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Amazon Uses DMCA To Restrict Ebook Purchases
InlawBiker writes "Today, Amazon invoked the DMCA to force removal of a python script and instructions from the mobileread web site. The script is used to identify the Kindle's internal ID number, which can be used to enable non-Amazon purchased books to work on the Kindle. '...this week we received a DMCA take-down notice from Amazon requesting the removal of the tool kindlepid.py and instructions for it. Although we never hosted this tool (contrary to their claim), nor believe that this tool is used to remove technological measures (contrary to their claim), we decided, due to the vagueness of the DMCA law and our intention to remain in good relation with Amazon, to voluntarily follow their request and remove links and detailed instructions related to it.' Ironically, the purpose of the script is to make the Kindle more useful to its users."
and so are you slashdot fags!
Grow up and quit name calling, we're not in kindlegarten anymore!
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/3/9/
trample you.
Stupid sheep.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
How dare anyone attempt to enable users to do as they please with Amazon's personal property! Kindles and all their associated contents are the intellectual property of Amazon in perpetuity and just because you paid money for one and are in personal possession of it, that does not entitle you to do with it as you please.
I mean, where would we be if people could do as they liked with the things they buy?
May the Maths Be with you!
Post the link here otherwise I can't make an informed opinion.
The number of books I would have to buy to make the Kindle worth buying makes me sad. Its a nifty device, but there's no way I'd ever get one.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I have been converting PDF's since i got my kindle I.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
It's not about the Kindle's usefullness to the user, it's about the Kindle's usefullnes to amazon. The Kindle is not where Amazon makes their money, it's on the sale of the ebooks-- if people are buying them from elsewhere, Amazon is not getting their profit, and in fact it may be costing them money-- the Kindle is essentially subsidised by their ebooks.
It takes a lot of balls to ask someone to pay almost $400 for the privilege of buying stuff exclusively from you, and then tell them that modifying the software to do anything BUT buy stuff from you is illegal.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Ironically, the purpose of the script is to make the Kindle more useful to its users."
I'm sure that their motive has nothing to do with whether it makes the kindle "more useful". This threatens their market for the books.
I must say I had been quite pleased with my Kindle and generally impressed with Amazon... until just now. Perhaps I'll return it.
Good thing this one didn't involve any numbers - saved T from another embarrassing user-prodded edit.
Ironically, the purpose of the script is to make the Kindle more useful to its users.
Nothing ironic about it. Amazon doesn't want the Kindle to be more useful than they've designed it to be. They've spent a great deal of money and effort making this platform, they don't want to have to compete with other people selling books for the thing.
From the relatively low cost of the device and the fact that access to Sprint's EV-DO network is free, I would assume that the kindle is a loss-leader for Amazon.
They're counting on making their money back and more selling the e-books over that network. And that only works if Kindle users get their books exclusively from Amazon. So clearly it's in their interest to limit the Kindle's capabilities in this way.
Having said that, it's not clear that the DMCA actually applies in this case. Though since the law is written so that large IP holders can bludgeon smaller entities, I'd say it seems to be working perfectly.
It breaks my pluginses, my precious!
Link to the author's reverse engineering blog and script description:
Here.
Link to just the scripts Here.
Anonymous to avoid KarmaWhoring(TM)
I was considering buying a Kindle, but I didn't realize it could only read Amazon e-books. With such a restriction and Amazon taking legal steps to enforce it, I see no reason to buy the device.
I'm kinda glad they did this. It saved me from making a bad purchase.
Isn't this the business model of the Console?
the script: http://igorsk.blogspot.com/2007/12/mobipocket-books-on-kindle.html
I have no problem putting books I buy elsewhere on my kindle, because none of the 200+ ebooks I have are DRM'd. If Amazon wants me to buy books from them, they'll drop DRM too.
From the article:
The funny part is that many people like me will never have even heard of the script until Amazon made a fuss about it. I found it with a simple google search. Same with how-to instructions.
Hi, Amazon. I'd like for you to meet a very dear friend of mine, the Streisand Effect. You two are going to really get familiar with each other.
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
I've only gotten one DMCA take down request, I wrote back and told the copyright owner which of my body parts he could orally copulate with and never heard back. If this web site thought the law was vague and that they were in the right, they should've told Amazon something similar and left the script up. Stupid laws like this only survive because people crumble in the face of silly threats.
You must be new here. (etc)
Sony's got to be kicking themselves, wondering where they went wrong. When they released a portable digital Walkman without native support for .MP3s, people just laughed at them.
Yet when Amazon releases a portable reader without native support for .PDFs, people trample their own mothers to get in line to buy one.
Can you imagine the derision people would have for Apple if you had to email your .MP3s to convert@apple.com to put them on your iPod or iPhone?
So where is the torrent? Or who will be man enough to post the code here ? :)
---- Booth was a patriot ----
What are the best open ebook reader options out there?
Code is here:
http://skochinsky.googlepages.com/azw-0.1.zip
Mirror:
http://rapidshare.com/files/76138900/azw-0.1.zip.html
Add your own!
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
Let Amazon shoot themselves in the foot. Anything that makes this stupid thing less attractive is a plus in my book. I'd much rather not have Amazon become any sort of market leader here.
I find this amusing for some reason, considering I just got Amazon's Kindle for iPod Touch reader for free - and the iPod cost a whole lot less than a Kindle (in my case, free with MacBook purchase). Amazon can't say squat about the other e-book readers I also have for the iPod. Come the 10" iPod Touch, Kindle won't have much to offer in competition - especially if Amazon successfully drives away all 3rd-party sources.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
Is this what I miss when I keep my score threshhold set too high?
Amazon isn't the only one that does this. Apple does this with their products. A lot of printing companies do this with ink cartridges. Car companies often control the supply of replacement parts. Secondary purchases are a huge economy everywhere. I don't like that use of the DMCA, though. Its implications really scare me. What if I modified my car then release the notes on a web page. Could the manufacture DMCA it down? Should this be an acceptable use of the DMCA? I think that DMCA notices should really come with a danger to misuse. If there isn't companies could DMCA their way out of webpages that attack their product. It would really make the company think about it be before it brought down it's huge club of injustice on an individual.
I just wish they would make their darned ebooks readable on media other than the kindle. :P
Won't be doing so now. I'll just stick with my Zaurus PDA and Gutenberg.
This is one of those shoot themselves in the foot moments. The people who are going to by this device and make it profitable are the ones that will want to tinker with it. If the tinkerers don't buy it the Kindle will fail as a product before it has a chance to become mainstream. Good job Amazon.
Sorry my bullshit sensor overloaded.
Econ 101: If your business model involves selling the hardware for less than cost and then making all your money on content licenses, then you need to prevent alternative uses of the hardware by any means necessary. Of course, the alternative would be to FIX YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS MODEL, but then, when has Amazon ever seriously considered the "fix the business model" alternative?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
They surely can't claim copyright on the instructions on how to use the software. That was written by someone else. They don't have the copyright on the books that are uploaded onto the device or any rights at all to another vendors ebooks. As far as I understand, this software doesn't make any modifications to the Kindle itself (if I'm wrong I may address that point), or modify the Amazon ebooks.
Copyright can in no way restrict what you do with the device because you're not making any copies.
It would have made more sense to tell them where to stick their DMCA complaint.
Leaving aside the issue of users' rights, as far as I can see Amazon is just plain wrong on the law and lacks legal justification for the takedown notice. What the DMCA prohibits is the distribution of tools for overcoming technical measures for protecting copyrighted materials. The first program generates a MOBI ID from a kindle serial number. The second program rewrites a non-Amazon ebook so that it contains the id that will allow it to work on the Kindle with the given serial number. Neither program modifies or copies the Kindle's software. Since the ebooks in question are not produced by Amazon, no material whose copyright belongs to Amazon is affected in any way. In other words, this software does not defeat any technical measure of Amazon's for protecting copyrighted material since Amazon has no copyrighted material at stake here. The DMCA is inapplicable, and the takedown notice invalid. Indeed, it is so clear that this software does nothing to defeat protection of copyrighted material that I would say that the takedown notice was issued in bad faith.
What this software actually does is allow for interoperability, which is explicitly protected by the DMCA.
It may be an industry-wide practice, but that doesn't mean the courts like it.
Lexmark tried to do this with its ink cartridges, but it's a terrible argument, and the courts recognized that, ruling that their access-control mechanism wasn't actually controlling access to a copyrighted work.
This sort of practice really has nothing to do with copyright and everything to do with trying to exert control over aftermarket products. Unfortunately, it would be so expensive to go and litigate this, and the outcome is never certain, so they were probably smart to give up.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
AKA "Seize the buyers!"
Oh noes! Not the Kindle restricting meh puchases!
"The best way to accelerate a Macintosh is at 9.8m/sec^2" -Marcus Dolengo
The purpose of the tool is not to allow non-Amazon content into the Kindle. Instead, it is to allow non-Amazon eBook sellers to be able to sell content for the Kindle. It has NOTHING to do with your ability as a user to bring content into your Kindle without paying Amazon.
I should know, I owned a Kindle 1 for 7 months and currently own two Kindle 2s (hint: if you only have one Kindle, don't show it to your wife and go LOOK HONEY, SEE HOW COOL THIS IS!!! because she'll immediately take over it and you'll end up buying a second one). I have had no issues bringing content into any of my Kindles:
1. Any content that I can read with Stanza and/or Mobipocket Creator (both free) can be converted into formats that can be read by the Kindle.
2. Amazon provides you with a unique email address to email content to be converted directly into your Kindle. 10 cents per conversion.
3. Amazon provides you with a second unique email address to email content to be converted, then emailed back to you for free. Yes, free.
4. Using the basic web browser, you can pick any web-based file that is compatible with the Kindle and it will download it just like if you purchased it from Amazon. There are plenty of websites that cater directly to the Kindle, and there is a huge drive to make Project Gutemberg and others fully compatible with the Kindle.
5. Amazon charges you for subscribing to feeds. Or you can use the free tool at Feedbooks. These clever people figured out a way to package an RSS subscription as an eBook, and it has an auto-update link. Open the book from your Kindle, click on Update and it downloads a new version of the file. Tedious? Sure, but it is free.
6. Annoyed about having to connect to your PC just so you can move your content into your Kindle? Don't feel like paying the 10-cent tax? Easy, simply dump your eBook files into a folder in your website, password protect it if you are paranoid, then open it from your basic browser. You can now download your own books from anywhere, which is great if you don't like clutter or in case you delete the wrong book by accident.
Now, of course, it sucks if you are trying to make a buck selling eBooks for the Kindle outside of Amazon and you are using a format that requires the ID of your device. If all you want to do is sell the content, then you might as well go to http://dtp.amazon.com/, list your books for free and let Amazon do all the work in exchange for a cut of the action. Amazon will not charge you for access to the DTP area, or for listing your books, they only take a cut of your sales.
I emailed Amazon's Kindle Feedback address earlier this week to complain about not being able to upload my own files to the storage area (one of my favorite features is that I can re-download my content at will), expecting to get a canned response. I actually got a person to reply to me, so it looks like at least some of those emails are being read. The person that replied hinted that maybe I wanted to send my files through the 10-cent tax generator, but he would still pass my message to the powers-that-be.
The one thing that is still completely unacceptable is that the Kindle client for the iPhone only works with purchased work, you can't add your own books (yet) unless you jailbrake your phone.
Pedro
----
The Insomniac Coder
The new foxit reader is not better? i do prefer it, it gives the user more freedom and is cheaper
Car companies often control the supply of replacement parts.
Car parts for newer models are often only available from the Original Equipment Manufacturer for a limited time due to licensing agreements between the car maker and the parts makers and the fact that aftermarket parts manufacturers have to tool up to make the new parts.
In the USA the Federal Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975 made tying of the parts to the warranty illegal. The car maker cannot require that you buy their parts or supplies (like Toyota-brand oil or wiper blades for example), and they cannot void your warranty because you used aftermarket parts or supplies unless they can prove that the aftermarket part caused the failure of the vehicle.
What if I modified my car then release the notes on a web page. Could the manufacture DMCA it down?
What part of your car is a technical measure intended to protect access to a copyrighted work? None. Plus, a car is real physical property - you can do whatever you want with it. If you do something with it that causes it to break, and you show other people how to do it, you'll just be left with a void warranty (if it was still in effect), but there's not much the car makers can do to make you stop showing others how to break their own cars.
Putting moderation advice in your
Oh, DRM, how we loathe thee.
Can you go a year without DRM?
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
we're not in kindlegarten anymore!
Ewe muss bee knew hear!
Free Martian Whores!
Yes, of course, brilliant move. I spend about $1000 a year on books from Amazon for my Kindle. I might spend $7.00 at a non-Amazon source, and only then because I can't find a particular book at Amazon. So, of course it makes perfect sense to drive me away as a customer because I spent that piddling amount at another store. Amazon clearly does not want the money that I was previously spending in their store. At least I hope they won't miss my money, I'm simply going to switch my reading to Public Domain and non-DRM'd sources, and Amazon can find another chump to purchase their products in the future.
-1 is the only way to read /.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
I personally love my Iliad from IRex. It's the most expensive eReader on the market, but the hardware is the most feature advanced (16 shade grayscale long before the Kindle 2, stylus touch screen).
On the other hand, what I think will end up being it's biggest strength is currently it's biggest weakness, it's OS is Open Source. Near as I can tell, IRex basically launched the product with only the bare minimum features and is looking to the Open Source community to help polish it off. Though they do have their own staff developers working on features what they currently have doesn't make great use of the Iliad's hardware.
All the same I'm much happier giving my money to a company that doesn't try to tell me what I can do with the device after I've paid for it.
I love the sound a new hardcover makes when you open it for the first time; I love being able to take a book camping without worrying that it will be crushed. I love being able to physically browse through everything on my bookshelf and pick something that interests me. Oh, and I love being able to make margin notes and dog-ear pages. I love that I can feel a book's right side become smaller and smaller as I read, and how I can become excited (or nervous) about feeling the ending being near.
There's just something satisfying about a physical book that I can't replicate with an E-Book. Sure, I'd rather have an E-Book dictionary or cookbook, but you'll pry my narrative paper books from my dead hands.
Actually, Amazon is taking a loss on the ebooks right now. That's why the kindle version of an ebook is almost always cheaper than alternative formats of the same book.
Right now they're focused on market share, not profit.
Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
Which works by Amazon, for which they hold the copyright and have added a technological measure that restricts access, does this script circumvent?
It's not the Kindle.
It's not the books.
What is it?
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
I'd leave it at -1 if I were you...sure, there's a bunch of racist and homophobic trolls, but there's also some insightful flamebait that Slashdot mods get too touchy about. Also plenty of hilarious random shit like cookie recipes and weird stories.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
Amazon sells the Kindle. Fine. Amazon sells eBooks. Fine. Amazon wants to restrict what a Kindle OWNER can do with his own hardware? Not fine.
Either Amazon should back down on this or they should discontinue the Kindle. They can't really do what they are doing without running afowl of some legal crusader in the near future.
It is the difference between
the protection of the law which both razors and kindles have,
and protection "realistic barrier to entry into the marketplace"
The thing keeping the razor blade model propped up is the design of the connector between handle & blade
A Gilette Mach XXX* has a very specific design and legally protected-physical connection
to enter the market/compete against this product requires large capital infusion, on a business level that can easily be knocked down in the court systems
if anyone could legitimately connect to that- then there would damnfinesure be some competition with generic knockoffs
Region Free DVD roms' Ebooks, wii's, xbox's jailbroken iphones-- the resources required to do these things are small by comparison
the fact is, the electrical goods as discussed here (e book files) and elsewhere can be modified on a per piece basis for far less.
Demand is not a factor-- ease of modification is.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
While this tool doesn't break DRM, the files on a specific kindle are locked using the PID of that device. Something that looks up the PID is step one of allowing someone to bypass the DRM.
Imagine the market Amazon is missing not carrying the works of Edmund Wells.
Not to mention Charles Dikkens, the well known Dutch author.
Proud member of the American Non Sequitur Society. We might not make much sense, but boy do we love pizza!
Exactly. Follow the money and see what the company's real intentions are.
The intention was never to release a good e-reader reader to the market. This is a platform for Amazon's proprietary content, that's all.
Anybody trying to use it as something else will be nudged out of the way to ...Profit!
Always follow the money. The ad copy is just creative writing.
What part of your car is a technical measure intended to protect access to a copyrighted work?
The Engine Control Module contains software which is copyrighted, and it controls most all aspects of the operation of modern vehicles. The code is generally not available for review or modification, and I suspect is protected in at least a basic non-trivial way.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Well said. You get a complimentary lawyer cap for the day.
I hope the script writer sees this, as it's a very good response to their takedown.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I'd be pissed (and I don't mean drunk) to spend so much money for a Kindle and not be able to read everything available for reading on it. Even iPod plays MP3 tunes from any source.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I received my as a gift from my lady friend. I really like it. Yes, it ties me to only purchasing books for it from Amazon but the convenience of the purchases, the low book prices, the knowledge that I'll never be caught without a book (big deal for me) is worth the tethering to a single provider. Someday the market will force it open but for now I am happy.
When I am using it, I just don't feel that I'm doing evil. I enjoy it. Using the Kindle is voluntary. The free market is working.
Nobody has to buy a Kindle. You don't need the heavy hand of the law when everyone votes with their wallet. Let the free market work. I'll enjoy my Kindle while you go Kindless. What's the big deal?
The site gets to say 'We took it down nicely like you said.' and it still gets spread all over anyway. They get free publicity, good terms with amazon still, and everyone still gets the tool.
Gotta love the internet.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
It's not about the Kindle's usefullness to the user, it's about the Kindle's usefullnes to amazon. The Kindle is not where Amazon makes their money, it's on the sale of the ebooks-- if people are buying them from elsewhere, Amazon is not getting their profit, and in fact it may be costing them money-- the Kindle is essentially subsidised by their ebooks.
And I think I can speak for most of slashdot when I respond:
Awwwwwwww
Thank you for demonstrating why whitespace-significant languages suck.
I don't get it. All the whitespace came in fine over here.
This is the same as the mod chip argument, consider if you will:
Person pirates an eBook, (there are millions of them)
Person wants to use them on their Kindle
They use this script to make it work on the kindle.
Thus the utility encourages copyright infringement, and allows bypassing DRM.
Exactly what a mod chip in a console does.
The big deal is corporate oppressive behavior. They are abusing the DMCA trying to tell people what they can and can't do with the hardware they own. That would be like buying a car in the U.S. and the car maker trying to tell you that you cannot fix it yourself or rig it to be a hybrid or to use other alternative energy sources or supplements. Or how about Dell telling you that you cannot run Linux or they will file some sort of lawsuit against you?
When companies can dictate how you use your own stuff, soon they will be telling you what you can and cannot buy... can and cannot own. That path leads to some very ugly places.
OK. But it also means that I won't be buying ANY of their e-books, as I won't be buying a Kindle.
Of course, negatives are difficult to measure, so they probably ignore all people with my reaction.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
It is not oppressive. Your relationship with Amazon is voluntary. If they really become oppressive then that opens a door for a competitor to take their customers away by being more open.
Amazon is proving that a market exists for small display devices. This is a valuable service because previous attempts at establishing such a market have failed Mellow out and wait. The technology is exploding right now. Open source readers will soon be coming to a market near you.
For me, the long term goal is not making the world safe for copyright parasites and leeches. For me the long term goal is cutting out the parasitical middlemen, like the "music industry," the "publishing industry," and the "software industry." We are developing a world where it is technically possible (or becoming technically possible) for creators of art and skill to bring their products DIRECTLY and cheaply to the market at much less expense.
Amazon, by popularizing ebooks, is helping us get to that world. Their means are brutal, but legal. I won't buy their damn Kindle because it isn't open source, but I must acknowledge that their success with this product is bringing the advent of the open source ebook reader closer to reality.
Threatening legal action against people who want to use their own property in any way they like is not oppressive? The DMCA notices are just the beginning stages before they start filing lawsuits. This makes me wonder if I am actually feeding the troll...
Which is why I don't see how Amazon plans to build a market for this thing. Let's look at it from a business perspective: First you are trying to sell a kinda pricey device to what all would agree is a very limited market. And THEN you go out of your way to piss off the purchasers by screwing them from using anything but your overpriced content AFTER they just handed you money? Yeah, good luck ith that.
I can buy a Netbook for the same price or less than a Kindle, and do whatever I WANT to do with it, including reading .txt,.pdf,.html, whatever, and NOT get hamstringed by some corp trying to push overpriced content on me. Why would I want to give you my money for a Kindle now, Amazon?
I predict this time next year the Kindle will be just as dead as those proprietary ebook readers companies tried to sell during the last dotbomb. you have to know your market and more importantly, know your competition. By screwing their paying customers Amazon just made their product that much more worthless compared to the Netbook. Just not a good move in this economy IMHO.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Oh cool. I'm glad Amazon did this. I got version 1 like in November or something. Now I have version 2. Thanks Amazon!
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
suing the blind.
This country roks!
I love reading in bed, in the dark, comfortably on my side, turning pages and holding the book with one hand.
I love cuddling my girlfriend while we both read books. I love having dozens of novels in my pocket and at my fingertips. I love being able to quickly search my books. I love being able to annotate my books without marking them up. I love seeing the progress bar at the bottom shrink as I get closer to the end. I love seeing how much time I've spent reading a book. I love not cutting down trees to read books. I love being able to get books without burning fossil fuels by going to the store, or having them shipped to me. I love turning on my reader and having it instantly in the right place. I love reading in little chunks throughout my day that I couldn't with a paper book.
Paper books are great for some things, like if you don't have electricity or civilization. They are more common, and aren't drm'd. Libraries carry huge selections of them for free! I still prefer digital books. I've read dozens of them and will keep reading them.
remind me again why I should buy a product that doesn't do what _I_ want???
You own the Kindle. You are not breaking Amazon DRM to put anything on the Kindle. Amazon can sit and spin.
-- Give me ambiguity or give me something else!
It's interesting how everyone is trying to merely "fix" the DRM rather than to remove the DRM. Sadly, "fixing" the DRM is no less of a DMCA violation, so please don't do either if you're subject to the DMCA.
But if you were going to violate the DMCA, why on earth would you want to "fix" the DRM even though you'd be left with no book whenever your Kindle dies, rather than decrypting it and having an unencrypted book you can read anywhere?
This goes double if you live somewhere there is no DMCA. Why would you put up with this crap if you're not legally obligated to?
The whitespace is present in the source.
Perhaps more accurately demonstrates why restricted-html web pages as code repositories suck.
Repton.
They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
And THEN you go out of your way to piss off the purchasers by screwing them from using anything but your overpriced content AFTER they just handed you money? Yeah, good luck ith that.
I haven't read TFA, of course, but I know for a fact that you can use any content on the kindle as long as it's in one of several formats. Something like html, txt, prc, and mobi, the latter both being ebook formats available from many places. What you can't do is use DRMed content from places other than Amazon, which is what you should expect anyway.
What this script allows you to do is buy Mobipocket books with DRM from places other than Amazon.
Remember kids,
"Don't swindle that Kindle!"
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Kindles cost $350!!! That is not a loss leader. There's no "new tech" inside. The screen is old, the battery/charing and wireless are old. Nope, no loss leader here. I suspect Sprint is cutting a huge deal on the wireless card and data plan for a piece of each ebook download.
The PS3 had a **VERY** expensive BlueRay player included. That loss was only during the first 18 months, then the price per unit dropped below the sales price and is going lower and lower now.
with whatever drivers are needed to support the specific hardware.
... but not terribly well. (IIRC, it crashes and freezes a lot). If you actually get Virtualbox and run XP on it, this should work... but you'll have one really busy CPU, I chose not to try installing it on a 900 MHz netbook.
.azw format. (the conversion to azw takes place as an Amazon service they can dump any time)
Install fbreader via repository to read conventional non-DRM-broken ebooks in things like mobi format. I read the non-DRM stuff I buy from Baen Books from it and it works very, very well.
A pdf reader should be installed by default, install Acroread if you really like it. You can read text content with a text editor like gedit or kwrite depending on your window manager.
To read DRM-broken content, get Mobipocket for Windows or break the DRM and read it on fbreader. The bad news for those who get the Mobipocket Reader software is that it works on Crossover Office
Do this and you have a convenient sized lightweight Linux PC that also can do anything else you can do with Linux and download/install any of tens of thousands of Open Source programs automatically. AND play multimedia video and music files.
Downside... you have to be within reach of an access point or have a broadband USB dongle and an account on somebody's data network for most-of-the-time access to get more books. So get enough books and tech literature and music and video loaded so you are generally in no particular rush to get any specific book.
Buy a Kindle and you've got something that makes profit for Amazon... and does nothing but read books in
Tech Public Policy stuff
"Do you think that my carrier gave me a discount or let me sign up without a contract because I did this? Pffft, fat chance. "
Yep, the idea that the phones are subsidized is a lie, if you consider that if you renew past 1 or 2 years with a carrier with the same phone they don't give you a discount on monthly service.
It's more like the cheap phone is an incentive to sign with them in the first place, but the cost of the service is the same regardless of the price of the phone.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
What have I heard?
Nothing.
But they are sure to bring one on the market eventually - just think of the many books they have already scanned!
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Nooooo.....What this is doing is allowing content that the OWNERS of the Kindle have ALREADY purchased to be used on their $%^% $350 ebook reader, which Amazon just hamstringed. I mean, who in the hell would pay $350 for an ebook reader and THEN go out of their way to buy DRMed content that WON'T work with the device they just spent good money on. Does that make any sense?
Nope, this is just another corp doing that "It's a license not a sale" crap, which means the Kindle is a $350 rental, since they will just hamstring any new ideas for the thing that some PHB doesn't approve of with DMCA. If I was a seller of Netbooks I would jump all over this. hell, the ad copy writes itself "With our Netbooks, the second they leave our store they are YOURS to do with as you please. Find a new way to do something cool with it? Host it on our servers and we'll help you share it with your fellow users! Unlike Amazon and the Kindle, We care about your happiness and WANT you to get the most out of your devices! Buy now!"
Pulling crap like DMCA on your customers is never smart, but in this economy? Pure suicide. With all the bad press and angry bloggers they might as well just flush the damned things. While I thought an Ebook reader at the right price point($350 sure isn't the sweet spot. I would say more like $100) might be a good way to market books. After the crap we have seen from the publishers followed by BS like this, I'd say Ebooks will NEVER become a decent market. Too many blood suckers in suits, too blinded by their own greed to grow the market, will doom the Ebook idea to failure.
It looks like they are going to shove the DRM similar to the way they tried to shove WMA and all the other crap DRM formats during the 90s. And we all see how well THAT worked out. My prediction still stands: In one year the Kindle will be another dead product selling for change like the other dotbomb e-readers. Yet again greed destroys a market, as seems to be the way with anything to do with the arts these days.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
This is not an Xbox we're talking about, this isn't even an eMachine, this is a Kindle! Even the Kindle 2 is not all that. If I can mail-order one of those powerful cute little PCs for less than $400 -- with no strings attached, then I would expect far more freedom from a device in the same price range -- that's vastly simpler and cheaper to produce.
If the Kindle is still the property of Amazon after you've taken it home with you, then they should make that perfectly clear when you're first paying $400 for it. They should say, $400 only gets you the option to lease the device, Amazon reserves the right to repossess its private property whenever it feels like it, for whatever reason, etc. Again, this is a lease or a loan, but not a sale, the way Amazon is treating it.
"the purpose of the script is to make the Kindle more useful to its users" -- but the purpose of Amazon.com, like any other corporation, is to maximize its profits.
http://pastebin.com/fc53f5e8 This is the one that I prefer. I own a Kindle and many books for it too but for archival this is what I'll be using.
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
Spoken as someone who has never used and likely never seen a Kindle. I own a Kindle1, have used a Kindle2, and own a NetBook as well as an iPhone. Guess which one I spend HOURS reading on. Hint: The one that can last for 8++ hours without eyestrain! ePaper!=LCD screen.
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
By seemingly giving in to the pressure and printing a new story about their capitulation, they are actually increasing the numbers of people who are hearing about this script for the first time by millions of people. It is still available and easy to find and use. Just because this one site no longer has it is meaningless.
No for serious ebook reading PDF is NOT an inferior format. It's a very flexible one. As PDF files can retain layout, and text can be made to size for whatever you like, you can create a great PDF file to fit the 7". If you are used to PDFs being generated from letter size documents at 12pt type, then you might think so. But I can format a document to whatever I like, and it will be just as readable, and can contain extras that books will eventually have on readers. Right now, it's all about what works. You like text, but these readers are going to be serious multimedia readers. I'm excited for when the designs of books are just as beautiful. Color is coming, PDFs support video, animation, interactivity.
PDF files are generally bigger than text documents, still you get the image of the page and the type fonts that you want. Depending on the book, it's important. don't turn your opinion into fact.
And I take this position as a result of reading about their actions described in the article.
This sort of corporate ugliness leaves a lasting impression on people, believe me.
I haven't bought a Sony product after the way they left me high and dry with my Clie, and I can live my life just fine without ever buying a Sony product again.
And the same goes for Amazon.
It's tempting to direct a few choice words toward Jeff Bezos,
but I'll let someone else do that.
So... I'm willing to bet the reason this was done was because Amazon got THEIR shit in trouble putting the voice system on the kindle in the first place because audio-book people cried. And now rather then soak up lawsuits for all of you, they are disableing some of them that are illegal to work with.
But lets whine about DMCA's in cases where it's not applicable, and further water down the importance of dealing with real abuse.
Everyone's a fucking white knight, no one knows how to play chess.
ePaper, just another marketing spin.
I've spent hours reading on a htc Diamond, without noticeable eyestrain. And no, I don't use Microsoft's reader software.
I have a CyBook from Bookeen and as a simple e-book reader it is excellent. It has an e-ink display, supports mobi-pocket files and has rudimentary pdf and html support. I've even managed to convert scientific articles from html to mobi and to read on there - figures, equations and all.
It runs on Linux, but the mobi-pocket reader is proprietary.
Or maybe, what about Apple telling you on what hardware you may install your purchased retail copy of OSX?
That's different of course. Silly. Very silly. Apple is a hardware company, after all.
"Ironically, the purpose of the script is to make the Kindle more useful to its users."
I think someone missed the memo....
"...And henceforth, "Right and Wrong" shall be immediately replaced with "Makes Money and Doesn't Make Money" in all further documentation matters associated with the "Company"(see terms listed in the "Company" Handbook glossary)."
Terrific, try it on an ePaper display. Call it what you want but it's not just another LCD. the newer Kindle has even greater resolution and sharpness too - just not enough that I need to upgrade. side by side the difference is noticeable but I still get good mileage from the old one - and with scripts to remove the DRM I'm not worried about obsolescence just yet.
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
Rich people - History tells - are apprently stupid.
Amazon people are rich people.
Citation please - how are they losing money? It costs them jack to sell a book electronically and you know all of that sale isn't going to the publishers. How exactly are they losing money on eBooks?
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
Yeah, they should realize that trying to tie up the kindle specifically to the ebooks they sell is the wrong idea.
What they should do is:
1) They should strive to make the best e-book reader possible and sell it on its own merits and not expect to tie it into the ebook profits.
2) They should strive to offer the best value/volume of e-books available and make their e-book marketplace the go-to place when you want to find and buy a book.
3) They should strive to offer the best "library" of free books available to be the go-to place for free books and make that stand on its own feet (as in not tie it to the profit/losses of the other 2).
- This would mean that people who buy Kindle even though they can get their books elsewhere the mere fact that amazon delivered the kindle, they will check out amazon for book purchases.
- This would also mean that because people can go to the same place to download free books, people would be exposed to 2) I can easily imagine links from one free e-book to other books both free and buyable of similar value (or links to the dvds or hardcover books as presents, or whatever else).
It's easy to do this so that amazon gains immensely and doesn't suffer from the "I'm doing evil for profit", but that means that they have to un-bundle the package, and make the individual elements stand on their own and succeed on their own.
They have to view the kindle similar to what electric companies do, they provide a basic service from which new opportunities can be built upon.
they have to view the e-book as a container for free stuff as well as purchasable stuff, be the best place to go for both free and buyable and you get more people interested in and buying books because you're exposing the people who are only interested in the free stuff to new buyable stuff, and vice versa, making sure that you're a relevant place to do business whether the e-book is free or buyable.
That's why it's important that all 3 targets can support themselves, because if they can't, you get a bundle-idealogy, and that just pisses off too many people to be worth it.
No for serious ebook reading PDF is NOT an inferior format. It's a very flexible one. As PDF files can retain layout, and text can be made to size for whatever you like, you can create a great PDF file to fit the 7"
Of course you could *create* a PDF that would render nicely on one specific device. But that's not terribly helpful when you're trying to read scanned documents... you know, the types of documents the GP wants to read?
And ignoring that, the whole point of ebooks is to flexibly display on multiple different devices with different screen sizes and resolutions (this is particularly important with Kindle's whispersync capability, which allows one to read the same book on both your phone and your Kindle... devices with completely different displays). This requires dynamic reflow and dynamic font size adjustment, and you can do neither of these things with PDF today (Adobe is going to add reflow support to PDF, but it requires the PDF be specifically authored with reflow capability).
Of course, there's one other type of content out there that needs to be rendered on multiple different types of devices while still supporting rich content, including images and video: HTML. Similarly, the correct solution for ebooks is marked up text with embedded content, probably something XML-based. This will allow the reader to adapt the content for it's capabilities, just like a web browser does today, rather that being tied down to a fixed layout ala PDF.
This post implies two things that are incorrect. First, it implies Kindles can only read Amazon purchased content. This is not true. Kindles can read a number of freely available formats, like doc, txt, prc, pdb, mobi, and html. Second, this article implies that all this python script will do is let the Kindle read non-Amazon content. This is also untrue. This script is specifically for fooling the DRM of a purchased book for the Sony ereader to make it readable on the Kindle. As such it could reasonably be considered a circumvention of DRM. I myself think that if you buy an ebook you should be able to read it on any device you choose.
I'm sure that their motive has nothing to do with whether it makes the kindle "more useful". This threatens their monopoly market for the books.
You missed a word there. I added it for you.
No I didn't, smartass. Amazon does not have a monopoly on books, and nobody's forcing you to buy their reader.
Then you apparently used one word too many: the word "the".
This threatens their market for <strike> the </strike> books.
Happy now, buddy?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Every e-book I've checked has had the same price or lower (and usually lower) on amazon. The only real use for this script was if you had e-books you'd purchased elsewhere before you got the kindle (because after it would have been cheaper to buy it from amazon). My wife has a netbook, no way I would/could read a book on it as easily as I can on my kindle. Reading on a back-lit screen just sucks compared to e-ink, even the 4 shades on my kindle 1.