Interesting Links for 09-12-2023

[andrewducker]

1. If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing

(tags:piracy intellectual_property drm )

2. Doctor Who | Over 100 people complain about inclusion of human being in The Star Beast

(tags:bigotry UK transgender bbc drwho )

Comments

1.

[channelpenguin]

Hmm, must work out if it's still possible to "convert" my books on Amazon Kindle to un-drmd ePub... It used to be pretty easy, but I think it got harder and I'm warier now of asking questions.

Enshittification is like entropy. Universal. Grrr.

Re: 1.

[bens_dad]

Last time I looked Kindles don't read ePubs unless they are jailbroken (which is fragile and could go away at anytime the Internet is connected).

(Some versions of) Amazon book files can be de-drm'd and remain readable on a standard Kindle.

Last time I looked, Calibre with Apprentice Alf's de-drm was the recommended way to go. I don't much like Calibre as it is even more of a "complete" system than emacs was said to be thirty years ago. (Someone said emacs contained everything but the kitchen sink, so they added one of those.) Point Calibre at the DRM version of a file and it will stick a de-drm'd version in its indexed system ready to appear on your Kindle next time it resends. Fine, unless you are a command-line geek who likes to be in control of what content is where on each device.

Re: 1.

[channelpenguin]

I should have been clearer. I have kindle books, I DON'T have a Kindle. I have an Onyx Book, which runs Android. Before that, I had a Kobo. It used to be pretty easy (via Calibre) to get the books onto the device, but that stopped being true about 5 years ago (maybe more, I lose track of time).

Seems that might still work?

I don't use Calibre to sync, I just copy the files from the local Calibre library to the device (using its SD card). Also sometimes use it to edit the metadata. Though I'm not one who finds the metadata useful, I tend to organise my files myself. I'm with you on that. I never understood why people need more than a file system to find things, but heyho.

About Item 2:

[dewline]

100+ people complaining...in the midst of six to seven million viewers in the UK alone, right?

Yeah, I'm not taking that seriously. I understand and continue to revile the intent, mind you.

Re: About Item 2:

[cmcmck]

They're probably scared of how pretty she is because you can always tell! (snark).

[anna_wing]

Even if you're just renting, you still have to pay the actual owner of whatever you are renting.