Apple iBooks Copy Protection Cracked for First Time

[Oletros]

I'd love to hear your alternative solution. DRM is the only option that authors have today to protect our works from being illegally distributed.

No, DRM is the only option to try to protect the illegal egal distribution.

Reality is that DRM only serves to annoy the people that has bought it but doesn't prevent illegal distribution

Like it or not, people primarily hate DRM not because they cannot read their eBook on their Mac, but because they cannot find free downloads of the books they want. .

Can you say your book titles? I want to be sure not to buy anything from someone that is insulting me.

The publishing industry, like the music industry, have a very big problem, they think anyone is a thief.

 

[edoates]

Check out paid for music in, say, Brazil ...

Rubbish. I would argue that it's mostly about pricing.

Look at the AppStore - after jailbreaking, it's possible to crack any app straight from your device and upload it to a second appstore full of cracked apps. That hasn't hurt the AppStore.

But you notice something about apps that isn't the same with music, films or books - prices are more flexible, and they are lower (basically always). Better quality apps charge more (and can afford to), there is more competition for sales, and the price is reasonable enough that people will pay for it, even in the face of piracy.

The media industry is full of titans and moguls, who believe their content unbounded in value. They have no incentive to lower prices, and competition is stifled. The worst thing is that they sell you books and films - these really are less valuable than apps. Nobody re-reads the same books forever; the value of a book or film is less every time you read or watch it. Apps don't do that, and yet they cost much less.

The media industry deserves everything it gets IMO. Piracy will always exist for those knowledgeable enough for it to be worthwhile. Luckily, that's a vanishingly small percentage of people. If you get mass piracy (like with, for example, online movie streaming), then you have to realise that it's a competitive force; people don't agree with your products and won't buy them.

There is plenty of evidence of people paying for things they could get for free (even in the media space - iTunes, Netflix, etc). The reason those things took off is that they were just good products - they sold you something for what seemed a pretty fair value, and they beat the pirate sites at things like reliability. Something similar (that is to say, radically different) is needed today for books.

In the US, maybe, but in placed like Brazil (indeed, all of SA), China, India, and more, essentially no one pays for music content, even if iTunes is available. Once stuff is free, even unethically, and people get used to that price, that becomes the floor, in general, unless there are consequences for someone; in the US, RIAA probably scared some downloaders. The takedown of Megaupload has probably scared some pirate sites who are complicit in IP theft for profit; but in many other geographic locations, there is NO disincentive to taking free media of all types - legally, or even in some domains, ethically.

 

[cabrian]

I will confess to downloading and using Requiem on my iBooks purchases. The reason I did this was not to distribute them but only - and I mean only - for the reason that I want to sometimes read my iBooks on my Mac desktop, like I can with my Kindle books. And I can't. I don't understand why really. But I can't. I wouldn't have to try to do this if Apple would give us iBooks for Mac.

Unfortunately, either I'm doing something wrong or the program doesn't work because when I then try to open the books in Calibre, they still have the DRM attached. Has anybody else tries this? Requiem says they don't have DRM, so it does nothing. But they do. <sad face>

I am using Requiem 3.3.4 and it works on some of my files but on others it gives this error: can't find version 301. I have no idea what that means, but those files still show as "purchased" whereas the ones that have DRM stripped off no longer say that in iTunes.

 

[chillywilly]

I'd love to hear your alternative solution. DRM is the only option that authors have today to protect our works from being illegally distributed.

Like it or not, people primarily hate DRM not because they cannot read their eBook on their Mac, but because they cannot find free downloads of the books they want.

I believe the solution lies in a ubiquitous book reader and a common format, that includes managed ownership rights to the eBook you bought. You can give it away or sell it, but when you do you lose the ability to keep reading it.

Unfortunately that system does not yet exist.

My alternative solution is DRM free media and a standard format. The main reason responsible consumers want DRM free media is due to the hassle of making it work on multiple readers. MP3 solved this issue as well as media players now playing AAC and M4A files.

Since the LP got recorded to a cassette, there's always been people that copy stuff without paying. Digital does make it easier, but I think it boils down to trust. It's not if hackers remove DRM, it's when. Why not give the legit consumer a nice experience in using their purchased media.

In no way do I encourage pirating. The purpose for DRM free media for many of us is to make the experience of using it easier. It's trusting your paying customers, not blocking the pirates that will gain more sales and downloads in the long run.

 

[thewitt]

My alternative solution is DRM free media and a standard format. The main reason responsible consumers want DRM free media is due to the hassle of making it work on multiple readers. MP3 solved this issue as well as media players now playing AAC and M4A files.

Since the LP got recorded to a cassette, there's always been people that copy stuff without paying. Digital does make it easier, but I think it boils down to trust. It's not if hackers remove DRM, it's when. Why not give the legit consumer a nice experience in using their purchased media.

In no way do I encourage pirating. The purpose for DRM free media for many of us is to make the experience of using it easier. It's trusting your paying customers, not blocking the pirates that will gain more sales and downloads in the long run.

Trust the 500,000 people who have already downloaded my book for free, to buy the next one?

Does your company put its output on a table in the mall with a can for money sitting next to it! You just trust them to pay rather than take it for free? Does that work for your business model? Cause it has been shown not to work for mine.

 

[Oletros]

Does that work for your business model? Cause it has been shown not to work for mine.

This is totally false, tell O'Reilly or Pragmatic publishing if it does work or not.

The problem are not pirates, the problem are publishers and writers like you that think that everyone is a thief.

Insulting your potential customers is the model that doesn't work.

 

[chillywilly]

Trust the 500,000 people who have already downloaded my book for free, to buy the next one?

Does your company put its output on a table in the mall with a can for money sitting next to it! You just trust them to pay rather than take it for free? Does that work for your business model? Cause it has been shown not to work for mine.

You must be a well published author to have 500,000 copies that have already made it onto the pirated market. And this count of how many copies have been "stolen"... was this from all the torrent sites?

Seriously, I know that number is an estimation, but up to 20 percent of all media is pirated at some point (a much higher number than reality). Given 500,000 is 20 percent, you have sold 2.5 million copies. I would say that's doing quite well.

Comparing DRM free media to laying cash out on a table at the mall seems like a sensational comparison. I get the idea you are trying to convey, but that's saying you are expecting everyone that hears about your book is a pirate. A heavy statement about your customers.

I know you want to protect your product. No one wants their product stolen. But just like a car has keys, locks and an alarm, they still get stolen every so often. Why not focus on the experience for your honest, paying customers. Ask them what they want.

Besides, the tiny number of people that figure out how to use Requiem for removing DRM from their iBooks shouldn't be a major concern. Those that have used Requiem almost never share their DRM free media. In the 5 years I've been using it, I've never once shared my media. I value the work someone put into the media.

Send me a PM with a list of your books. I'm a curious potential paying customer.

 

[nia820]

Isn't Calibre already able to do this? I haven't used it but I thought I read that it could.

no it only converts kindle and nook books.