. Borrow some code from GitHub and teach a raspberry pi with a camera and a few servos to snap pictures of pages, turn the pages, snap again into a PDF.
    3. A script then parses all the images and OCRs them for the final PDF.
    4. You now own a backup of your DRM book, which you own forever. Pretty sure this is actually legal under DMCA since you are taking a backup of something you allegedly own. The encryption circumvention is irrelevant.
    5. now, break the law and throw the PDF on the internet to everyone. Go little bot! Go go go!
    • ysjet@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      The encryption circumvention is irrelevant.

      Oh you sweet summer child, judges will bend over backwards to slap people with multi-decade-to-life charges for ‘hacking,’ even if the ‘hacking’ is just the rightsholder accidentally presenting data to you.

      • tomkatt@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        To be fair, if you OCR the pages via camera, you haven’t actually circumvented DRM. That means it’s a completely legal backup, as the DRM on the original file was untouched and unaltered. This definitely does fall under fair use.

        • ysjet@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          Theoretically, yes. Realistically, judges historically believe anything prosecutors tell them about hacking and circumvention.

          There’s been people thrown in jail for the rest of their life for the crime of clicking a public URL that the company didn’t intend to be public.

          • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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            6 days ago

            There’s been people thrown in jail for the rest of their life for the crime of clicking a public URL that the company didn’t intend to be public.

            Source?
            The closest i’ve heard was a journalist being accused of hacking for the crime of choosing “view source” in the right-click menu of a web-browser.

            • ysjet@lemmy.world
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              6 days ago

              If you scroll down a bit, I actually already answered that question in this exact threat, one reply down.

        • dermanus@lemmy.ca
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          7 days ago

          You didn’t circumvent it by breaking the encryption, but I’d say you still circumvented it.

      • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        They already ruled on this in favor of allowing you to back up what you already own. See video games, DVDs and CDs, video tapes, this is well established already.

        • ysjet@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          They actually walked that back using blu-rays as an excuse. If there’s any sort of DRM/encryption/etc, you’re completely unallowed to circumvent it, even for personal backup.

  • ToxicWaste@lemmy.cafe
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    6 days ago

    again displaying, that DRM only hurts legitimate users. a pirate has never had the problem of backing up, moving or sharing his library…

  • selkiesidhe@sh.itjust.works
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    7 days ago

    I have five published books, all without drm. Amazon better not put that shit ON my books. It’s not there for a reason; I want people to share.

    • CMDR_Horn@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      The real question is how can I find out what those 5 book are without you doxing yourself.

    • Eagle0110@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Curious, as someone who’s an actual author, do you have any legal option at all for preventing Amazon (which I assume technically act as your publisher in this case?) to put DRM on your books, or demand them to remove DRM if they added DRM without your notice?

      • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
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        6 days ago

        Likely not, Amazon is a private market place and if their requirements to use it requires the drm his option is very likely use the drm or fuck off.

        Not having good publicly controlled legal market places is one of the biggest failings of the internet.

  • LoafedBurrito@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I don’t know why people buy an stuff like this and get surprised when this happens.

    Plenty of other electronics that you have full control over.

      • rumba@lemmy.zip
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        7 days ago

        Having your cake and eating it too isn’t on the menu

        Kindles were loss leaders to get you in their ecosystem, just like all the shitty cheap tablets they sold.

        The from four years ago part is real, but honestly, 4 year old devices read books about as well as current devices as long as you’re not trying to go all fancy.

        • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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          7 days ago

          It’s just matter of time before they’re all locked down, even the bad ones from 2020.

          Just like android where basically it’s all bootloader locked, except for a few suspiciously special models like the Pixel. Or a “new” 1000$ model with hardware from 2018.

          Instead of pretending there isn’t a problem because there are still option, you should realize the WINDOW IS CLOSING

            • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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              7 days ago

              The raspberry pi has no low power modes / suspend states, to prevent it being used as a cell phone or tablet.
              The standalone eink display are also very expensive, more than a entire eink reader and there is very little choice and they cannot be harvested from a working device.

              • rumba@lemmy.zip
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                6 days ago

                Low power states is a good call,

                Looks like there’s a lot of work on using ESP32 for this kind of thing, even a couple open projects, but they end up bit-banging the screen into submission. not super elegant.

                You can get 7" eink panels for $50.

      • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
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        7 days ago

        Unless Kindle prices came way down, Boox are comparable in price, nicer in features, and allow side loading any eBook or Android APK (including the Kindle APK, if you can still get a copy of it.)

        https://shop.boox.com/

        • aaravchen@lemmy.zip
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          7 days ago

          I don’t think you’ve used anything but a Boox in a long time, and have forgotten what the standard is. Boox has 1/10 the battery life, takes forever to wake up, and doesn’t support deep sleep properly (so it either drains battery when sitting idle, or shuts off entirely taking 5+ minutes to power back on). It’s decent hardware with very badly designed software. Neither Kobo or Kindle devices have these problems, they have battery that actually lasts, deep sleep when idle for any length of time, and power back up, even from deep sleep in 10 seconds or less.

          • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
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            6 days ago

            Agreed, the battery life is way worse. I find the features of full unlocked Android to be a worthwhile trade.

            But my point is that the prices of various eInk Android tablets aren’t unreasonable anymore.

            Edit: Although, for anyone worried - I literally don’t remember the last time I charged my Boox. It was sometime last month - and I read with it most days.

            The battery life can be fine, when configured with conservative screen refresh settings.

            But I think there is still a difference - when I binge-read something for many hours multiple days in a row, I’ll notice that I need to recharge my Boox sooner than my Kindle needed.

            • aaravchen@lemmy.zip
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              7 days ago

              Oh yeah definitely. It’s a slow EInk Android tablet on a very old version of Android. If you need more than just an EReader it’s the only reputable brand.

    • dantheclamman@lemmy.worldOP
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      7 days ago

      I am honestly surprised it took this long! Kindle has been around a long time and it’s not like Amazon was any less evil back then. It makes me wonder if the competition has been starting to make them nervous!

  • BoloMKXXVIII@piefed.social
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    7 days ago

    Why are people “buying” DRM infested books? They don’t own anything. “Their” books can be taken away at the whim of the seller. Their rights can change with a change to the EULA. There are other legal ways to use e-readers (not Kindles) that let you keep and back up what you buy.

    • nuggie_ss@lemmings.world
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      7 days ago

      Why are people doing X stupid thing that makes rich people richer at their own expense?

      It’s the herding and conditioning. The sheeple have not woken up.

      So many things make so much more sense when we realize this.

    • Iamaquantummechanic@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I stopped when they removed the “download and transfer via USB” option. Before that I bought books, downloaded a copy and removed the DRM.

      Now I just download books without DRM for free.