Boing Boing's publisher Jason Weisberger recently jailbroke his Amazon Kindle because he doesn't like being told what he can and can't do with the hardware he owns. I feel the same way. But I feel even saltier about companies 'selling me' digital content and then f****** with that purchase.
Sure, sometimes changes to software or ebooks can come in the form of updates that correct problems: a glitch in a game; a typo a copyeditor missed after a wild weekend of binge drinking. But the notion that the sections of the work I purchased could be removed, reworked for the sake of someone's politics or, be completely removed from my device without my permission? Yeah, that's not ok. So, before Amazon's recent clampdown on downloading backups of the ebooks you rent/get to use with their permission, I grabbed the 200+ digital titles I've bought to read on my Kindle over the years and got into the DRM-breaking business.
And friendos, business is goooood.
I have no intention of sharing the ebooks I own with anyone: Writers (I'm one of those) deserve to be paid for their hard work. If you wanna copy of a thing, you buy a copy of a thing. But I take offence at anyone telling me what I can use to read the books I've paid for. I make part of my living as a service journalist, telling folks which e-readers to buy. I own a lot of them. I pretty much live on my reMarkable tablet. So, being able to read my books on any piece of hardware I damn well please is kind of a big deal for me.
Unlike Jason, I'm a big Calibre user. A decade back, I paid to have a ton of my books scanned before hitting the road as a digital nomad. I want access to those books as well. So, my Digital Rights Management-breaking solution uses the software. I mean, all my stuff is already in there. There's plenty of guides on how to make the copyright-protection magic go away. I'm fond of this one, written by Will Smith (no, that Will Smith. The nice one.)
It all worked like a charm. My ebooks are now my DRM-free books. I've dumped them back onto my Kindle, out of principle. But, perhaps more importantly, I've side-loaded them to my reMarkable Paper Pro, as it goes pretty much everywhere with me. Its reader functionality is pretty basic, but it gets the job done and it feels a hell of a lot better than reading on my smartphone.
If you weren't able to get your books backed up from Amazon before they made it impossible, my condolences. But if you've got them squirrelled away on a drive somewhere, sucking the DRM out of them could be a great way to improve your reading quality of life.
Images/Screenshots via Seamus Bellamy
