New version of DRM removal tools ("DeDRM")

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I don't know how it is where you are, or where JSWolf is, but in the Netherlands it's indeed almost impossible these days to have internet, and not have Wifi. Every internet modem provided since the last 10 years or so that I have seen, has Wifi and a router built in.

I still run into people with Internet and no wireless quite a bit. My martial arts school, and my sensei's home, most recently. Here in the megalopolis it might be more relegated to senior citizens or other change-averse types, but I'm aware that in other parts of the country, it's more common, and there are still even some folks on dial-up, I hear.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Oh, yes. I realize that. I'll probably keep buying KF8 for the few Amazon purchases that I make, but I don't really care how close KFX might be to what the publisher provided. File-names, class names and the like don't really concern me. I quickly zap everything into my preferred (uncomplicated) formatting (in a KindleUnpack extracted epub) and trash the original anyway. I archive and read in EPUB these days.

I just want the encryption on KFX reversed so I still have a back-up plan. That and the fact that downloading for usb transfer just isn't as convenient as the K4PC Alf route to me. As long as KFX can concievably be converted to EPUB with no loss of general formatting (meaning bold, italics, headers and vertical margins in a typical all-words novel), then I won't be too fussed about it not staying "true" to the publisher-provided original.

You don't need to download for usb transfer. See Apk's answer to me. This is much easier.

Originally Posted by ApK

Yes, if you choose the "transfer via computer" as the "deliver to" you'll get a box to choose which device you intend to transfer it to (if you have more than one device registered, at least) and then the file downloads in your browser, encrypted to work on the device you chose and be used as you see fit.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

You don't need to download for usb transfer. See Apk's answer to me. This is much easier.

I can appreciate that, but I typically buy Amazon books (when I can't find them in epub, or the price is just too good to pass up) from my tablet's browser, or the Store in the Kindle Android app--not on a PC from a browser. Then the next time I'm on my PC, I fire up K4PC to alf/archive any recent purchases. Downloading a properly encrypted file to my tablet (at purchase time) wouldn't be all that handy

So most of the archiving I do is going to involve going to Amazon's site and manually downloading--for USB transfer--to my K3 (once I'm FORCED to use the newest K4PC version, that is). That's why I look forward to the time I can alf KFX books downoaded via K4PC.

I'll keep that Point-of-Sale option in mind, though whenever I DO buy something from my PC.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I don't know how it is where you are, or where JSWolf is, but in the Netherlands it's indeed almost impossible these days to have internet, and not have Wifi. Every internet modem provided since the last 10 years or so that I have seen, has Wifi and a router built in.

I'm guessing it depends. I switched to cable internet last year (CT USA, Charter/Spectrum), and my cable modem does not have wifi. It may have been optional, I don't recall.

[silverraven]

Originally Posted by John F

I'm guessing it depends. I switched to cable internet last year (CT USA, Charter/Spectrum), and my cable modem does not have wifi. It may have been optional, I don't recall.

My parent's internet is through the electric company. Their modem is mounted on the outside of the house. We had the option of renting a separate router from them or buying our own. We bought.
At my house we could rent or buy a modem and router. This is cable. We bought, so unless we also bought a router we would not have wifi in the house.
Pretty sure my neighbors when they had DSL had separate modem/router also. They had to buy a router.
I think there are many different combos out there and we should not assume everyone has wifi. Or even internet or cell coverage for that matter. When I visit my in-laws they have no internet and their cell coverage in the area is spotty at best. I would drive into town to maybe get lucky and get a cell signal.
S

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by John F

I'm guessing it depends. I switched to cable internet last year (CT USA, Charter/Spectrum), and my cable modem does not have wifi. It may have been optional, I don't recall.

Just a recommendation, buy yourself on modem. The cable company charges you a fee each month to rent that modem (unless your cable company is kind-hearted and if so, they're the first).

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I can appreciate that, but I typically buy Amazon books (when I can't find them in epub, or the price is just too good to pass up) from my tablet's browser, or the Store in the Kindle Android app--not on a PC from a browser. Then the next time I'm on my PC, I fire up K4PC to alf/archive any recent purchases. Downloading a properly encrypted file to my tablet (at purchase time) wouldn't be all that handy

So most of the archiving I do is going to involve going to Amazon's site and manually downloading--for USB transfer--to my K3 (once I'm FORCED to use the newest K4PC version, that is). That's why I look forward to the time I can alf KFX books downoaded via K4PC.

I'll keep that Point-of-Sale option in mind, though whenever I DO buy something from my PC.

I normally buy from my tablet and I can just use ES File Explorer to send it to the desktop. I also still manually download for USB transfer, but I can do that once a month or so. I want a backup of everything in a format that can easily be edited, and the books are easily recognized since the file name is the book title. I'm a little backup crazy - I have a daily backup saved to the NAS and that is also used to put the current library to Dropbox.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Just a recommendation, buy yourself on modem. The cable company charges you a fee each month to rent that modem (unless your cable company is kind-hearted and if so, they're the first).

And then make sure they aren't still charging you for the rental in the future. Mine ended up having the charge added again when cable prices went up. Since there was a price increase anyway we missed that they started charging again. We did get a credit for what was charged after we noticed it.

[barryem]

First, my problem got solved thanks to some friendly and helpful people. Thank you, friendly and helpful people.

I think it's too early to take this as a user unfriendly move by Amazon. Historically DRM comes first and then ways around it come next. Hopefully that will keep on happening. Amazon seems to be following a kind of natural upgrade progression. Nothing about it seems to be anti-backup.

I mentioned my calls to Kindle support some time ago and it might be worth mentioning them again. I've been making Mobi copies of all my Kindle books and using Send to Kindle to send those to my devices instead of downloading the originals. I depend on my relationship with Amazon, living in a rural area and not having a car, so I called them to make sure they wouldn't see this as something that would get me in trouble with them.

The support guy I talked with had no idea so he said he'd ask around and call me back the next day. He did and he said no-one he discussed it with could see any issue with it, including supervisors, and that some of the people he asked were also doing something like this.

Then about a year later I read some articles about people losing access to their accounts for various reasons and I got concerned again and made a similar call and got similar results.

This was nothing official from Amazon. They didn't quote policy to me. They just explained that nobody there really cares. They're concerned with dishonest people, not customers protecting themselves. That's my phrase. I don't think they actually told me that but it was the feeling I got while talking with them.

Anyway my guess is that Amazon really has no problem with us doing this.

It's probably also worth relating something that happened to me with Audible in their early days that kind of illustrates the same thing. They limited downloads to 2 devices at the time, which was inconvenient, so I made MP3 versions and used those. These were audiobooks I had bought and I didn't share them. I just made things more convenient and safer for myself.

In their forum in a discussion about problems with the 2 device limit I mentioned that I was doing this. I quickly got a phone call from one of Audible's lawyers saying that if I want to continue as a customer I would have to sign an agreement not to mention this in the forum again. I signed the agreement and didn't mention it again. My account continued normally. I was never asked to stop doing it, only not to mention it in the forum.

In personal emails with that lawyer later I asked about that and she said their main concern wasn't that people might do that but that publishers might become leery of them as a source of piracy.

This was well before Amazon bought Audible so there's no reason to think they both have the same view of this but it's likely they do and so far Amazon hasn't taken many steps to make DRM removal difficult. It's a very safe bet they know all about it. My guess is they just don't care as long as it isn't a threat to their relationship with publishers.

You never know how things will change but at present I don't see any reason to think this is a hostile move on the part of Amazon. I sure do hope I'm right.

Barry

[barryem]

I don't know if any of you guys are old enough to remember the early days of BBS systems, long before the internet became available, when AT&T was The Phone Company and there was no other.

If you connected a modem to your phone line to dial into a BBS service and they found out about it they added a $50 a month charge to your phone bill. This was in the days when a typical phone bill was less than $10 a month. That went on for a lot of years until laws were changed to prevent it.

Most people with modems never got caught. Some did and they could pay or lose their phone line. I knew of a few people that it happened to.

Barry

[John F]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Just a recommendation, buy yourself on modem. The cable company charges you a fee each month to rent that modem (unless your cable company is kind-hearted and if so, they're the first).

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I believe my cable company is one of the kind hearted ones (no extra charge for the cable modem).

Although they would gladly charge me for the wifi router.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by barryem

If you connected a modem to your phone line to dial into a BBS service and they found out about it they added a $50 a month charge to your phone bill. This was in the days when a typical phone bill was less than $10 a month. That went on for a lot of years until laws were changed to prevent it.

I was BBSing in the days of 300 baud modems (I'm pretty sure I can still whistle a 300 baud carrier tone) and just at the end of 110 baud acoustic coupler days, and I thankfully was never aware of any supposed charge for modem use. Could this have been limited to certain Bell operating companies?

[barryem]

Originally Posted by ApK

I was BBSing in the days of 300 baud modems (I'm pretty sure I can still whistle a 300 baud carrier tone) and just at the end of 110 baud acoustic coupler days, and I thankfully was never aware of any supposed charge for modem use. Could this have been limited to certain Bell operating companies?

I don't really know. I lived in Houston where Southwestern Bell operated and they did that. I had the impression it was more general but I'm not really sure.

A lot of people I knew with modems also weren't aware of it. If you went to the store to buy a modem they didn't tell you. If you joined a computer club you were likely to find out about it.

Barry

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by issybird

Bottom line: I don't care enough. Amazon will become another Barnes and Noble, i.e., a place I don't buy ebooks, other than the occasional Whispersync title where I want the cheap audiobook.

If that ends up being the case for me too, I may never buy e-books from them again and just settle for what I can borrow from the library. (I have a tablet and a phone with overdrive) The main reason I bought a kindle to begin with was because I wanted the option to download my very own file (my OS doesn't have Kindle for PC).and store it on my library so I can read it the way I choose.

I've always resented DRM for things I buy. It's akin to buying a car and not being able to drive it off their property.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by John F

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I believe my cable company is one of the kind hearted ones (no extra charge for the cable modem).

Well hey, there's gotta be one

I'd still check for equipment rental fees.

Originally Posted by John F

Although they would gladly charge me for the wifi router.

Buy one of those too! The Google OnHub routers look pretty sweet (though I don't have one, yet).