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catsittingstillModerately interesting news today. The Kindle DRM has been um, kcahed? It's not exactly hacked--but someone has written a couple of little python scripts to make it possible to play Secure Mobipocket ebook files on the Kindle. News here, and more details here.
I think this is unreservedly a good thing for all honest players in the market.
I think this is unreservedly a good thing for all honest players in the market.
It's good for Amazon, because anything that increases the number of e-books a Kindle can play makes the Kindle more valuable. (It might arguably reduce Amazon's ebook sales a little, but I think the extra Kindle purchases, and the fact that they're still very convenient and their prices are quite competitve will counteract that.)
It's good for honest owners of Secure Mobipocket files because there's now another device out there that can play them.
It's good for honest Kindle owners because there's now more sources of e-books for their player.
The only people who will be hurt by this are those who hoped to cheat honest customers out of ebooks they paid for, in hopes their victims would pay again for the same content. The back of my hand to them; they deserve to suffer.
I do see one downside to all this--I was thinking that the pool of Kindles out there that would be a source of demand for unsecured Mobipocket files will be slightly reduced, and maybe the increase in nonDRMed books that would have resulted from this pool will not happen, or will be reduced.
On the other hand, I wouldn't be likely to run a script on a book I *could* just buy without DRM in the first place, so maybe not.
Fictionwise is already selling nonDRMed Mobipocket books specificially for the Kindle (though I think those were nonDRMed all along).
And I have now bought and paid for 2 nonDRMed ebooks from Baen--their free library is working as advertised. On the other hand, they were still a couple of dollars cheaper than paperbacks, and I am presently carrying 18 books in my jacket pocket, so I can't complain.
It's good for honest owners of Secure Mobipocket files because there's now another device out there that can play them.
It's good for honest Kindle owners because there's now more sources of e-books for their player.
The only people who will be hurt by this are those who hoped to cheat honest customers out of ebooks they paid for, in hopes their victims would pay again for the same content. The back of my hand to them; they deserve to suffer.
I do see one downside to all this--I was thinking that the pool of Kindles out there that would be a source of demand for unsecured Mobipocket files will be slightly reduced, and maybe the increase in nonDRMed books that would have resulted from this pool will not happen, or will be reduced.
On the other hand, I wouldn't be likely to run a script on a book I *could* just buy without DRM in the first place, so maybe not.
Fictionwise is already selling nonDRMed Mobipocket books specificially for the Kindle (though I think those were nonDRMed all along).
And I have now bought and paid for 2 nonDRMed ebooks from Baen--their free library is working as advertised. On the other hand, they were still a couple of dollars cheaper than paperbacks, and I am presently carrying 18 books in my jacket pocket, so I can't complain.
