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Originally Posted by hypothetical
Hi. I’m new here and found this site when deciding which ebook reader to buy. I ended up with a kindle 2 and am very happy with it. When I purchased it, I knew it’s advantages and the limitations of the amazon store mostly due to the information provided by this site, which was, for the most part, accurate. Most importantly, it was fairly easy to discern facts from the personal bias that members had for particular readers.
After the events of last week, I was a little dismayed about how quickly some of you did a 180 on your feelings about amazon. Everyone here seems to be taking this very personally, even going so far as encouraging others to return their devices because of a grand conspiracy at amazon to oppress their rights (and possibly steal their children!)
I going to play the devil’s advocate here, in hopes we start looking for other possibilities instead of always assuming the worst possible case. I think that instead of breaking out the torches and pitchforks, maybe we should be working on getting companies to be less vague when communicating with community websites.
One of the main points of contention here is that a kindle’s PID is only use is for shopping at other stores. It’s still on the main page as I write this. I think that this is true for 95% of the people on this site, but lets remember that there are many sites with less scruples. It would be naive to think that useful tools used for legitimate reasons couldn’t possibly be used for illegitimate ones. A little google research found this:
I won’t post the entire script because of its purpose, but the command line arguments should be fair game and enough to make a point.
print "MobiDeDrm v0.05. Copyright (c) 2008 The Dark Reverser"
if len(sys.argv)<4:
print "Removes protection from Mobipocket books"
print "Usage:"
print " mobidedrm infile.mobi outfile.mobi PID"
This may be a different PID, but I doubt it. Regardless, this would probably scare any publisher that found it into contacting amazon and asking them to take action.
I did another, more targeted, google search for “MobiDeDrm”. The top hit is for this website. It’s for a forum thread that is simply instructing a member on how to execute python scripts (damning stuff, I know), but it still enough to make this site stand out as a source of information. If you were going to send out letters to sites requesting the removal of all the tools that could be used to rip and redistribute your books, wouldn’t you start at the top of the google results?
Can we now accept the possibility that this could be a legitimate (although mildly misinformed) concern for amazon. Is it now possible that all of this is the result of google research done by an underpaid intern, instead of the fact that this site posts instructions on how to use a kindle at a library or another store?
I know a lot of you don’t like Amazon’s business model and that’s fine. You seem very happy with other devices. And to those of you with kindles who want to buy or borrow books from other places, is this really going to stop you? The process isn’t a simple one. It involves running python scripts for each book, not exactly something my grandmother would be comfortable doing.
I’m guessing that those of you who are actually considering returning your kindle because of this probably never should have got one to begin with, and would have been much more comfortable with a more open product. One that uses that openness a selling point. I don’t remember anything on amazon’s site about being able to buy books elsewhere or borrow them from a library. That is an undocumented ability that you shouldn’t count on and that you should have never based a purchasing decision on.
I bought my kindle for the simplicity and efficientness of the device and I’m quite happy with it.
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A couple of points need to cleared up here.
1) PID is not necessarily or in general restricted to the Kindle. The PID of any device that has Mobipocket Reader legally and properly installed will provide that PID to the owner. The Kindle does not. The script mobidedrm.py was not even written with the Kindle in mind. It was only an after thought to even search for a possible PID on the Kindle since the .AZW files were nearly identical to .PRC files.
2) I don't believe anyone here is so naive as to believe "that a kindle’s PID is only use is for shopping at other stores" and in fact it doesn't matter. Your computer is part of a chain of tools that
can be used to circumvent DRM. (In fact I believe it would be nearly impossible to do so without a computer.) Should Amazon have the right to take away your computer for this reason. We think not, nor do they have the
moral right to take away a tool which does have a legitimate use such as kindlePID.py.
3)(Just my opinion.) Personally I believe it is morally wrong for any company to "give" me something as Amazon "gave" me my Kindles PID and then to say, "Oh but you can't use that. And in fact you can't even look at it." That makes as much sense to me as a law that says I can be naked in public but you can look at me and if you do, you're a criminal as subject to jail and/or fines. There are too many such laws now because the large companies would rather send their money to Washington, DC via lobbyists and make laws rather than making the appropriate engineering changes. Othe examplse are cable & satellite TV & radio. They send me the signal (encrypted) and say, "Mustn't touch or Big Brother slap your hand." If they don't waqnt me to have it, I say don't beam it at me. (End of rant.)
Oh and another thing. Amazon's lawyer's are so tgorough and brillient that they required MR to remove all their "anti-circumvention" utilities. They either made a dumb mistake in language which I doubt because lawyers are typicall extremely efficient and correct with words, or they don't understand that the "anti-circumvention" laws are to prefent utilities that "circumvent" DRM not "anti-circumvention" tools. The latter seems more probable to me.