I bought a book. My choice was to buy it from Sony, or BooksOnBoard. I chose BooksOnBoard because I can remove the DRM and have a version of the book that is device independent. I consider that my right as a consumer.

The mobiddrm tools do not work with this book. It says there is no key, maybe the PID is incorrect.

When I open the book in Mobipocket Reader, I'm prompted to login to BooksOnBoard to activate the book.

Any suggestions? I'm going to be really upset if I cannot, after all, read this book on my Sony Reader.

I bought a book. My choice was to buy it from Sony, or BooksOnBoard. I chose BooksOnBoard because I can remove the DRM and have a version of the book that is device independent. I consider that my right as a consumer.

The mobiddrm tools do not work with this book. It says there is no key, maybe the PID is incorrect.

When I open the book in Mobipocket Reader, I'm prompted to login to BooksOnBoard to activate the book.

Any suggestions? I'm going to be really upset if I cannot, after all, read this book on my Sony Reader.

Did you enter a PID in the BoB site? I assume that if BoB has no place to enter the PID using MP to download it will cause it to be encoded with the correct PID.

BOb

I believe I did, yes. I can read the book fine in Mobipocket Reader on my PC, and that is the PID I enter on the command line for ddrm01 and ddrm02, with the same result.

A previous book from BooksOnBoard gave me no problems (The Professor and the Madman). This new book, though, won't de-DRM.

I believe I did, yes. I can read the book fine in Mobipocket Reader on my PC, and that is the PID I enter on the command line for ddrm01 and ddrm02, with the same result.

Do you have version 4?

BOb

Of what? I have version 6.2 of Mobipocket Reader, and the title is a Mobipocket "PX" format book.

For the mobitools, I have mobiddrm01.exe and mobiddrm02.exe.

Of what? I have version 6.2 of Mobipocket Reader, and the title is a Mobipocket "PX" format book.

For the mobitools, I have mobiddrm01.exe and mobiddrm02.exe.

Of mobidedrm.

BOb

Apparently I do not. :tapping fingers:

Apparently I do not. :tapping fingers:

PM me your email address.

BOb

Thanks, but same result:

Error: no key found. maybe the PID is incorrect

Did you download this book through MobiDesktop, or did you use a browser? I ask because I have had this problem every time I did the former, but never when I did the latter.

Here's the problem and the solution: human error, of course. When you download a Mobipocket PX book, you don't have to register the PID on the site. When you open the book in Mobipocket Reader for the first time, it prompts you to login to the site from which you purchased the book, to activate it. This creates a DRM'd copy of the book.

It's rather important to de-DRM THIS file, not the original file you downloaded.

Umm, duh.

yay for drm ! isn't it fun ?

at least you figured it out. now you can read your book.

Here's the problem and the solution: human error, of course. When you download a Mobipocket PX book, you don't have to register the PID on the site. When you open the book in Mobipocket Reader for the first time, it prompts you to login to the site from which you purchased the book, to activate it. This creates a DRM'd copy of the book.

It's rather important to de-DRM THIS file, not the original file you downloaded.

Umm, duh.

Interesting. I've bought PX books before and a little birdie told me that the DRM can be stripped from them as usual -- without logging on, etc.

Did you previously (i.e., before buying the book) register your device PID's for both OD and PX at BooksOnBoard (you have to do it for each separately)?

But glad you got it working.

I registered for OD, but not for PX. So apparently the prc file is in a weird, DRM'd but un-keyed state until you logon, which sends the PID to BoB and then encrypts the book. I guess, it's all speculation. But when I tried to deDRM the original download, I get the results I posted about here. Thinking it through and finding and using the file from the Mobipocket "My eBooks" folder, I get the results I want.

Thanks everyone.

I registered for OD, but not for PX.

That explains it, then. Interesting "experiment" you conducted; good info to know.

I'm having similar problems (just started today) with FW. Did something change in the rights-server? I redownloaded files from FW that I had been able to strip, previously, but today I get the "maybe the PID is incorrect" error. This is using a Kindle PID.

ETA - so I had a copy of the file that I had downloaded previously, and it worked. The same file downloaded today didn't work ("maybe the PID is incorrect"). Something definitely changed in the rights-server. I'm on a Mac, so opening the file in MobiReader isn't an option. Darn-it-all, I just signed up for the club for another year....

Talking to myself again....

it seems like FW is now stripping out the '*' from the Kindle PIDs. I have a PID generated from a VM on Fusion, so I could use that, but FW is not letting me delete the "bad" Kindle PID, and if I download a book with both the PC and "bad" Kindle PIDs, mobidedrm (v1 and v2) give me a checksum error.

I'm not a very happy camper, now, since all this used to work perfectly - any suggestions?

any suggestions?

Well, if you're comfortable removing DRM, you could use the PID from your desktop PC to do so with mobidedrm, then move the unencumbered book to the Kindle. Or so I hear. ;)

That's what I was trying to do, but I'm getting a "checksum error", I think because of the incorrect Kindle PID that FW won't let me remove.

Surely you can deregister and register a PID with a bookseller, without any mention of DRM, right?

I'm having a similar problem with Fictionwise in that I am trying to remove the incorrect (no asterisk) PID and the automated system won't let me...error 6...non valid PID.

So I have contacted them through the website asking them to remove it.

Hasn't happened yet.

I'm having a similar problem with Fictionwise in that I am trying to remove the incorrect (no asterisk) PID and the automated system won't let me...error 6...non valid PID.



Can you just try to put in a different correct one?

BOb

Can you just try to put in a different correct one?

BOb

Probably, but I would like to avoid any potential problems like those above when I go to dedrm them later.

Basically, my profile right now has 2 entries (did have 3). It has the correct PID for my PC, and the incorrect PID for my Kindle. And the 3rd (which I removed) was the correct PID for my Kindle.

Probably, but I would like to avoid any potential problems like those above when I go to dedrm them later.

Basically, my profile right now has 2 entries (did have 3). It has the correct PID for my PC, and the incorrect PID for my Kindle. And the 3rd (which I removed) was the correct PID for my Kindle.

Ok, than can you correct the "bad" one and then remove it? I have seen apps (fixed some two) that won't let you delete a bad value or a record with a bad value because it tries to verify the value before it does the delete. So, putting in a valid value... saving it... then trying to delete the record may work.

This issue is basically that the value is being validated (checksum or whatever) before submitting the delete request. Yes, it's a bug, but it is actually the default behavior you get from ASP.Net validator controls.

BOb

There doesn't seem to be a way to edit the PID. It seems that in the past couple of days, the '*' disappeared from the Kindle PIDs, but it will allow me to enter the PID again, with the '*'. If I can't delete the bad one, though, the generated mobi file will not pass mobidedrm because of checksums, since it contains an invalid PID. Like texasnightowl, I've asked FW to remove the PID for me, but they haven't done so, yet. Frustrating.

Update: No email from Fictionwise yet that I've seen, but I just logged into my profile and the bad PID is gone, so they have removed it.

I've had no email, either, but I just checked and the bad PID is still there.

Now, I'm curious, if you re-add the Kindle PID, does it accept it? Can you strip the DRM with the re-added Kindle PID? Or perhaps you don't want to experiment, I can understand that.

What I found interesting is that the bad PID (and my remaining good one) had a description of "Imported from Fictionwise". Seems odd. I could probably re-add my Kindle, but I plan to leave just my desktop PC one and strip DRM with it.

I think I'll do likewise (only use the desktop PID). I did receive a message from FW

Mobipocket just updated its encryption scheme, and it seems that
invalid PIDs are causing problems.

The support rep went on to say that they would request that my bad PID be deleted, but it hasn't happened yet. Of course, the PID wasn't bad until yesterday.... closing a loophole, maybe?

I think I'll do likewise (only use the desktop PID). I did receive a message from FW



The support rep went on to say that they would request that my bad PID be deleted, but it hasn't happened yet. Of course, the PID wasn't bad until yesterday.... closing a loophole, maybe?

Perhaps they are responding to Amazon pressure. Just a thought.

Dale

That's certainly a good thought, Dale. So now, instead of keeping the DRM intact but simply using kindelfix, we break the DRM entirely...hmmmm, I think they forgot about that outcome, if that's why they made the change :D

There is a very simple solution to the problem.

If you have a card reader, plug it in and insert a memory card. Mobipocket Reader will see it as a reading device. Just open the book, login and then send it to the memory card. The copy on the memory card will be a standard Mobipocket eBook that you can then remove the DRM from and convert.

P.S. Your 505 will also work as a mobile device to send the book to. You cannot read it ont he 505 without converting, but you can then pull it off remove the DRM.

Perhaps they are responding to Amazon pressure. Just a thought.

Dale

This is my guess.