Mobileread/Amazon dust up hits PC World

[Daithi]

Originally Posted by tompe

Some comment on Engadget was positive and accused MobileRead of wanting to sell more or their own stuff...

I second bwaldron.

The Mobileread Store

[InlawBiker]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

DMCA includes "anti-circumvention provisions" (Wiki: Anti-circumvention), so the letter starts out correctly but then falls down on "anti-circumvention tools" (as you say, should be circumvention tools).

If you believe the DMCA to be unconstitutional, as many do, then it's an obligation to point out its flaws and test them. Maybe this will be one of the cases that does it.

[RobbieClarken]

Originally Posted by radiationman

Amazon's encryption isn't being broken or circumvented here so does Amazon actually have a DMCA claim.

Kindle books' DRM can be circumvented with KindlePID + MobiDeDRM. However you are right that KindlePID and KindleFIX in themselves do not remove DRM so I'm not sure whether the DMCA applies to these specific scripts (the take-down notice was broad enough to apply to many other tools).

When I try to Digg the PC World article it asks me to submit a new link. Can anyone point me to where the active Digg submission is?

[rcuadro]

This is poping up everywhere

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10196424-38.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03...n_kindle_dmca/

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by InlawBiker

If you believe the DMCA to be unconstitutional, as many do, then it's an obligation to point out its flaws and test them. Maybe this will be one of the cases that does it.

How can it be, given that MR, being in Canada, is outside the juresdiction of the DMCA?

[dreams]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10196424-38.html

Color emphasis is mine.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

The author of the software in question, titled Kindlepid.py, is listed as Igor Skochinsky, a hardware hacker who performed a remarkable analysis of the Kindle and described in December 2007 how he was able to gain access to the device.

It's unclear why Amazon waited so long to respond with a legal threat, and why the company targeted MobileRead.com: Skochinsky's original blog post about Kindlepid.py is dated December 2007, and the copy of the Kindlepid.py software hosted at the googlepages.com Web-page posting site is still available.

Kindlepid.py and a related piece of accompanying Python code don't allow piracy. Rather, they accomplish something akin to the opposite: they allow legally-purchased books from other e-book stores to be used on the Kindle. (Amazon owns MobiPocket, one of those stores. Another would be OverDrive.com, which counts schools and libraries as customers.)

In theory, at least, this could threaten Amazon's business model, which provides wireless connectivity through Sprint's EVDO cellular data network and covers the cost through items purchased from the Amazon Kindle Store. Kindle customers can also email themselves documents to be converted at 10 cents per conversion.

A copy of a MobileRead.com Wiki page -- now empty -- saved in Google's cache says Kindlepid.py allows you to "obtain books from sites that use DRM (Digital Rights Management - encryption) on their books for specific devices. This includes book sellers and public libraries." It provides instructions on how to install and use the software.

MobileRead.com readers with Kindles were not pleased with Amazon. "What this script does is make the Kindle more useful," wrote JS Reed. "With Amazon using the DMCA to get rid of this, they are alienating their customers and causing prospective customers to purchase a different device."

[kevindorsey]

Originally Posted by dreams

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10196424-38.html

Color emphasis is mine.

Amazon is going to take their sweet time responding to something like this.

[ahintz]

It has been nice to see the write-ups in other outlets about this issue - surprisingly, it seems that they mostly get it.

[Gaurnim]

Originally Posted by tompe

Some comment on Engadget was positive and accused MobileRead of wanting to sell more or their own stuff...

Yeah, I was pretty surprised reading that.
But the guy corrected himself in the next comment and another poster precised MobileRead's role.

[smurphy]

Well - that was exactly the reason I did buy the PRS-505 eBook reader.
I have even downloaded all parts with are opensource. Still waiting to see if Sony will provide me the Sourcecode of the actuall build-package, so I can write my own Webinterface (It's nothing else than a WebBrowser accessing the local system which is running on it), and then I could at last do some changes I want, have the layout I want etc. Whatever freaks do ...

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by InlawBiker

If you believe the DMCA to be unconstitutional, as many do, then it's an obligation to point out its flaws and test them. Maybe this will be one of the cases that does it.

Actually, it is the other vendors whose ox is being gored. Mobi could sue Amazon for interferece with a business expectansy. However, I can't see Amazon suing itself. Is any other vendor big enough to take on Amazon? Maybe Overdrive?

[whitearrow]

If anyone has the patience, can you please go explain to this guy why he's wrong?

http://ireaderreview.com/2009/03/17/...le-dmca-issue/

(Why do even I read these blogs?)

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by whitearrow

(Why do even I read these blogs?)

That blog is one I stopped reading some time ago -- the quality of argument in that post is representative of why.