Apprentice Alf back from retirement

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by Apprentice Alf

After some thought, I have decided to retire.

While the chances of being charged with any crime, let alone convicted, for non-commerical distribution of DRM circumvention software are remote, they are not quite remote enough for peace of mind any more.

My blog remains available (trimmed of some now redundant posts), and I have given the password to some other people, so I hope that it will be maintained, but there is, as always, no guarantee.

So long, and thanks for all the Karma.

— Alf.

Sorry to hear that. You are still very welcome here as any other user.

I know maybe this is too personal, but did you receive any pressure from anyone or any company against what you were doing?

Wish you the best!

[Fastolfe]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Distributing tools to circumvent copy protection would also fall foul of the DMCA in America and the DEA in England.

Ah yes, you're quite right, I forgot about those.

I can't believe the DMCA has been around for 12 years. Ever since its inception, I've always considered it in the same league as the Volstead act: it's retarded, nobody wants it and it's going to be repealed some day. As a result, I pretty much ignore it and carry on thinking in pre-DMCA mode, hence my comment.

Oh well, hopefully the DeDRM project will be relocated to a non-US country with sensible laws and free people to work on it.

[Joyful]

I just wanted to add my best wishes to you Alf!
And many, many thanks!!

Joyful

[NNolan]

Just want to add my best wishes for your "retirement" and sincere thanks for your web site.

[sabredog]

All the best Alf. For those who were geographically restricted, the tips and tricks offered on your site were a boon.

[LaurieGator]

Thank you for all of the wisdom that you have passed to us :-)

I understand your reason for retiring and wish you the best of luck!

I hope we will still see you around Mobile Reads, even if under another name!

[voracious71]

Thanks for all you've done.

[Bindi]

Alf - Thanks so much for all of your help. You've helped me save several hundred old books. Because of the your tools, I've also been able to purchase more new books and new ereaders than I would have otherwise.

[sadievan]

Thanks Alf for all you've done. You will be missed.

[Apprentice Alf]

Originally Posted by jocampo

I know maybe this is too personal, but did you receive any pressure from anyone or any company against what you were doing?

I haven't had from any contact from anyone or any company. No one has put pressure on me to stop.

Intellectually, I believe it to be an irrational worry. But that doesn't stop me being worried about it.

— Alf.

[idraw22]

Altho I haven't been here long, I've been to your page a couple times,and read a few things that make me hopeful about losing all my drm-ed books. Live long and prosper!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

What was the reason for updating the Adobe DRM circumvention scripts?

The reason was that a new version of ADE was released and the script to get the key was thus broken. So that had to be updated. It was updated and the program to strip the DRM was also updated. Then the script to get the key was again updated so the program to strip the DRM also had to be updated.

There have also been changes to support OpenSSL as an alternative to PyCrypto. Also, to make it compatible with Calibre as a plugin.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by Apprentice Alf

I haven't had from any contact from anyone or any company. No one has put pressure on me to stop.

Intellectually, I believe it to be an irrational worry. But that doesn't stop me being worried about it.

— Alf.

I don't think it is irrational at all. In the tax arena, really smart people think up a tax shelter. Everyone uses it. Then it appears in the Wall Street Journal. It takes the IRS about 3 days to retroactively ban it.

Of course, the Wall Street Journal is a different publication. I want to apologize to you, as a user, for making your life difficult.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Unfortunately, that's not the point. Although removing DRM for personal use MAY be legal in the US, the development and distribution of DRM removal tools is unquestionably NOT legal.

It's a stupid law, but it is the law, and Alf is very sensible to be wary of it. I would be, too, in his position.

I think there's some wiggleroom for legal development/distribution under the DMCA. It is arguable that what Alf was doing - developing the tools and putting them on the internet in a non-commercial setting, together with warnings concerning use - is okay. There are some free-speech aspects to writing & posting software code that could provide a defense under the First Amendment.

But most people wouldn't want to be the one to test the limits. Alf was willing, for a while, bless him, but I don't blame him at all for calling it quits at this point.

That, of course, is one of the basic problems with the DMCA - it operates in terrorem to prevent people from doing things that it doesn't, at bottom, actually forbid. We'll probably never know, because it takes someone who is willing to wind up a martyr to put the law to the test.

EDIT: Seeing Alf's later posts, it's clear that this is exactly what has happened to him.

[Piper_]

Bless you for all you've done, Alf. I'll continue to whisper you a blessing each time I'm laid up, unable to read to myself. The ability to listen to TTS on my Kindle books is priceless beyond words.
Thank you.