988
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by nix@merv.news to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

The DRM removal tool to remove DRM from ebooks was taken down from github and will most likely be taken down from gitlab soon as well. The more archives we have the better so im sharing the gitlab in hopes some Datahoarder types will archive it and keep it shared via torrents etc https://gitlab.com/bipinkrish/DeGourou

Heres an article about why it was taken down https://torrentfreak.com/internet-archive-targets-book-drm-removal-tool-with-dmca-takedown-230714/

Edit: does anyone here use https://radicle.xyz/ ? Its a p2p network built on top of git and could be a good way to host it while still being able to contribute to it besides making a .torrent for archiving

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] cupcakezealot 104 points 1 year ago

Imagine buying books and not being able to do with them what you like

[-] Mike90210@lemmy.dbzer0.com 43 points 1 year ago

Because in circumstances like these and many many other digital stores your are not in fact buying the product, but a license to use the product in a very limited way.

[-] vox@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 year ago

btw sometimes drm is used to actually rent out digital books

[-] Pulp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 41 points 1 year ago

Renting digital items is just stupid

[-] Spike@feddit.de 28 points 1 year ago

Worthwile reading into: Hachette v. Internet Archive.

In short: Even lending only the amount of real copies that you own as digital copies (you own 1 real book, you get to lend 1 digital copy. Not more!) is too much for some greedy bastards and a compromise.

https://www.eff.org/cases/hachette-v-internet-archive

[-] vox@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 year ago
[-] cupcakezealot 19 points 1 year ago

On the other hand, books from your local library have no drm. :)

[-] squidman64@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Ebooks from your local library generally do have drm in my experience. Harder to complain since they’re free though.

[-] Limeade@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

My local library is 25 miles away and only open 4 days a week, plus it's about 40 miles away from the city where I do all my shopping so it is really out of the way. There is a different library in the city where I run my errands, but they charge a hefty fee for non-residents.

[-] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

Imagine spending years writing a book for the benefit of others, only to have it downloaded, stripped of it's licensing and given away to others for free and being robbed of compensation for the time you invested.

[-] mochi@lemdit.com 61 points 1 year ago

Imagine buying a physical book, reading it, and putting it on the bookshelf in your living room, only to have family members and friends borrow it and read it for free.

[-] Auli@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

I imagine your circle of family and friends is a lot smaller then posting it on the web and have people downloading it.

[-] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Yes because that's totally the same as xeroxing someone else's work and handing it out in the street to anyone who wants it, all day every day.

[-] oppai420@lemmy.fmhy.ml 8 points 1 year ago
[-] Rodeo@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

Dinosaur detected

[-] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[-] daFRAKKINpope@lemmy.world 47 points 1 year ago

As soon as they stop using DRM to force you into a specific ereader ecosystem, you'll have an argument.

Until then, I'm going to strip the DRM off of a book I buy on Amazon and read it on my Nook. All other parties involved can fuck all the way off.

[-] cupcakezealot 46 points 1 year ago

Those public libraries are ruining it for everybody!

[-] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Those public libraries pay to have those books on their shelves 🤦‍♂️

[-] dan@lemmy.fdr8.us 34 points 1 year ago

Do they pay every time someone checks out a book?

[-] topscientist@lemmynsfw.com 3 points 1 year ago

I recently listened to a decent podcast related to this very question (link)

Probably the wrong forum but I will say it’s… complicated. Physical books wear surprisingly fast, so popular books actually make money for publishers and authors, even by being in libraries.

I’m not of the opinion that DRM is good, but I do understand that writers have to make a living. But it’s the markets fault for not providing unobtrusive DRM or solving this economic problem in a way that doesn’t suck for end users.

[-] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't know, that's between them and the publisher.

E: weirdly enough, I happen to have just got a library card a couple days ago so I hopped on Libby and, sure enough, they have a finite number of copies of each book that you can "borrow". So pretty much the same as renting them from the library without the pfaff.

[-] cupcakezealot 12 points 1 year ago

I mean the original comment was about buying digital books. :)

[-] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Guess what? They pay for those too.

[-] Tippon@lemmy.fmhy.ml 34 points 1 year ago

Imagine buying a book only to find out that you can't read it anymore because the store you bought it from decided to remove it from sale and stop all downloads of it. You can't restore it from a backup because the DRM prevents that.

[-] drz@lemmy.ca 30 points 1 year ago

Imagine going on the piracy Lemmy community and preaching the moral wrongs of copying.

Seriously though, DRM is a cancer. I usually pirate my books from LibGen, but I buy them on the Kobo store at the same time to support the author. It's easy to strip DRM from Kobo and they're better than Amazon, but I would really prefer not to support a store with DRM in the first place.

Can anyone recommend a DRM-less store? Something akin to GOG for books.

[-] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Imagine being so entitled that you think you have a right to others' work for free.

[-] snowbell@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago

Why do people join communities for things they hate just to shit on everyone? Are you addicted to being angry?

[-] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

I didn't join anything. It's just at the top of my "all" feed.

I speak out because the sense of entitlement among people in this community is fucking insane.

[-] zbecker@mastodon.zbecker.cc 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

@HughJanus @snowbell

Piracy is more often then not a symptom of the problem rather than a problem itself.

For example, game piracy was much more common prior to steam as it was just much much more convenient to pirate at that time.

[-] snowbell@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

Good luck with your moral crusade then Mr or Ms HughJanus

[-] Gatsby@lemm.ee 27 points 1 year ago

It sounds like you wrote a book for profit then, not for the benefit of others.

[-] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago
[-] selfreferentialname@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

What a very depressing view of human nature you have.

[-] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

...so doing work and expecting to be compensated for said work is depressing to you? That is Olympic grade mental gymnastics.

[-] topscientist@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 1 year ago

It sounds like you’d prefer a world where only well-off people spend the time writing books, since making money from writing is obviously not cool

[-] Auli@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

I'd say every book was written for profit.

[-] Gatsby@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Then you'd be saying something that's incorrect

[-] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago

Imagine selling someone a book and then later clawing it back without a refund and without giving the victim a big fat warning that you're going to do so.

[-] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

God that would be awful. Good thing that's not what we're talking about.

[-] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago

That's what will likely happen when this company eventually goes out of business. The DRM server will go offline, and the books will be inaccessible. Cracks like this one are an insurance policy for that eventuality.

[-] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

In what meaningful way is this different?

[-] jonny@social.coop 7 points 1 year ago

@HughJanus
@cupcakezealot
this is not how compensation for writers works, generally, and also the whole idea is to break a traditional publishing system that exploits writers in favor of one where people directly pay the authors.

[-] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago
  1. Go on then, tell us how compensation works. Authors don't get paid when they sell books, is that it?

  2. What's preventing authors from selling directly?

[-] curiousgoo@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago

Unless the book is being bought directly from the writer, isn't it really the publisher who is gaining the rewards? My understanding is that the writer is paid a lumpsum for rights of a book by a publisher.

If the entire motto is "benefit of others", the writer themselves can publish it for the public to read openly, or make it a collaborative project where their and other people's contributions are added together.

It's not black and white, both sides of a piracy debate (much like anything else) have their arguments, and could have had reached a better medium.

[-] DarkTides@lemmy.fmhy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Sir this isn't a Wendys

this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
988 points (100.0% liked)

Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

54520 readers
299 users here now

⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.

Rules • Full Version

1. Posts must be related to the discussion of digital piracy

2. Don't request invites, trade, sell, or self-promote

3. Don't request or link to specific pirated titles, including DMs

4. Don't submit low-quality posts, be entitled, or harass others



Loot, Pillage, & Plunder

📜 c/Piracy Wiki (Community Edition):


💰 Please help cover server costs.

Ko-Fi Liberapay
Ko-fi Liberapay

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS