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Opening up e-books for linux machines–and other legit purposes
April 29, 2005 | 1:35 am
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By David Rothman
So what do you do if you’re a linux user and you want to read a legally purchased book in a DRM-hobbled Microsoft Reader format meant only for machines with Operating System W.
Psst! DMCAists like Bruce Lehman–the Hollywood lawyer-lobbyist and campaign fund raiser who as White House IP czar led the Clinton-era battles against fair use–won’t be happy. But I can’t resist passing on this link while expressing my opposition to piracy.
Although the Linux Journal article is more about converting from proprietary formats than specifically about bypassing consumer-hostile DRM, it’s fun just the same. Gist of piece: “E-books are a disappointing flurry of vendor-specific formats. Get them converted to HTML to view on your choice of device.”
OpenReader, anyone? If you’re gonna use DRM, at least have the grace to let it be cross-platform.
(Via eBookAd.)
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Comments:
With Mobipocket, the DRM is already cross-platform… Why not asking Mobi guys to port their Reader on Linux ?
Hi, Laura. Agree totally about the desirability of Mobipocket being able to run on linux desktops, embedded linux, etc.
Best solution, however, would be OpenReader. Mobipocket has problems–for example, lack of capabilities for truly heavy-duty stuff in STM publishing. It would be easiest for Mobipocket just to start all over again with a crossplatform nonproprietary format. OpenReader would be willing to work with Mobipocket and others on DRM. While we’re not the biggest fans of DRM, we have an e-commerce and security maven who is thoroughly versed in those issues.
Yo, Amazon! You reading this by any chance? If so, you would do well to give OpenReader a good look before you learn a rather expensive lesson about the folly of a proprietary approach–especially when your Mobipocket is competing against Microsoft and Adobe.
[...] from Jenny’s purchases? A few recent posts regarding DRM from TeleRead: one about DRM on Linux and another addressing DRM in libraries.
MORE…
Posted by:Casey [...]
If you know about the program called “Wine” that runs windows programs on Linux, then give it a try, you can run run Mobipocket PC on your Linux machine !!
Many thanks for the tip. Alas, Wine doesn’t work with everything. Let us know if you’ve personally tried it with Mobipocket or know of people who have. I see see there are issues with Mobipocket Publisher, at least. – David