Title from the article. Interesting article, with some good words from our DRM-free favorite Cory Doctorow.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/40754848
Removing DRM has always been “illegal”.
However: German concentration camps were legal, while families protecting Jewish citizens from being taken to said concentration camps was strictly illegal.
What’s legal is not always right (ethically and morally), and what’s right is not always legal. Remember that.
I’d like to clarify that removing DRM does lie in a grey zone in many countries, including in the US due to some court rulings. In some countries the right to make a backup of your e-book might have priority over copyright law for example.
Sure, but companies who employ DRM have argued against that grey area since DRM was a thing. Something something IP/copyright/licensing/whatever bullshit… IMO: fuck you, I bought it, I own it, eat shit.
Sometimes doing something illegal is anti-social behavior. Sometimes it’s anti-authoritarian behavior. These are not the same thing.
extremely self aggrandizing analogy to say the least
Or just unlock protected media outside from States.
Always comes to mind. Why buy it if you need to crack the DRM someday and become a criminal? Just pirate it in the first place.
From a legal standpoint, is it more illegal to remove DRM or to just download DRM-freed content?
Meta lawyers think the second is fine, BTW.
I’ve never heard of anyone getting arrested for removing DRM. DRM removal tools are actively sold online with no crackdown. However people keep getting busted here and there for piracy, and piracy sites keep getting shut down.
I think at the end of the day if the copyright holders are getting paid they don’t really care, and the police cares about piracy way less than they do.
I remember reading that the most significant impact DRM has is on security research. Individuals don’t care about bypassing DRM, but an organization is not going to fund anything involving it because of the legal concern. So if a researcher wants to look into a file format behind DRM, or the DRM mechanism itself, being used as an attack vector, that’s not going to get funding.
The defense that companies will make is that they’re happy to grant exceptions in these cases, but in practice the company will make the exceptions as narrow as possible to err on the side of maintaining as much control as possible, while a research organization will want to err on the side of avoiding potential grey areas, meaning the exceptions are inevitability too restrictive to allow much of anything to come of them.
It’s more legal to share military secrets with journalists. Don’t believe me? Wait and see how long that guy ends up spending in jail.
Illegal = against capital interests
If purchased, fuck you, mine not yours.
If that’s true, I’m pretty much Al Capone at this point.
Just in case anyone didn’t feel like reading the article, here’s the last (and imo most important) paragraph:
However, without changing the DMCA, we can’t expect to see real, lasting change in this space. Doctorow said as much to me: “What we really need to do is get rid of DMCA 1201, that law that makes it a crime to format shift your media…it’s the same law that stops farmers from fixing their tractors, blocks independent mechanics from fixing your car, stops rivals from setting up alternative app stores for phones and games consoles…this law is a menace!”
Good guy Meta. Fighting for us little guys, downloading terabytes of books, defending against lawsuits. Maybe they’ll overturn DMCA?
/s
Fwiw, I’ve never put drm on anything I’ve published digitally, and never will.
Not that it matters, nobody buys my shit in the first place lol. But, as a matter of principle, even my crappy stories as a form of culture aren’t only for the people with money.
Mind you, that do? I have no beef with. You make your own choices, and I ain’t mad about it. But it just isn’t something I can do.
It’s interesting when people are put to the choice. On the one hand they could purchase a book with DRM that they don’t actually own. On the other hand, they could look for alternative means by which to obtain the book. And the more the publishers f*** with you, the more you might be inclined to never give them a penny.
You can swear on the internet, your mom isn’t watching.
So do it anyway, not like they could ever know. It’s not a very enforceable thing is it.
Doing illegal things is the new black, haven’t you heard?
Also, how exactly would they catch anyone doing this?
How can they catch people who have produced unlocked epubs? There are plenty of ways if they have your device at some future date.
I suppose the easiest predictable thing other than having your device seized when you’re entering the country for example or when you get arrested for example is that back doors could be installed on Android or iPhone that look for unapproved media.
The technology is already good enough for that. It’s only a question of implementation.
I would if I could, but Kindles new DRM can get around DeDRM. Waiting for an update. Trying to find a new way to buy books but seems like you just get locked into someone else DRM, which may have less support around DRM removal
Check out my newly created community !drm@lemmy.dbzer0.com. Have you tried the guide that I posted regarding Kindles and Amazon removing Download & Transfer? https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/40761027
Will checkout, is there a K4PC for Mac? I saw that DeDRM stopped working with the kindle for Mac changes recently
Sorry, no idea. I just shared the guide
I’ve been having the same problem. I’d love a drm free e-reader, but even if I found one finding drm free content is not easy.
I’m just buying analog books now. Less convenient in some ways, but at least I know what I’m getting.
Check out my newly created community !drm@lemmy.dbzer0.com. Have you tried the guide that I posted regarding Kindles and Amazon removing Download & Transfer? https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/40761027
i’m glad that there is an(other) program for audible. i like this one better. it automatically converts to a file format i prefer and downloads my books immediately, which is convenient for preorders. besides that, i personally would like to not use the audible app for playback; this is just a personal preference though. i have an audiobook app that works just as well. if anything this would just be me eliminating an app from my devices than anything else.
Oh noes
Anyways
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