Nate Hoffelder has spotted a developer offering Kindle, Nook, and Adept DRM removal tools for $30 to $35 each, or $50 for the whole set. Hoffelder notes that the Kindle removal app, which he tested, is slow and clunky and only does one book at a time. Since this is a blatant, out-in-the-open, commercial violation of the DMCA, he wonders how long this can last before the government slaps this developer down. (It appears to be based in California, with a Florida phone number, which would suggest it is vulnerable to prosecution.)
Personally, I’m more annoyed that it’s a blatant rip-off. There are already plenty of free tools that do exactly the same thing, and the DRM-removal plug-ins for Calibre will free your entire library at once. Furthermore, I would be entirely unsurprised if it turned out that this company was simply repackaging and reselling the work the developers of those free tools had already done.
There have been people selling ebook DRM removal software for quite some time now. At least one is based in Canada. They’re all (as far as I can tell) taking the work done by the Dark Reverser, I Love Cabbages, and others and repackaging it without attribution. As for being easy to use: Have you looked at the latest tools at Apprentice Alf’s blog? I don’t know how they could be simpler: * Calibre plug-ins (for those who use calibre) * Drag&Drop utilities (for those who don’t) * GUI front-ends for the scripts (for those who really like detail) Why anyone would pay for ebook DRM removal software is beyond me, unless they just haven’t found Apprentice Alf’s blog. And given that selling DRM-removal software is illegal in several countries, do you really want to trust your CC details to someone who is breaking the law and, more importantly, not being up-front about the source of their software and what they’re actually selling (which is, essentially, the idea of extra simplicity).
Alf’s blog isn’t easy for everyone to use. I’m a medium-savvy PC user and the epub tools always tripped me up on my old PC… now I have a Windows 7 machine, and I can’t get Alf’s tools to work. I would much appreciate any tool that is easy to install and use… almost as much as I’d appreciate files with no DRM.
I love the smell of irony in the morning. The DRM ripoff masters being ripped off by others. I understand why many don’t like DRM for personal use, but some strip the DRM to allow pirating so I can only say welcome to the pirated club, guys. It sucks, doesn’t it?
Note: Purely in the interest of science, of course, I checked out the trial version of the B&N tool. Can’t get it to work.