[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I'm not sure I'm understanding correctly, but has the net result of the Authors Guild outburst been to essentially allow us all to remove DRM from ebooks legally?

Here is what the copyright office says:

4. Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format.

from:
http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2006/index.html

So if a DRMed ebook can't be run through TTS software because of the DRM, you can legally remove it. The really cool part is that it doesn't matter why you want to remove the DRM. If a title is available only in eReader, you can remove the DRM. If it is available in MSReader but has the TTS disabled, you can remove the DRM.

The K2 threatened this becuase it had the vast majority of ebook available in the US, and it could play all of them on TTS.


EDIT:I was completely wrong on this.

If I had written the exception quoted above, I would have stated who it applied to and why. They did not because the limited nature of the exception is stated in the DMCA. Basically, you can only remove DRM from ebooks if you need to use TTS. If you are not adversely affected by TTS being disabled, you cannot remove DRM.