Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
I thought the apps used an encryption based somehow on the system info?
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AFAIK with ADE and K4PC, the key is attached to your Adobe/Amazon ID/e-mail address. Alf nicks the keys right out of the configuration files of the applications. Therefore, Alf doesn't actually "crack" or "break" the DRM, it just decrypts the book.
Try it. Alf doesn't work if ADE or K4PC are not set up correctly.
The difference is that Alf can save the book to a new file after decrypting. Obviously, ADE and K4PC could to, but they won't. Ever.
By the way: my e-mail addresses at Kobo, Amazon and Adobe (ADE) are all different. When I download a book from my Kobo Library, I get an ASCM file, which can be used to make ADE download the book. I assume that this ASCM file contains some sort of unique data for that particular book, generated at the moment I buy the book. The Adobe server has to save that information when providing the book to me. If it didn't, I could use the same ASCM file over and over again in different Adobe ADE accounts, and I don't assume that this is possible. I can, however, download the book over and over again.
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Also, I manage another Kobo account for someone else (with yet another e-mail address), and I just download the books using my own Adobe / ADE ID. Then I de-DRM the books, and put them into their own calibre library on my computer without changing anything apart from fixing metadata where needed.
The person whom I manage this account for doesn't have an inkling about computers or ebooks or formats or anything. He uses a tablet, for the one and only purpose of browsing the internet and the Kobo store. At some point I'll get a call to get some books, and after he brings his reader I put the books onto it, and that's all.
The reason to use a different Kobo account is to keep his books out of my Kobo Library, but ADE makes no problem with regard to the different e-mail address.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
No such thing as unbreakable DRM without stopping the reader from reading altogether. You have to give them the key without "giving" the key.
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Yes. You must give them the key, but do it in such a way that it can't be easily found. However, at some point, the key will be found. (Look at DVD's, Blu-Ray's, etc... they can all be ripped and copied.) Encrypting the key is not a solution, as the key used to create that encryption will need to be on hand.... so it just adds an extra step.
It is as you say: the harder the DRM becomes to break, the harder it will be to actually access the media. At some point the DRM will be so cumbersome that the media is useless, for all intents and purposes.