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Microsoft Reader Format Cracked
Anonymous Coward writes "Pocket PC Addict has a cool story about how some guy named Dan Jackson is distributing an unfortunately named program that will remove the security from Microsoft Reader ebooks. Once the security is removed, it then allows the book to be converted to html, text or any other format."
Sounds like Skylarov all over again...
I am the CLIT commander! I control the CLIT!!!
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
and one important one is for search engines to
be able to index ebook files.
Microsoft Reader is so badly designed* that having the ability to compose a solution out of small efficient programs (the unix way) permit the user to manage a library, format text, and read it in the most convenient way.
Of course, it doesn't help publishers to place restrictions on content, but we are speaking about reading ebooks, not preserving monopolies.
* installing MR on a computer with a 1024x480 display ends with one page of text about 300 pixels wide: completly unusable.
Somehow, I doubt that Microsoft would have done such a thing, but you've got to admit, it's a sound business strategy. It gives a company all the benefits of having an open format, without making the commitment of an open format.
"And obviously his homepage is http://members.lycos.co.uk/hostintheshell"
Lycos, of course, being famous for their efforts to defend free speech on hosted websites.
Anyone have a list of mirrors?
Article:
You mean to suggest there's a Microsoft Reader port to Linux?And that's where Microsoft's Palladium will fit in.
If they can encrypt and authenticate the entire path from bootup to what appears on your screen, this will be much less common.
This simply points out the reason ebooks have, for the most part, failed miserably: Greed. The whole Software maker paranoia about controlling everything you do on a computer will always backfire in their faces. Not being able to do what you want, how you want with items that you spent your hard earned money on will always piss consumers off.
exactly what eBook protection is, a stupid joke?
I don't mean technically either, I mean in basic concept.
I don't know about you, but I'm simply not going to participate. If I feel the need of an eBook I'll go to Project Gutenberg. I havn't yet read all of Dumas or Dickens, the worst of which is better than any of the crap being shilled by Oprah. Twain, O Henry, GBS, Thoreau, Kipling, Swift, Sir Richard Burton, Melville, Hume, London, Conrad. . . Jesus, the list goes on for miles, all free for the taking, distributing, printing, even selling if you want.
I think it's somewhat ironic that one of the best uses of public domain eTexts is the ease with which specialty and art binders may now get source material.
So be radical. Screw MS and Adobe. Download the entire PG opus and freely *pass it on to your friends.* Print the son of a bitch and hand it out on the street corners.
Otherwise, if these people have their way, we'll have to start memorizing them and whispering them to our children quietly, in the dark, waiting for the "story police" to come and bust us.
KFG
It is pointless to put lock in software for books anyway if the books are being released to the public. Books are just text (and maybe some pictures) and are easy to replicate. Ie, if I can read it I might as well type it in manually. It wouldnt cost much to do this in the third world. If it takes a week of work, it still would cost less than 5 dollars , for a few dollars more you could do spell checking and formatting too.
Contrast this with music where it is next to impossible to replicate the work
If you remember the whole thing abt US-europe copyright rules which happened in early 1900s where european books had no protection in the US and vice-versa, it might be actually possible to do this alsmost legally. Just send a mail to somebody in say Tanzania (Just rendomly picked a country in Africa, nothing else) with the relevant document and send him a check. he converts it and sends it to you. He proly breaks the rules, but figures US govt wont put effort in extraditing an ordinary citizen.
This would be true, except that most laws(if not all) prohibit activities, if the majority (or the vast >2/3's in most cases) believe that there is nothing wrong with xyz then it shouldn't be prohibited, are you saving society from it's self?
A libertarian would say this is different from saying that if the majority believe something is wrong then it should be prohibited.
I accasionally take drugs, and frequently forget that possession of drugs is prohibited, and yet, no-one has come to arrest me. Why?, because most people(everyone that's ever overheard/seen me), even though they may not believe that it's OK to take drugs, don't think that it's so wrong that I should be arrested. That is why the 'war on drugs' will never be won by the ummm..... who's fighting the war again.
Simmialrly, lots of people download MP3's or have 'pirated' software, I've never known anyone who would be that concerned about 'personal' use of pirated materal, even if that person only ever user pirated material. This is another war that will never be won.
Now if I were to walk down the street and hit someone with a baseball bat, the police would probably be called.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Try this mirror: http://mongfish.com/mirrors/clit/
Just click on the picture to download!