ok...maybe I just am too dense. But I do not get it. The work around/hack is only going to serve to INCREASE the customer base for Kindle's. Right? And this capability should have been included in the Kindle to begin with. At least the ability to read mobi DRM'd books. Of course there could be legal issues surrounding that in spite of Amazon owning Mobipocket. Perhaps it's a licensing issue...for now.
In the mean time this makes me somewhat reconsider my not buying a Kindle on principle. There are tons of books Amazon does not offer in AZW format that I want to read so maybe I might be motivated to join in...of course there is the form-factor-gen1 issue nagging at me still. Plus I want it to have an easel-like stand that pops out of the back so I do not need to hold the thing.
But cool hack done in the grand spirit of true "hacking" as it was when I was first learning to code. Nobody is "stealing". Igor's scripts simply make it possible to use the Kindle for additional purposes. How is that harmful to ANYONE? Well, maybe to Sony and maybe Cybook...but...oh, well...let them duke it out and the zillion dollar AmeriCorps and EuroCorps squabble over their "rights" against each other. We are just consumers looking to get the most out of products we pay for and acquire within the rules provided.
Is using my Kindle as a paperweight a TOS violation?
If Amazon does coerce other book sellers to not accept Kindle PID's then there might be an issue against Amazon.
It still reminds me of all the "format" wars over various word processing formats that suddenly became an issue when MS Word could not compete feature wise with WordPerfect and Ami Pro and others...or the spreadsheet format wars for the same reason.
It is just flat silly to make one pay $400 for s device then tell me I cannot use it for whatever purpose I care to...and if Amazon tries to kill a device because of content it contains...that might be a whole new ball of wax in terms of privacy issues. Not sure is the TOS allows for a doc jelly-finger probing. Just that one cannot have unlicensed KINDLE content. If Amazon allows other forms of content then they have to allow DRM'd content in a different format as long as it was purchased legally and the Kindle PID is valid.
I am also certain there is a key stroke/combination that will open a diag mode which will also reveal the setup and ID details too. it almost has to be there for repair/diagnostic work. If so then there is no way to say it is reverse engineering to extract the PID. Think about it...for customers w/o EVDO access calling support because for some reason they get an error due to Amazon having an error in the PID they have on record, the client/consumer has to be able to extract the PID manually at their kitchen table. It is the only way to determine if the device is defective or the PID has an error. And that is certainly faster and more cost effective then have a now PO'd customer have to ship their new device back when it might be addressed in 5-minutes over the phone.
The TOS, I believe, states one agrees not reverse engineer the AZW format. B But it says nothing about converting other files INTO AZW format correct? I mean explicitly does the TOS address such a conversion? From my reading it does not. And as the PID is broadcast over EVDO does that make it sort of public? Even if it is encoded? Not sure...
We need universal DRM and let it go at that...the more formats a player supports the more devices a company will sell and the more content they will sell.
Last if Amazon insists on the only DRM'd format allowed to be direct from Amazon AZW then the device should cost $50 not $400. I still say if they made a monthly plan as they do with Audible and sell the device for even $100 they will come out much farther ahead...opps...I am waaaay off topic...sorry...
Just cool work around solution...saved for future reference as I feel Kindle will win the market.