Epubor claim successful conversion of KFX ebooks

[MickiTee]

I check a number of free software giveaway sites regularly. One of today's offerings from GIVEAWAY of the Day for today is for Epubor's Ultimate eBook Converter 3.0.9.

The description of the application states

Epubor Ultimate is the first and only tool on the market that can decrypt and convert Kindle KFX DRM directly and losslessly

. When I checked Epubor's website it states

Bang! From 18th, October 2017, Epubor software can remove Kindle KFX DRM directly and losslessly

.

There's also an article explaining how to convert KFX files to other formats including Epub & AZW (Link to article).

The giveaway is available for 24 hours only and the license is for one year with updates. Once you've installed the software you have three days to request a registration code from Epubor and activate it.

I've taken up the offer and I'll upgrade one of my Kindle4PC installations to v1.21 over the weekend and give it a try and see what results.

I'll be interested to see what others think of the claims and the results from the conversion.

[maddz]

Nice, but no good to me - it's Windows only.

[jhowell]

I haven't tried that software. It is dangerous to run a program created by a publisher that you do not trust.

I did download the installer and took at look at readable strings inside the program. From that I could determine that it is making use of the KFX Input plugin that I wrote for calibre to do the KFX conversion.

This is not the first time that they have included other people's work without attribution and taken the credit for it themselves.

[JSWolf]

epubor is a sleazy product made by sleazy people who steal other's work and claim it as their own. I would not install this even though it's free because they don't deserve the downloads.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

epubor is a sleazy product made by sleazy people who steal other's work and claim it as their own. I would not install this even though it's free because they don't deserve the downloads.

But if they succeeded in removing DRM from KFX and converting to a different format, someone else will do it too.

I'm not installing the software for the reasons you mentioned. But (if true) it's still a win.

[KevinH]

No both pieces needed have already been posted. And imagine if their ethics are low enough to steal code, what they must be doing with any credit card info they receive. I shudder to think.

[haertig]

The software download isn't even coming from the Epubdor website (which I wouldn't use anyway, based on what people have said about them here). The download is coming from https://www.giveawayoftheday.com , which becomes even more suspicious. And the fact that they're supposedly giving this software away free or only a 24 hour period sounds like it's trying to snag the impulse downloader, before they have a chance to adequately think through what they are doing.

It's a moot point for me, since I run Linux. But the wife has some Windows computers. However, I don't think I would unleash this on one of her computers. Way too risky. Not to mention, I don't have any KFX books anyway. In the future surely I will, but for now all my Kindle books are in the older formats.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by haertig

The software download isn't even coming from the Epubdor website (which I wouldn't use anyway, based on what people have said about them here). The download is coming from https://www.giveawayoftheday.com , which becomes even more suspicious. And the fact that they're supposedly giving this software away free or only a 24 hour period sounds like it's trying to snag the impulse downloader, before they have a chance to adequately think through what they are doing.

It's a moot point for me, since I run Linux. But the wife has some Windows computers. However, I don't think I would unleash this on one of her computers. Way too risky. Not to mention, I don't have any KFX books anyway. In the future surely I will, but for now all my Kindle books are in the older formats.

I do find it disturbing that you can't install the epubdor software if you're running certain anti-virus software unless you disable the av software. I'm not sure that this means that the application actually contains any malware or some sort of web page redirection. My impression is that they're hoping to get people who download their app to upgrade to a permanent license which I believe is temporarily on sale. For people who aren't aware of the Apprentice Al/Harper etc., DRM removal code, and are afraid to install python on their PC by themselves, this might be better than nothing, even though there's basically almost no original content in their application. However, if someone has some KFX content that for one reason or another they need to convert to epub, and they can't wait for the standard or Calibre plugins to be released, people downloading the epubdor software yesterday, and installing it and getting a key by tomorrow should be able to use it for free for the next year.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by MickiTee

I've taken up the offer and I'll upgrade one of my Kindle4PC installations to v1.21 over the weekend and give it a try and see what results.

I'll be interested to see what others think of the claims and the results from the conversion.

Hmmm... given that epubor was/is notorious for using other people's code and not giving credit? Shortly before the end of September, mention was made that DRM can be removed from KFX. The topic of converting KFX to other formats was being discussed on Mobileread and jhowell has provided a Calibre plugin to handle converting KFX though the consensus seemed to be that KFX is not a good format to convert from since it is optimized for the target device. See the discussion in the General/News forum's New version of DRM removal tools thread and the Calibre/Plugins forum for more information on the KFX Input plugin by jhowell.

In the one test I ran using lulzkabulz's Pascal decrypter to remove DRM and then converting the decrypted ebook to epub, the results while readable (for a given value of readability) were not up to the results of conversion from KF8 to epub.

Edit: reading down the thread, it would appear that they have "borrowed" jhowell's KFX Input plugin code for their own use. Sad to see that some pond scum does not change.

[MSWallack]

Just a quick note: Giveaway of the Day is a decent site. I've downloaded software via that site frequently over several years. The "catch" is that software downloaded and installed via GotD can only be activated on the particular day and updates are not available. It appears to primarily be a way for vendors to get users into their systems who may then want to pay for future updates or upgrades. That being said, not all software available through the site is worthwhile or from a totally reputable company; often, however, the comments on the GotD site will help provide some information about each daily offering.

[teh603]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

I do find it disturbing that you can't install the epubdor software if you're running certain anti-virus software unless you disable the av software. I'm not sure that this means that the application actually contains any malware or some sort of web page redirection.

Back in the day when Macs had only a dozen viruses and everyone knew them by name and symptoms, the general advice was to shut down antiviruses before installing or removing anything that had an actual installer app.

Nowadays, you're pretty much right. Antiviruses don't freak out when a normal installer runs.