New version of DRM removal tools ("DeDRM")

[rcentros]

Excuse my ignorance... but is Apprentice Alf anyone in particular (besides being a major character in Tolkien's "Smith of Wooten Major?").

[Lynx-lynx]

@DiapDealer you are gratefully included in the thanks

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Excuse my ignorance... but is Apprentice Alf anyone in particular (besides being a major character in Tolkien's "Smith of Wooten Major?").

See http://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/

They have been blogging and answering questions about DRM since 2010 or so.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

@DiapDealer you are gratefully included in the thanks

I appreciate the gratitude--I truly do. But I've actually come to regret the contributions I may have made to the project.

In my opinion, making it possible to remove DRM was always a good thing. But making it relatively trivial to do so was a mistake. I'm clearly in the minority there. So be it.

[SleepyBob]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I appreciate the gratitude--I truly do. But I've actually come to regret the contributions I may have made to the project.

In my opinion, making it possible to remove DRM was always a good thing. But making it relatively trivial to do so was a mistake. I'm clearly in the minority there. So be it.

Why do you feel that way? It seems that making it possible but complicated/difficult creates an "elite" who are the only ones able to/deserve to deDRM and read epubs on kindles, etc. What benefit is there to making it accessible to just a portion of the people?

[DiapDealer]

I never said anything about making it complicated/difficult. I said "trivial". And no creation of "elites" either. I just want to limit it to people who are willing to read a bit about how to find, install, and use it. Doesn't seem overly-restrictive to me for a tool that is targeting readers of books, after all. I'm not interested in helping people that want it to announce itself, download and install itself, liberate a library's worth of books, AND remove any and all metadata that may tie books to them all in one go.

It has been my experience that triviality tends to breed complacency and a sense of entitlement that, in my opinion, will cause more harm than it will help.

But I don't expect to convince anyone I'm right.

[lkmiller]

I can't speak for DiapDealer. But to me when it's really simple and well-known that you can keep a library book forever, "buy" a textbook for the rental price, or make Kindle Unlimited truly unlimited, some people won't think twice before doing so. This leads down a road to where publishers/authors give up on allowing their books to be available in those ways. [ETA: Or, even sadder, a few may give up on creating them altogether.]

I am constantly amazed at people asking for help with DRM removal on those types of books. I've always told them that Alf's tools were intended for purchased books only -- even though many times that wasn't actually the problem. Some people would get indignant and say they would certainly delete the book when they were done with it. I'd think, "Yes, I'm sure you will, stranger-on-the-internet, but maybe not those who Google up this thread later." And I'd also think that if they hadn't mentioned it (or it wasn't otherwise obvious), they'd be getting my help.

So I'm kind of hoping that with Apprentice Alf and Harper stepping away from being (somewhat) famous providers of fine DeDRM tools, that noDRM can perhaps fly under the radar a bit, at least for a while.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

But to me when it's really simple and well-known that you can keep a library book forever, "buy" a textbook for the rental price, or make Kindle Unlimited truly unlimited, some people won't think twice before doing so. This leads down a road to where publishers/authors give up on allowing their books to be available in those ways. [ETA: Or, even sadder, a few may give up on creating them altogether.]

Actually deDRM, noDRM and similar and DRM AT ALL have almost no effect on real, industrial piracy. The claims for DRM are by people selling DRM and large companies that want to control consumers. Any publisher or author put off publishing by "failure" of DRM is deluded or dishonest. Even effective DRM doesn't much affect piracy and DRM is not effective.

Most Pirate ebooks (written by famous people) that are distributed on the internet are from paper ARCs or copies out of a publisher's office. Not from Library ebooks or Kindle Unlimited. Kindle Unlimited is inherently wrong and DRM won't fix it.

DRM is a scam. It's immoral. As is DMCA. Lack of it would have a negligible effect on writing or publishing output or piracy.
Copyright and IP is important and big companies have moral and legal ways to go after criminals. DRM is like putting small caltrops on a road to stop ordinary people. It controls and messes up ordinary consumers. It has never reduced real piracy and never will.

[lkmiller]

Again, I agree.

[crane3]

DRM is a scam. When I got my 1st ereader, Nook 1st gen, on B&N's 1st shipment, I was happy until I tried a few other ereader apps; got stopped because of DRM & was VERY irratated as the "device" was registered with adobe drm. Adobe considered that the "device" meant each reading app.

Got introduced to deDRM here & was happy again as it was trivial to include the method to remove DRM. If it was difficult & had to go thru all kinds of gyrations to dedrm; I most likely not buy so many ebooks or be content. Have not found any ereader or tablet that included a version of Moon+Reader for DRM. Overdrive does not give a happy reading experience for what [B]I[B] want in a reading app.

DRM limits choice for reading & limits a person's choice of trying & selecting reading apps. Adobe's DRM restrictions also restricts on how many adobe signons(?); had tried to use a single sign-in for multiple apps at the same time on the same tablet & even multiple adobe ids.

Removing DRM should not be as 'complicated' as doing something to an OS to get around the OS restrictions or non-working parts.

I do appreciate very much both Calibre & the DeDRM.

[hobnail]

I wonder how the authors feel about DRM; if it's a scam or useful.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by hobnail

I wonder how the authors feel about DRM; if it's a scam or useful.

There are some authors who make a point of insisting their books be sold without DRM, which suggests its necessity is not a truth universally acknowledged.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by hobnail

I wonder how the authors feel about DRM; if it's a scam or useful.

I'd imagine that just like any other group, there's a diversity of opinions.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

There are some authors who make a point of insisting their books be sold without DRM, which suggests its necessity is not a truth universally acknowledged.

Good point.

[Karellen]

I had occasion to use v10.0.1 of the plugin.

The previous v7 would convert to azw3. The new version converts to mobi. I even tested it on the same books that previously converted to azw3.

I cannot see a setting to change output from mobi to azw3 in the plugin.

Anyone know how to change this, or know where I may be going wrong?

Thanks.