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News & ArtsWednesday, December 23, 2009
Tech / Books Cracking the Kindle
Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 3:18 PM
Slog tipper Matt Hickey wants you to know about this:
One hack reportedly resulted from a Kindle DRM challenge issued on Israeli forum Hacking.org. On that site, an Israeli hacker known as Labba claims to have created a tool that lets e-books stored on the Kindle be transferred as PDF files.A U.S. hacker who goes by the name "i♥cabbages," meanwhile, created a program called Unswindle that promises to convert books stored in the Kindle for PC application into a different file format.
Amazon should know that if they keep locking up people's property in DRM, people are going to keep trying to make their property free. Meanwhile, Wired says that someone has cracked open his International Kindle to enable purchases from the U.S. Kindle store and full wireless browsing, neither of which was available on the International version before.
2
#1 way to crack a Kindle: don't buy DRM laden, proprietary, closed source shit, get an open, friendly Nook.
3
The thing is, won't Amazon be able to easily tell which devices have been hacked, and then disable them? I'm sure the licensing agreement says they have the right to cook and eat your children if you do anything that isn't approved; they always do.
What will make a difference is someone making a better device with a better distribution system, not this.
What will make a difference is someone making a better device with a better distribution system, not this.
4
the nook is a POS as well for proprietary formats. There are plenty of other reader devices that don't require a remote kill switch and pledging your allegiance to a corporate overlord.
6
I'm just riffing here but all these stories about hacking Kindles and iPhones and so forth keep reminding me how the dozen or so reviews I read of the recent bestseller Shopclass As Soul Craft said that the author repeated the old saw that newer motorcycles with computerized engine management systems were beyond the skills of ordinary people to repair.
I thought this was pretty stupid on the part of the author, Matthew B. Crawford, particularly because it's not like he's a baby boomer who is afraid of digital electronics and computers. He's younger than me, and he even used to be a construction electrician. He ought to be aware that people do all manner of authorized and unauthorized hacking of car and bike electronics all the time.
So then I went and read the actual book. And found out that the main point is: "Working on your bike is awesome!" Which it is. And all he said about computer chips on bikes is that a lot of the Japanese repair manuals are worthlessly bad English translations, and that the self-diagnostics on a Suzuki GSX-R 600 are not a panacea.
All of this makes you kind of think this makes some point about hacking Kindles, but in the end it just shows you how misleading a lazy book reviewer can be.
I thought this was pretty stupid on the part of the author, Matthew B. Crawford, particularly because it's not like he's a baby boomer who is afraid of digital electronics and computers. He's younger than me, and he even used to be a construction electrician. He ought to be aware that people do all manner of authorized and unauthorized hacking of car and bike electronics all the time.
So then I went and read the actual book. And found out that the main point is: "Working on your bike is awesome!" Which it is. And all he said about computer chips on bikes is that a lot of the Japanese repair manuals are worthlessly bad English translations, and that the self-diagnostics on a Suzuki GSX-R 600 are not a panacea.
All of this makes you kind of think this makes some point about hacking Kindles, but in the end it just shows you how misleading a lazy book reviewer can be.
7
"people are going to keep trying to make their property free."
errrrrrrr, most adults call that 'theft'.
errrrrrrr, most adults call that 'theft'.
8
Yes, the nature of DRM is to get broken. It only serves to stop the majority, while the sufficiently motivated and tech-savy can (eventually) work around just about any DRM.
@2 What are you smoking? All major readers out there (Kindle, Nook, Sony) have DRM for their own store. All major readers can read multiple open formats, too. The publishers are even more scared of the 21st century than RIAA or MPAA, and won't let any major bookstore go DRM free. Yet.
@2 What are you smoking? All major readers out there (Kindle, Nook, Sony) have DRM for their own store. All major readers can read multiple open formats, too. The publishers are even more scared of the 21st century than RIAA or MPAA, and won't let any major bookstore go DRM free. Yet.
10
@7 "people are going to keep trying to make their property free."
To steal the phrase, there's free as in free beer (which would be akin to theft, although technically it's copyright infringement) and then there's free as in free speech.
If I buy a physical book, I can read it, re-read it, loan it to my friends, give it to a relative, sell it to a second hand bookstore or donate it to a library.
If I buy a DRMed piece of crap, I can read it and (maybe) re-read it (if Amazon doesn't take it away from me) and that's about it.
To a very, VERY large degree, a big part of the push behind e-books is an effort to kill off the second-hand market and libraries and force everyone to buy "original copies." It's hand-in-glove with the Disney/Biden/Bono conspiracy to extend copyright terms ad infinitum and kill off the public domain.
That's why I won't touch the Kindle (or the Nook) with a bargepole. Figure out a way to sell e-books that preserves the freedoms and property rights I have with physical books and I'll be all over it.
To steal the phrase, there's free as in free beer (which would be akin to theft, although technically it's copyright infringement) and then there's free as in free speech.
If I buy a physical book, I can read it, re-read it, loan it to my friends, give it to a relative, sell it to a second hand bookstore or donate it to a library.
If I buy a DRMed piece of crap, I can read it and (maybe) re-read it (if Amazon doesn't take it away from me) and that's about it.
To a very, VERY large degree, a big part of the push behind e-books is an effort to kill off the second-hand market and libraries and force everyone to buy "original copies." It's hand-in-glove with the Disney/Biden/Bono conspiracy to extend copyright terms ad infinitum and kill off the public domain.
That's why I won't touch the Kindle (or the Nook) with a bargepole. Figure out a way to sell e-books that preserves the freedoms and property rights I have with physical books and I'll be all over it.
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