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Amazon Kindle Proprietary Format Broken

Posted by kdawson on from the let-a-thousand-e-books-bloom dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Register reports that the proprietary document format used by the Amazon online store and Amazon's Kindle has been successfully reverse engineered, allowing these DRM-protected documents to be converted into the open MOBI format. Users of alternative e-book readers rejoice." Here are the hacker's notes on the program he is calling "Unswindle," and here is the (translated) forum where the Kindle challenge was posed and answered.

3 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Old old story. by CountBrass · · Score: 5, Informative

    There have been a set of python scripts around for more than a year and a half that allow you decrypt Kindle files to mobi. The challenge has always been in dealing with Topaz files and, unless I am missing something, they still haven't been cracked.

    --
    Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
    1. Re:Old old story. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      This removes the drm from the books downloaded using the Kindle for PC app.

      As you mentioned, the scripts you linked to have been around for a while but only remove the drm from the actual kindle and kindle for iphone books.
      So, if you have an iphone or a kindle this doesn't really change much as you could already do it. This would be useful for anyone that is only able to get their books through the Kindle for PC app.

  2. Re:Nothing new? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wait, I've been using MobiDeDRM for a while with my Kindle's Mobi serial number to strip the DRM and leave me with Mobi files. How is this different, exactly?

    This gets the Mobi serial number from the Kindle For PC application. Now you don't need to own a Kindle or iPhone to buy Kindle books.