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Microsoft Reader Format Cracked

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the countdown-to-arrest-started dept.

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."

20 of 448 comments (clear)

  1. Familiar by djward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sounds like Skylarov all over again...

    1. Re:Familiar by Huge+Pi+Removal · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There is something I do not understand: if a vast majority of the public believes it is OK to copy software or electronic content, how can it be there exist laws to prohibit copying? I mean most of us live in democratic countries, don't we?

      If absolutely every law was put to referendum, we'd essentially have mob rule. What "the majority" want and what's actually *good* for us/the country are not always the same thing. If it were, all you'd have to do in the UK is point at someone, shout "paedophile," and it would be legal to string them up from the nearest lamppost.

      The problem with the DMCA, etc, etc, is that it tries to solve a problem by brute force. A bit like trying to bomb other countries to get them to do what you want *ahem* :) In the UK, drink-driving laws were doing very little until, over several years of solid campaigning, drink-driving was made totally socially unacceptable, and the problem is now under control. Similarly, the problem with, say, CD copy-protection is that because the RIAA and the record industry as a whole are seen as being rich and nasty, people don't care about copying CDs to give to their friends or share over the internet. Hence, copy-protection is introduced, along with laws to stop you circumventing it, which stops *any* fair use at all.

      The problem is not that the majority want it but it's not happening. The problem is that there's nothing in place in corporate America (or most anywhere else) that makes people have a social conscience over screwing the companies (and hence, indirectly, those who depend on the companies' profits) around. Now there's a whole other debate about how we can change that, which I'm not going to get into here because I think 10 other people are going to do it further down...

      --
      - Oliver

      The right to bear arms is only slightly less stupid than the right to arm bears...
    2. Re: Familiar by Antity · · Score: 5, Insightful

      but this software is produced by a foreign national in his own country (UK)

      I'm not sure about that. Although he claims to have (re)written parts of the code,

      • His page is only about this very program AND
      • He writes:
        One of the people I met while MUD'ing suggested that since I live in the UK, I could act as an agent for programmers who wish to remain anonymous but still want to release their software. I thought this would be a good idea and so this website came into existence...

      IMHO this program originated in the US, was exported to the UK, changed, and (re)published.

      P.S.: Of what .ZIP on the web do you want to make a backup copy today? ;-)

      --
      42. Easy. What is 32 + 8 + 2?
    3. Re:Familiar by Sciamachy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Democracy comes from two Greek root words, Demos, the people, and kratein, to rule or be strong. The idea is, the majority decide what goes. Is this actually any different from "mob rule"? Or is "mob rule" an idea put about by those in power who have a vested interest in seeing that the people do not in fact rule?

      The Athenian democratic system allowed all citizens to vote on all laws - granted, their cities were smaller then & their definition of a citizen was basically a free, able-bodied male who would fight for the city if it was attacked, but these days we have the technology to enable the much larger numbers of citizens in our cities to all vote. Remember also that the ability to vote doesn't neccessarily mean the voter will vote either - they'll tend to vote only on matters that concern them directly, much as US Senators and UK MPs do now, but at least then we'd have proper democracy - rule of the people by the people, instead of rule/(mis)representation of the people by a privileged minority.

    4. Re:Familiar by phutureboy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Democracy is two wolves and a lamb, voting on what to have for lunch.

    5. Re:Familiar by jafac · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, I think it's time to put this "democracy" monster to bed.

      If there were TRUE Democracy, things would be very different.
      For instance: Look what "the people" have chosen in the past several years in the commercial marketplace. These are the kinds of decisions "the rabble" would choose - apply the same thinking to politics, and it yeilds a hideously frightening prospect:

      Microsoft Windows, 95% Marketshare.
      Titanic - Best movie of all time.
      Backstreet Boyz - #1 musical group of the 20th century.
      Harry Potter - #1 work of literature of the 20th(21st?) century.
      Coke or Pepsi - your choice.
      Ford Escort - #1 selling car in America.
      GWBush - 88% Approval rating, Oct 2001.

      I came to accept this fact long ago. People are frickin idiots. True Democracy would be a very scary world.

      --

      These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
  2. The Name by richie2000 · · Score: 5, Funny
    I guess it won't be long before free software activists and feminists around the world will join in the battle cry: Free clit!

    Seriously, Microsoft will go after him, just like Adobe tried with Dmitri.

    --
    Money for nothing, pix for free
    1. Re:The Name by 0x0d0a · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's not Free software. The guy didn't hand out the source (which is a shame, or else Linux folks could be reading eBooks right now).

      --
      May we never see th
  3. That's great... by jez9999 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... because I just finished on a program I've been making. Transform Watermark, or "Twat.exe", will allow you to unencode watermarked e-books in addition to this!

    --
    == Jez ==
    Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
  4. Code can be downloaded here by itsnotme · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can download the code from his homepage here: http://members.lycos.co.uk/hostintheshell/clit.zip

    And obviously his homepage is: http://members.lycos.co.uk/hostintheshell

  5. lit was cracked a long time ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's been a Windows macro floating around for a long time that converts lit to text. It basically sends window events to the MS Reader program to scroll through the e-book, and more windows events to dump the text to Wordpad. It's just a few dozen lines long and isn't much of a jump in sophistication over taking screen shots. Face it Microsoft, as long as the book content is displayed on the screen where people can see it, there's no way to stop it from getting captured.

  6. Microsoft's response by Alsee · · Score: 5, Funny

    Microsoft has promptedly responded to this breach of DRM5 security. That have released their new DRM6 format which contains the DRM5 file with the addition of a "Broadcast Flag" bit. When this bit is set to 1 the DRM5 security may not be copied or extracted. When the bit is set to zero you may freely copy or extract the DRM5 data.

    -

    --
    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  7. source code? by Ashish+Kulkarni · · Score: 5, Informative
    I doubt that the source code has been made available to "Dan Jackson". Relveant quote from the post original program's author made on the newsgroup:

    Please note that right now this is VERY alpha. It's the first release. It also is available only as a binary, for Windows console. I wrote a GUI in ASM, but porting it to WINAPI is a pain in the arse... I won't bang on about it, but it's pathetic that it's easier to code in ASM than C on the Windows platform. The original was written under *NIX --- but I'm not willing to distribute the source just yet, for a variety of reasons.

    There WILL be a polished GUI, as well as a source release in the future. I am unable to post here anonymously (and hence using a public library system and some vulnerable machines for this post) so, updates will probably NOT be announced here, unless someone is willing to play proxy for me.

  8. Very Mature by z_gringo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    from the article:

    Other Internet hackers have already captured this code and provided a Windows 9x front-end that illiminates the need to know and understand command-line functions. This addition is called cuntlits.exe and contains nude buttons and offensive language.

    I have no problem with nudity or offensive language, but all in proper context. The above paragraph just makes the whole thing sound like a stupid joke.

    --
    -- -- Warning. Do not stare directly at the sun.
  9. Re:where to get ebooks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Online Books Page

    Over 10,000 online books free to the public.

  10. Re:Okay, great. But... by Rogerborg · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hey, I know a guy that bought - sorry, I mean licensed - a bunch of eBooks. Then he bought a new handheld, and found out that he couldn't transfer the license, so he'd effectively paid for a bunch of scrambled bits. For those who don't know, that's how eBooks work, they're licensed per machine. If you upgrade devices (or your device breaks), you lose the right to read.

    Believe me, he won't be buying - sorry, licensing - any more, even with this thing available.

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  11. "I have no tolerance for bad journalism!" by DrSkwid · · Score: 5, Interesting

    LOL

    then one would expect that you would read the frucking article and know that the guy says he didn't write it !

    "One of the people I met while MUD'ing suggested that since I live in the UK, I could act as an agent for programmers who wish to remain anonymous but still want to release their software. "

    Plus no-one's not cracked a program, someone has cracked the file DRM level so that data files can be converted.

    It gets better.

    "The way the laws are now, it's safer for someone to rape a 5-year-old boy and admit it then to crack a program."

    Pure hype. Do you read the Daily Mail by any chance?

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
  12. Maybe Microsoft released its own crack by stephanruby · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Companies have been known to release cracks of their own products to foster widespread adoption. The CEO of Macromedia almost admitted doing as much in an interview.

    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.

  13. another MS acronym by sarcast · · Score: 5, Funny

    MS doesn't seem to have the best QA department when it comes to names. I remember for that the longest time, what is now called "Automatic Updates" used to be called the critical update notification tool. I'll leave it to the reader to figure out the acronym.

  14. Well, isn't that. . . by kfg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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