Free Your Media Part 2: Ebooks
Recently, while contemplating the overflowing bookshelves, the scattered piles, and the stacked boxes of books throughout my home, I made the decision that it might be time to transition to ebooks.
Unfortunately, the choice of ereader is also your choice of bookstore. If you buy a Kindle, you're shopping with Amazon; if you buy a Nook, your store is Barnes & Noble. You can either buy a more expensive multiformat option, like an iPad, or you can suck it up and make a difficult choice.
I chose the Nook, because it supports the defacto standard ebook format, epub, and I'm just a standards kind of guy. Practically every other ereader and ebookstore also uses the epub format (with Amazon being the notable exception). Unfortunately, the epub format allows distributors to use any form of DRM they like. Fortunately, it's not hard to crack. The go-to site for ebook decryption is i♥cabbages.
Borders/Kobobooks/Adobe Digital Editions
Borders' ebooks are provided by Kobobooks. Most titles are offered in multiple formats including web-based, pdf, and epub. The epub titles (and the pdfs) are encrypted using Adobe's Adept algorithm.
Enter ineptkey and ineptepub. The former will retrieve your validation key (generated by Adobe Digital Editions), and the second will use that key to decrypt your ebook. Just enter your input file, your output file and press "Decrypt". You're done!
Barnes & Noble
B&N uses a variation on Adobe's DRM format, so the process is similar. Use ignoblekeygen to generate your decryption key by entering your B&N.com login name and the credit card number you used to purchase your ebook (this number is used ONLY to generate your decryption key; it is not stored or transmitted). Then use ineptepub to decrypt your book.
Amazon
Amazon opted to use the proprietary azw format for their ebooks, which is itself a variation of the mobi format. These titles can be decrypted by unswindle. This script will launch the Kindle Reader, where you will choose the title to decrypt. Once the title opens, close the reader. The script will read the key from memory and open a file dialog where you may specify where to save your decrypted file. Kindle books can also be decrypted using the command-line tool skindle.
You may also occasionally see Amazon files with the tpz (Topaz) extension. These files can also be decrypted with skindle, though conversion is more involved. A Google search is helpful here.
iBooks
iBooks titles also use the epub format, but they can not yet be decrypted. The titles use the same "FairPlay" encryption scheme used by iTunes' music and video downloads, however, so it's surely just a matter of time (audio and video can currently be decrypted with "Requiem"; search your favorite torrent site).
Once decrypted, your ebooks can be converted as necessary by a program like calibre.
September 10th, 2010 - 18:10
Have not visited your blog in a while. Guess I fit in the dinosaur category–I love the feel, the smell, etc of opening a good old hardback book. I too, have stacks and stacks, altho I recently winnowed thru, discarded, and then placed all my newer books on the shelves for now. But soon, if all goes well, it will be overflowing again. Thus far, a kindle, nook, or whatever does not beckon.
Love, you old auntie