iBooks Fairplay DRM removal

requiem 3.3.5

heres a question, i'm using the latest version of iTunes, is requiem working for anyone out there? it's not cracking the drm's on books

roletti2007 said:

heres a question, i'm using the latest version of iTunes, is requiem working for anyone out there? it's not cracking the drm's on books

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From the MacRumors Forum Rules:

Things Not to Do

These habits can produce warnings and repeated violations can produce bans.

Warez/Serials/Keys. Do not post software serial numbers or keys or refer people to specific websites, software, or techniques whose purpose is to break or bypass software licensing methods, distribute cracks, or obtain or use commercial software or media in violation of its license and/or for copyright violation. Do not ask for or give such help.​

dewguy1999 said:

from the macrumors forum rules:
things not to do

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ugh, are you seriously subscribed to this thread for the sole purpose to jump down everyone's throats with your 1984-esque viewpoints on DRM? If so, congrats, your point is made.

ngenerator said:

ugh, are you seriously subcribed to this thread for the sole purpose to jump down everyone's throats with your 1984-esque viewpoints on DRM? If so, congrats, your point is made.

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I wasn't jumping down anyone's throat I was just pointing out the terms of this forum which like the terms of iBooks most people don't read. If they did read the terms of iBooks then they would know what they were getting themselves into and shouldn't have a need to be on here trying to violate those terms that they agreed to. I don't accept the terms of iBooks/eBooks and therefore I don't buy them.

Well, that's odd..

Anyone else see a pattern on these forums... every time a whole bunch of people start complaining about something really irritating that some company , let's say Granny Smith, does, such as not allowing you to open content on the computer you used to purchase it, someone comes out of the woodwork threatening to ban them, explaining that this company can sue them, etc.

I'd like to introduce the possibility that someone is implementing effective (while unethical) PR. I'd be more than okay if it was stated. What I don't like, however, is being mislead by people pretending not to be employees. Maybe this isn't the case, but I studied Marketing in college and companies do this all of the time. Bring on the jokes about how studying it in college doesn't make me an expert. Just look it up for yourself and remember that I could never come off as pompous as this company, the one that never apologizes or gives you any service for free. You just have to ask yourself, would a company like this one, with all of its sneaky and secretive algorithms and tracking, mislead you? A little Orwellian for my taste. Sure, they are just trying to protect what's theirs and force people into buying a device they don't want to purchase, a horridly overpriced charger, etc... no big deal, right?

please boycott DRM enabled content. Never ever buy that!

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/

We oppose DRM.

We are a participatory and grassroots campaign exposing DRM-encumbered devices and media for what they really are: Defective by Design. We are working together to eliminate DRM as a threat to innovation in media, the privacy of readers, and freedom for computer users. Our actions involve identifying and targeting defective products, pressuring media retailers and hardware manufacturers to stop supporting DRM, exposing the immense concentration of power over media created by DRM, and raising awareness of DRM to libraries, schools, and individuals around the world. More about Defective by Design.
What is DRM?

Digital Restrictions Management is technology that controls what you can do with the digital media and devices you own. When a program doesn't let you share a song, read an ebook on another device, or play a game without an internet connection, you are being restricted by DRM. In other words, DRM creates a damaged good. It prevents you from doing what would normally be possible if it wasn't there, and this is creating a dangerous situation for freedom, privacy and censorship

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DewGuy1999 said:

I wasn't jumping down anyone's throat I was just pointing out the terms of this forum which like the terms of iBooks most people don't read. If they did read the terms of iBooks then they would know what they were getting themselves into and shouldn't have a need to be on here trying to violate those terms that they agreed to. I don't accept the terms of iBooks/eBooks and therefore I don't buy them.

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On the other hand, someone who owns a Macintosh and no other computer or computer-like device can download books from the iTunes store, and any warning that these books cannot be read on a Macintosh is in very, very small smallprint. What makes it worse is that there are plenty of books that can be read once you install some ePub reader software on your Mac, but also lots of books that can't be read, and there is absolutely _nothing_ in the iTunes store that tells you the difference.

The fact that you need an iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad unless you install some third-party ePub Reader should be announced in some more than obvious way when you try to buy books. And the fact that for some books, a third-party ePub Reader doesn't work at all should be announced in some even more obvious way. What would be even better would for Apple to make the iBooks reader software work on the Mac as well.

this whole thing is bs!

DewGuy1999 said:

No, he's not trying to steal content, but he is trying to defeat the DRM, which I believe makes my post relevant.

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this is stupid. the book was purchased legally and therefore he should be allowed to do with it what he pleases (i.e. printing it, viewing it in firefox, etc.). unless he is violating law against distributing the book illegally, he should be allowed to do it! i am currently having the same issue. i purchased a book on the itunes store and wish to print it for better reading, however i am not allowed to, which is pure bs! i BOUGHT the book and wish to read it in the setting of my choosing, that is my right as a buyer!

Is it that hard for people to read?



Publishers don't care about what's convenient for you. When you go digital, and buy from places like Apple, Amazon, and B&N, you know exactly what you're getting - A book you can read on THEIR software.

People should know by now that buying books digitally is safer when you do buy from DRM-free places, or from Amazon. Especially when Apple encourages writers to use tools like iBooks Author, it is near to impossible to even get it to render in anything OTHER than iBooks due to it being the most richest experience you can get when it comes to books, not even KF8 comes close.

slondy said:

Anyone else see a pattern on these forums... ...

I'd like to introduce the possibility that someone is implementing effective (while unethical) PR. ...What I don't like, however, is being mislead by people pretending not to be employees. Maybe this isn't the case, but I studied Marketing in college and companies do this all of the time. Bring on the jokes about how studying it in college doesn't make me an expert. ... no big deal, right?

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Just for the record, while I haven't actually posted in this particular thread... I do vigorously defend the rights of the content creators to set the terms of how their content can be used continually in these forums. DRM is just one example.

You are absolutely correct. Studying something in college does not necessarily make someone an expert. I am a professional photographer. I work from home. I don't get a pay cheque - I get paid only if someone believes that the content I create is worth paying for.

In the case of iBooks, if I were to write a book about photography and put up on iTunes for sale, I would price it differently depending on whether the entire world could potentially download it, or if only some of the world...the ones using iOS devices, for instance, could download it.

That's the funny thing about Apple users ... a lot of us are involved in creating content, and therefore we actually care about how content is, or is not, paid for since it ultimately affects us. So please don't lump all of us content creators as shills for Apple just because you don't create content yourself.

Since people revived this thread, I'll tell about my two experiences dealing with ebooks

Most recent was with Paperless in the iBookstore. David Sparks wrote Paperless abt how to convert to a paperless workflow.

$5 ebook. He revised it and add more screenshots and videos, free upgrade by deleting your current version in iTunes and re-download from iTunes.

Something (forget the title) Real Estate Finance, Kindle Edition (iPad too) in spring 2010. Ebook $70 seemed attractive bc the hard copy was $210.

Well, Amazon sold me the 2 edition earlier version from 2007 which obviously didn't include the 2008 global economic meltdown that started from the real estate market. So the ebook was useless for most of the class.

Amazon would not refund my money bc the current version of kindle for PC had cracked the DRM. Also the publisher hadn't bothered to update their ebook between 2007 and 2010 although they updated the print version twice.

sapporobaby said:

Just be sure. You are asking for instructions on how to circumvent copy right protection. In short, help you do something illegal? Is this right?

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Well it isn't illegal everywhere. Always remember that the us is not the world.

Teleharmonic said:

Removing DRM is not, in fact, illegal in the US as long as what you do with the material falls within fair use. See here:

http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2010/07/court-breaking-drm-for-a-fair-use-is-legal.ars

So the original question is both legal and valid (as I came here to try and find a way to unlock my iBook files). Since there doesn't seem yet to be a way to break the iBooks DRM I will, sadly, have to move on and simply not purchase iBooks. However, once someone DOES build a way to strip the DRM from iBooks I will happily and legally do so.

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You don't need to crack the DRM, just buy an iPad.

sapporobaby said:

Just be sure. You are asking for instructions on how to circumvent copy right protection. In short, help you do something illegal? Is this right?

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Depends in which country he is located. Not all countries have the wonderful DMCA laws that the US has.

mikedamirault said:

I wasn't sure where else to ask, so here I am

I just made a huge mistake by buying two books from the iBookstore without checking about DRM protection first

I rarely buy ebooks (these are my first, and maybe last two), so this is my first real experience with iBooks

For the longest time after downloading the books (on my iPhone), I first had a problem trying get them to show up in iTunes over iCloud, so I couldn't get the epub files onto my MacBook Air, I found out that I was logged into the wrong Apple ID, after logging in with the right AppleID, I was able to find the two ebooks and download them from iCloud to my MBA

After finding out that they were protected by Fairplay DRM, I tried searching for a way to remove it

Now I have heard from everywhere (including on here) that there is no way (currently) to remove the Fairplay DRM protection from the epub files (which is funny being that iBooks and the iBookstore has been out for over a year, plenty of time to crack Fairplay)

That said, while searching, I have came across a site that claims to offer software to strip the Fairplay DRM protection from epub files so they can be opened from any ebook reader

Now because of all the broken english on the site and the fact they don't offer a demo of their software, I wasn't sure if this software was legit or if it was just some sort of scam

Here's the link to the site I am talking about http://pdf-converter.for-mac-download.com/remove-fairplay-drm-from-epub-on-mac.html

The screen on my iPhone is just too small and annoying to read the books off of, and I don't plan on getting an iPad anytime soon

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Call Apple, tell them what happened. There is a reason that they are praised time and time again for their customer service.

Mackilroy said:

I don't go for software such as that personally – you might look into calibre. Not sure it'll strip the DRM, but it's worth a shot (free, and a very good program).

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I tried converting some PDFs with calibre and it didn't format the tables correctly when viewing in the calibre reader before I got my iPad. How are things working now? What presets did you use? iBooks would be my preferred way of doing things rather than trying the various multi readers available.

Any advice?f

I only use calibre to convert files for my Kindle-never had any problems there. It's always worked fine. Can't help you much with iBooks, I don't use it.

I'm a Mac user.

I don't have an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, and have no plans to buy one.
I don't have a Kindle or any other e-reader device, and have no plans to buy one.

I've only tried reading a couple of e-books, and found that what works for me is to do this:
- get ahold of your material and get it onto the Mac.
- use Calibre to open it - various formats supported.
- choose to "print" the entire book, however….
- instead of printing to paper, instead choose to save as a pdf file

The result is a pdf file that can be opened and read on the Mac by several applications.
The formatting may not be exact, but the content is there...

Is there no way to take screenshots of all pages, copy them to the computer, and wrap them into a PDF? Or are the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch crippled just like that, you can't even take screenshots?

the rights and the wrongs of it all

While circumventing Apple's DRM from ibook purchases may be illegal in some jurisdictions, it may not be in others. Here in Australia for instance, the Apple "agreement" hasn't to my knowledge, been tested in court. I am sure that copying and redistributing copyrighted material would be considered illegal, but we also have a Trade Practices Act which is designed to help protect consumers' rights and prevent misleading and deceptive practices by businesses. A common test that is often used in legal matters is considering what a reasonable person would do, assume, understand... It might be successfully argued that when a reasonable person clicks on the "buy" button on a website, they think they are buying the ebook - not renting or borrowing it.

Past court decisions have had no trouble overturning user agreements, warrantees, contracts etc, when they go counter to the law. until this is tested in the courts, the legality of the DRM restrictions has not been established. There are similar provisions in many other jurisdictions and I'm sure Apple's lawyers are well aware of it.

The legality aside, there is a strong moral argument against some of these attempts to tie consumers into a particular technological ecosystem.

I have to say that have a vested interest. I have been given 11 ibooks so far and reading on my iPhone is too unpleasant for me to have read any of them. Now that ibooks is on the mac, I might try again but it would be so much better if i could read them on my kindle. They are mine (they have been duly paid for). if I can find a way of reading them in a way that suits me, I will not be compromising any reasonable ethical standard.