ADE Authorizations and merging accounts

[Katsunami]

In the Netherlands, it's also illegal to remove copy protection.
However, it -is- legal to make a copy for your own use/backup.

Over here, the right to make the copy supersedes the restriction to remove the copy protection. At least, it was like this a few years ago.

Either way, I don't care. If I buy something, it either has no copy protections (like GOG.com games), or I already know how to remove them (Amazon and EPUB2 books on ADE 2.0.1). If I can't get my media without copy protection by either buying it DRM-free or removing it, I don't want it at all.

@Macblaze: Yes, you can redownload the ASCM file. To redownload the book, you have to authorize your device with ADE, and use the same account you used when you first got that particular book. It won't work with any other account. The ASCM-file gets generated and then stored/locked to the account that first uses it.

@Sirtel: Adobe has no support, like most large companies. The best you can hope for is a help desk person who actually KNOWS what they're dealing with. If not, you'll get to talk to someone who just blindly follows a script, and you'll get nowhere. You'll actually never speak to Adobe itself.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

Since Bill C-11 is is now illegal to remove DRM in Canada. Stupid law. Yes I can remove the DRM but that would be illegal wouldn't it. :-).

Illegal but not criminal. And the only remedies are those the copyright holder could bring against someone who infringed their copyright, and that excludes statutory damages.

So in Canada, remove DRM from ebooks from your own use is illegal, but the copyright holder would have to
(a) find out about it
(b) sue you
and
(c) show actual damages.

(1) is unlikely. (2) is, I suppose, possible as a test case/example. But (3) seems impossible.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Illegal but not criminal. And the only remedies are those the copyright holder could bring against someone who infringed their copyright, and that excludes statutory damages.

So in Canada, remove DRM from ebooks from your own use is illegal, but the copyright holder would have to
(a) find out about it
(b) sue you
and
(c) show actual damages.

(1) is unlikely. (2) is, I suppose, possible as a test case/example. But (3) seems impossible.

Interesting. I will have look closer at your suppositions vis a vis criminality. It is an interesting distinction.

Anyway. I am still going to keep annoying the parties involved because a) I am stubborn and b) there is a record of me having purchased (or leased or whatever the TOS says I am doing) them and I should be able to access them all within the system.

The original question was asked and answered. I'll update this if I ever get resolution.

[Katsunami]

I hope you can log into both your Adobe and CloudLibrary account and get all of your books downloaded; first the one, unDRM, then the other, and unDRM those. If you never put your books onto the internet or give them away, nobody but you will ever know you removed the DRM from them. (This is one of the reasons why I only keep a few books on my reader: I don't want a thousand unDRM-ed books *I paid for* ending up in someone else's hands if ever my reader gets lost or stolen.)

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

I have deleted the ADE authorization.dat file on Kobo's insistence and now have no official access to the books. And yes, I know I can get them back by cracking them if I have to.

If you have lost access to the books in ADE you will NOT be able to remove the DRM now.

Greg

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by gweeks

If you have lost access to the books in ADE you will NOT be able to remove the DRM now.

Greg

True, but he can reauthorize the computer again (if the password to the account is known), and redownload the books.

[Macblaze]

Well miracle of miracles. I got an email back from Kobo's help and stating they they have reset the authorization on the books in question. Of course for some reason it only worked for 2/3rds of the books. But it's a start.

So there you go. The retailer can reset authorizations on purchases. Now I just have to get them to try again on the other 1/3.

[Katsunami]

It's a start indeed. Now install calibre, install the Apprentice Alf DeDRM plugin, import the books into calibre, and see if they open in the viewer there. If they do, they're free of DRM. Then just remove the books from ADE (and the "\Documents\My Digital Editions" folder) and never worry about them again. Just make your own backups. (My ADE is completely empty, and I couldn't care less if my Kobo cloud explodes.)

In the same way, see if you can get the other books back...

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

Well miracle of miracles. I got an email back from Kobo's help and stating they they have reset the authorization on the books in question. Of course for some reason it only worked for 2/3rds of the books. But it's a start.

So there you go. The retailer can reset authorizations on purchases. Now I just have to get them to try again on the other 1/3.

One reason retailers are reluctant to reset the authorisations is that they have to pay Adobe for the new authorisations.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

One reason retailers are reluctant to reset the authorisations is that they have to pay Adobe for the new authorisations.

Well that's an interesting little tidbit. I am so surprised about how opaque the whole Adobe DRM process is. You would think given its pervasiveness there would be a lot more info available.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

Well that's an interesting little tidbit. I am so surprised about how opaque the whole Adobe DRM process is. You would think given its pervasiveness there would be a lot more info available.

You can learn a bit more about Adobe Content Server (the software retailers licence to manage their Adobe DRM'd sales)...

http://www.adobe.com/solutions/ebook...nt-server.html


These are old numbers and I wouldn't be surprised if they've gone up, but ACS was about $6,500 for the initial license and around $1,500 a year in "service" fees, and then there is a per book fee as well, for a permanent license like you'd have with a retail sale it's around $0.22-$0.25 per book sale, for loans like through a public library the fee is reduced to around $0.08 per temporary license.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

You can learn a bit more about Adobe Content Server (the software retailers licence to manage their Adobe DRM'd sales)...

http://www.adobe.com/solutions/ebook...nt-server.html


These are old numbers and I wouldn't be surprised if they've gone up, but ACS was about $6,500 for the initial license and around $1,500 a year in "service" fees, and then there is a per book fee as well, for a permanent license like you'd have with a retail sale it's around $0.22-$0.25 per book sale, for loans like through a public library the fee is reduced to around $0.08 per temporary license.

Do you know when the book charge is made? Is it at sale time or when the book is downloaded. If if is the latter, it would partly explain why Kobo have kept up their own format. People using Kobo devices or apps can download directly from the store. And they might never download the epub2 version. Which would mean no fee to Adobe. And that might be worth it to Kobo.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Do you know when the book charge is made? Is it at sale time or when the book is downloaded. If if is the latter, it would partly explain why Kobo have kept up their own format. People using Kobo devices or apps can download directly from the store. And they might never download the epub2 version. Which would mean no fee to Adobe. And that might be worth it to Kobo.

AFAIK it's accrued when the server issues the ACSM "ticket" for the first time, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm sure it is why, or at least a major reason why, Kobo maintains their own format. I think Google has their own format (ePub based, but not "Adobe ePub") for their apps as well as they would avoid the DRM fee in the same way Kobo would.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Do you know when the book charge is made? Is it at sale time or when the book is downloaded. If if is the latter, it would partly explain why Kobo have kept up their own format. People using Kobo devices or apps can download directly from the store. And they might never download the epub2 version. Which would mean no fee to Adobe. And that might be worth it to Kobo.

I believe the fee is due when an acsm ticket is redeemed and the book downloaded. But I'm not certain.

I am sure that it's why Kobo are keen on their own kepub encryption, because if someone only uses that, Kobo don't have to pay Adobe. I think. I'm not privy to Kobo's finances.