Microsoft Moves to Disable DRM5 Crack

[Ed Hansberry]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/2100-1023-979778.html' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/2100-1023-979778.html</a><br /><br /></div>A few days ago, we told you of a <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6937">crack available</a> for DRM5 encrypted .LIT books for Microsoft Reader. Microsoft has contacted publishers about this and is working on a fix.<br /><br />"A Microsoft spokesman said the company was aware of the software and had contacted publishers to notify them about it. The company said it did not yet have a fix that would block the software's use, but was looking at all its "short- and long-term options"--including legal action."

[VanHlebar]

The company said it did not yet have a fix that would block the software's use, but was looking at all its "short- and long-term options"--including legal action."

Here's a novel idea... CHANGE THE WAY YOU DO THE FREAKING PROTECTION!! :evil:

You know, Peanut Press seems to have a very good, no hassel type protection, what is wrong with it???

M$ just never really puts much thought into the user side of things. Quite treating the consumer as a thief and maybe we would actually buy more software.

Just my thoughts..

-Eric

[vincentsiaw]

microsoft can do whatever it wants to protect their .lit format, but will it works?

[Seraph1024]

I am a strong believer that 1s and 0s can be cracked. The difference between good encryption and a bad one is the good ones take longer to crack.

So M$ can try all it wants and cry as much as they want, with people on earth, their software will be cracked. I am not a pro piracy person but that is the truth.

[VanHlebar]

microsoft can do whatever it wants to protect their .lit format, but will it works?

I agree.. but if they went to something less obtrusive then the general public would not be in such an uproar and would be less likely to develop/use such software. Yes I realize someone, somewhere is going to create the software, just because they can. But I know that I would be far less likely to try to find such software for .lit format if I could move my purchased ebooks from one unit to another.

I purchased a Terry Brooks .lit book a few months back. I activated it for my old HP567 that I had at the time. Now that I have a Dell Axim I can't move the file over to that machine and read the book. I forgot the password for the HP567 activation and had to activate the Axim on a under a different email. Is that my fault, absolutely! However, it should not be tied to a single device to begin with.

-Eric

[jsjxyz]

Thanks to Convert Lit, now I purchased more MS ebooks without worry of running out of the activation quota. And from looking at some newsgroup P2P site, I could not find honest buyer who threw downconvert version of the legitimate ms lit ebook yet. And I believe the trend stay like this. Most of the illegal ebooks around are the scanned version of the printed book.

From Elcomsoft case, I learned that:
"You can use the crack for fair use"

From the DVD case, I learned that:
"If you buy it, you can crack it whatever you want for your own use"

From my $.02, publisher should learn:
Loweing the cost of the ebook by not using the useless DRM5, try to trust the clients.

Jerry
Pocket PC eBooks Watch
http://cebooks.blogspot.com

[Ken Mattern]

It is still a tool that I can legally use to unpack ebooks that I have published and to which I have the right to publish, especially my own work. Having lost the source to some of these books, especially the covers, I need this tool. And I will use it. :evil: :twisted:

[RedRamage]

I'd challange all the publisher out there to do this:

Go to some of the alt.binaries.ebook groups and look at the wide variety of books avilable there.

Now: Post a message to the group. Ask for some illegal copies of Baen Books ebooks. 90% of the time you'll get messages telling you to go to www.baen.com. Why aren't there more copies of Baen books floating around?

First: Baen treats their customers as just that...not criminals.
Second: Baen publishes all it's books in ebook format. Nicely formated, images included formats. If you wanted a specific book, would you spend hours searching for a OCR'd book which has sloppy formating (if any) or would you pony up the (very) reasonable $5 or less for a nice copy?
Third: Baen provides plenty of smaples. You don't need to shove out the cash until you're sure you want the book.

Baen gets it. Baen makes money on UNENCRYPTED ebooks.