[eschwartz]

Again, this is not about "the case" -- this is about 3 different groups conflating calibre + DeDRM in a way that has the potential to tarnish calibre's name.

It has NOTHING to do with the courts, except that that is the background where the event happened.

Too many people here are confusing the issue.

I believe my comments on Teleread pretty much summed up the issue.

eschwartz says:
December 11, 2014 at 11:29 am

Point of order — calibre does not strip DRM.

calibre is a modular program with a plugin structure, and you can install a plugin which eases the process of using outside tools to strip DRM, but that is not “calibre” any more than Adblock Plus and HTTPS Everywhere are “Firefox”.

It appears Abbey House didn’t know the difference, and both EFF and Teleread are taking their word at it?

Chris Meadows says:
December 11, 2014 at 11:51 am

I didn’t really think it was worth quibbling over semantics. Even if a plugin does the actual work, it’s still Calibre that uses the plugin to do it. I’ll wager if you google “remove DRM with Calibre” you’ll find clear instructions on how to do it in the first result. And you can’t use the plugin without Calibre. So if they said enough that people were able to figure out what they meant and do it, why complain they got it wrong?

Spoiler:

Anyway, it’s common usage to say that you’re going to do something with the overall program, rather than with a plugin. If I’m going to watch a movie on my computer, I’ll say “I’m going to watch [movie] in VLC.” I don’t say “I’m going to watch [movie] with the DIVX codec,” though it is, in fact, the codec plugin that does the actual work of translating the movie so VLC knows how to show it. I’ve seen plenty of people talk about “removing DRM with Calibre” and I always knew exactly what they meant.

eschwartz says:
December 11, 2014 at 5:37 pm

Spoiler:

The plugin is just a couple individual tools which are also available standalone, bundled into a handy plugin package which saves you the need to install python, tkinter, and crypto libraries if you already have calibre.

I can unzip the plugin and run the decryption tools using a python shell… or use the copy bundled with a Windows drop target instead of a calibre import statement.

Unlike a codec which is an integral part of VLC and is in fact bundled with VLC, this is far more similar to Firefox, where there are community repositories maintained AND SANCTIONED by Mozilla, while you can also install your own.

Specifically, neither Mozilla nor Kovid Goyal are responsible for third-party, unaffiliated plugins (except if they host them) whereas VideoLAN is responsible for the codecs they distribute with VLC.

There is a reason the DeDRM plugin is absolutely not hosted at http://plugins.calibre-ebook.com and maintained by the plugin updater (and similarly, MobileRead does not allow detailed discussion/howto’s to be hosted on their servers) — so it is doing a disservice to Kovid, I believe, to allow such confusion to be perpetuated.

If it were simply a matter of semantics, I wouldn’t care but allowing calibre to be associated in such a way, with a tool that is still very much in a legally gray zone, *could* have legal repercussions.
It would be far easier for publishers to target “Kovid Goyal, who runs calibre-ebook.com” than to target “apprentice alf, who has a wordpress blog _here_” if they tried to have the tools shut down.)
And Kovid also makes the distinction, so I respect his wishes.
It would be preferable to always make it clear that the tools are a third-party addon, just in case.

Of course, thus far I have been roundly ignored there...