Has anyone actually succeeded to remove DRM? I just want my books that I bought. I have Kindle books and comics, and nook books (yes, nook)

I’ve been through the online guides but so far no good. I don’t have a kindle device if that matters.

Am I better off just downloading copies from someone else who did it already?

      • Since when? There was a ruling in the 80’s that it was. I admit laws may have changed and I didn’t notice, but I also believe corporations are perfectly capable of lying - or using half-truths - to convince people they don’t have rights that they really do.

        I just grabbed the first search result, but:

        https://legalbeagle.com/12719016-copyright-law-making-personal-copies.html

        DRM & DCMA. Well, I don’t know whether this has yet been tested in court, and with the current Supreme Court it might not be wise to risk it, but eventually with a more moderate court I would expect a similar ruling as the original ruling was meant for. A corporation suing an individual for circumventing DRM with no proof of redistribution, I think, would result in a ruling DCMA would not like to have on the books. But, that’s just me, and we don’t have a moderate higher court, and you’re right.

        • I used to think the same thing, but I did an effort post about this about a year ago (here’s the link)

          The article you linked to says something similar to my own understanding: basically, DRM circumvention for personal use is officially not allowed under DMCA and could absolutely be used against you in court, though the likelihood is low. The exceptions the author mentions are pretty nebulous, and the Library of Congress actually addresses the most common cases in their discussions and publication and affirms that they are not allowed.

          I don’t personally agree with their interpretation, but I think more people ought to know that it’s officially not legal to circumvent DRM for personal use.

  •  Strayce   ( @Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org ) 
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    4 months ago

    I’ve done this successfully, but you need to jump thru quite a few hoops. These instructions are for Kindle only. I think dedrm can cope with Nook encryption but I don’t know how to do it. It was a while ago now, but to the best of my recollection:

    1. Get yourself an older model Kindle. I used a Kindle 3 that I found at Goodwill for $20. You may have to rejig your home WiFi if your model doesn’t support the right version of WPA.
    2. Register it to your Amazon account somehow. IIRC, you have to try and fail to do it from the device, then Amazon will email you instructions.
    3. Install Calibre and setup the dedrm plugin. It’s pretty well documented.
    4. Download what you want onto the Kindle. Pretty sure you have to use the Amazon website for this because of SSL issues on the older models.
    5. Setup your Kindle with Calibre. This is also pretty easy and and well documented.
    6. Grab the DRMed books off the Kindle into Calibre.
    7. Run the conversion process in Calibre to remove DRM and convert to (for example) epub.
    8. Optional: Jailbreak your Kindle and install KOReader to get a bit more value out of the obsolete brick you had to purchase to do this. This is a whole other set of hoops.

    I’m not totally sure all this still works. You’re honestly probably better off getting a Boox device and downloading stuff from Anna’s Archive or similar.

      • Oh it’s an absolute slog for sure. And I can’t even guarantee it still works. I wouldn’t have even tried if I didn’t happen to chance upon a suitable device. Definitely wouldn’t recommend paying eBay prices for one just to do this.

    • I managed to do it somehow without a kindle but it was an absolute pain in the ass. For my first few books I had to download then using a specific old version of the kindle desktop app so that calibre was able to remove the encryption. Apparently the encryption used by the newer kindle desktop app is different.

      For my next books that suddenly wasn’t enough and I had to use an old android app version in an emulator and get the books out of the hidden app storage using adb.

      I’m never buying an ebook of amazon again if I can avoid it

  • The last I looked into it, the best way to do it was to get an older kindle so you could download the older DRM copies of books from amazon. But I think some newer books are using only the newer DRM which I don’t think has been cracked.

    It has probably been at least a year since I checked. If you do end up finding an updated method, I would be interested.