New version of DRM removal tools ("DeDRM")

[jonathan2022]

Thanks nodrm for your work. Many people appreciate the time and effort you put in.

[jonathan2022]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Thank you for a thorough explanation, and of course the work you've done on the tools. I think you're right in not wanting to attract Amazon's attention any more than absolutely necessary, and the newest version is available for those who want it.

I'm glad you still have an interest in the DRM issue. It would be a sad day indeed if no one cared anymore.

Yes a very sad day especially as kfx didn't differentiate between drm free and drmed books at first. Which is wrong . Especially if you petition a publisher to offer drm free ebooks on Amazon.

[Quoth]

The DRM free books delivered in KFX, I think, work on any Kindle device/app, so from Amazon's POV it's a Kindle format, not DRM

I think EU may look at Kindle KFX and fact that Amazon with over 90% of English Language ebooks in the world only delivers to Amazon Apps & devices. Loads of people in EU use English and also two EU countries have English as official languages. It's an official EU language.

Clue in listing: Unlimited Devices, which really means anything with official Amazon Kindle App, or an actual Kindle.

[jonathan2022]

If you can't convert to other formats then isn't that a form of drm? If it wasn't for jhowell calibre wouldn't have even recognized kfx.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jonathan2022

If you can't convert to other formats then isn't that a form of drm? If it wasn't for jhowell calibre wouldn't have even recognized kfx.

And you have to thank Kovid for KF8 & Mobi. They both had to be backwards engineered.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by jonathan2022

If you can't convert to other formats then isn't that a form of drm? If it wasn't for jhowell calibre wouldn't have even recognized kfx.

Any user would agree. Amazon simply regards it as proprietary. See also Excel and Word formats in the past.
Also stupidity of Sony minidisc netMD where you had to "check-in" files and deliberately you couldn't read even your own live recordings digitally. You had to copy via analogue. It was a dark day when Sony decided to be a Media company and not just HW. The attempts by the Sony Media "wonks" to put a root kit on your PC (by the autorun/autoplay, otherwise you were safe) to stop people ripping their own CDs was immoral and illegal, but part of the DRM mindset.

And neither DRM nor proprietary formats (See also Sony Magic Gate memory cards) prevent commercial piracy.

[iBeth]

Thanks @noDRM for maintaining those tools!

I've been wondering if it's time for me to take the plunge and update what I have. I've been running k4pc 1.17, Calibre 3.48, and DeDRM 6.5.3 on my Win10 machine for ages, mostly because I remember finding it difficult to figure out how to install everything so that it worked with both Amazon/kindle and ADE/epub files. I am not nearly as tech savvy as many of you.

But these days I'm encountering more titles that I can't download with k4pc 1.17, and even when I download them from Amazon's "manage your content" webpage, they don't unlock. The files have the extension .azw3 but I get a "locked via drm" message when I try to view them in Calibre.

Would updating to the latest k4pc/Calibre/DeDRM be likely to solve this problem?

And if so, is there any information (like settings or whatever) that I should copy out of the older editions before I install the newer editions?

I have looked through the documentation here and here and didn't see an answer to that question; maybe it is a dumb question. I will look through everything more carefully if I ever gather enough courage to attempt an update.

[Sirtel]

If you want to download the books from Content & Devices as azw3 files, you'll need to enter the serial number of your Kindle in the deDRM plugin settings. If you haven't done so, that's the reason they're still locked by DRM.

[DNSB]

If you are on a 64 bit release Windows 10 and it is updated, I would recommend updating calibre to the latest and greatest(?) version. If you are on a 32 bit Windows, your maximum calibre version will be 5.44.

Otherwise, see your PMs.

[PeterT]

You could just install a current version of Calibre Portable with updated plugins, and then test to see how well everything works.

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

[Aleron Ives]

Does the alpha codebase include the planned standalone DeDRM version or only the updates for Amazon's DRM? It sure would be nice to not need Calibre for this, since the standalone scripts from the original repository don't work on all books anymore.

[lkmiller]

No standalone DeDRM. Bug fixes for the plugin and updates to the FileOpen script.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by jonathan2022

If you can't convert to other formats then isn't that a form of drm? If it wasn't for jhowell calibre wouldn't have even recognized kfx.

Legally, no. DRM -- digital rights management -- has a specific legal meaning and specific laws based on that legal definition. An obfuscated, proprietary file/container format does not meet the criteria for DRM. You could easily make a case for such a thing like KFX being anti-competitive and monopolistic but these issues are entirely separate from DRM issues.

[DNSB]

For what it may be worth, KFX "without" DRM uses the same DRM technique as a DRMmed KFX, just that the key to remove the DRM is not specific to a device.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by DNSB

For what it may be worth, KFX "without" DRM uses the same DRM technique as a DRMmed KFX, just that the key to remove the DRM is not specific to a device.

There is one exception. Personal documents directed to Amazon using one of the various send-to-kindle methods will be delivered to newer apps and devices in KFX format without any DRM included.