Bypassing Digital Rights Management (DRM) on Your E-books Likely Constitutes Illegal Activity
In today's era, when Amazon decided to discontinue downloading copies of our Kindle books, I embarked on a mission to safeguard my e-books and audiobooks that I've invested in. This predicament arises due to Digital Rights Management (DRM) imposed by big tech companies like Amazon, designed to ward off piracy, but often resulting in restrictive consequences on digital goods, such as e-books.
The crux of the issue lies in the fact that these companies license, not sell the e-books, granting them considerable control over the digital reading material you purchase. Consequently, you're confined to reading the e-books solely on devices or apps supported by Kindle.
By eliminating DRM, Amazon would relinquish its grip over your reading experience. With DRM-free Kindle e-books, you'd be able to access them on any reading platform you prefer. You'd also have the liberty to maintain an offline backup of all your prized content.
This captivating prospect tempts many, including myself, to explore alternative avenues for purchasing audiobooks on platforms like Audible and utilize stellar apps, such as Bound or Prologue, for enhanced listening experiences. These apps put an end to Amazon's ability to track our reading or listening habits, offering a valuable respite. Alas, these options currently remain elusive.
What Amazon Allows You to Do (According to Their Terms of Service)
Once you pay for an e-book on Amazon, it's essentially licensed to you, according to the company's terms of service, leaving the company leeway to dictate behaviors associated with your purchased e-book. The terms unequivocally forbid bypassing the DRM and reading the e-book on unauthorized devices.
This isn't a problem unique to Amazon, as Janet Vertesi, a sociology professor at Princeton University, pointed out. According to her, buying a book through big tech firms doesn't automatically make you the owner. "If you purchase an e-book, you have to abide by the delivery pipeline and the necessary devices provided by the corporation," she explained via email. It's much like the difference between Spotify playlists and a personal home music library. You pay for the e-book, yet you lack control over how you access or read it.
Similarly, Audible categorizes a sale as the purchase of a license, and stipulates that you should download the audiobook immediately after purchasing, as the company cannot guarantee its availability for redownload. Worse still, Amazon prevents you from circumventing DRM on audiobook files.
The Legalities Involved in Bypassing DRM
Bypassing DRM is illegal in the U.S. due to the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), but it may be legal in some other regions. I sought insights from Cory Doctorow, an author and avid DRM critic, to clarify this conundrum.
In an email, Doctorow explained the convoluted nuances surrounding this topic. "Formatting shifting an e-book, i.e., moving a book from one device to another, doesn't constitute copyright infringement. However, in 1998, the US Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which introduced a new sort of copyright protecting DRM itself," he wrote. "Under Section 1201 of the DMCA, it's a felony (punishable by imprisonment and a hefty fine) to provide someone a 'circumvention device' that defeats an 'access control' for a copyrighted work, even if you don't violate copyright laws.
"Suppose I grant you permission to move a book I authored (being the copyright holder) from your Kindle to another device. Despite my authorization, you're still not allowed to move it. The fact that I am the copyright holder doesn't alter Amazon's ability to bar you from transferring the book to a competitor's platform, such as Kobo," Doctorow wrote.
When you download a Kindle e-book, it comes in the AZW format, and audiobooks from Audible use the proprietary AAX format. If you download these to your computer, it's format shifting, but it may be illegal if you had to circumvent DRM to do it. Doctorow added, "this means that while copyright laws enable format shifting of e-books, the DMCA (a paracopyright law) makes it a prison-worthy felony if you have to breach DRM first."
Tools that Let You Bypass DRM
Calibre provides a way to liberate your e-books from digital walled gardens. It allows you to download books from your Kindle, convert them to any format you fancy, and read them on any app or device you prefer. For Audible, the tool is Libation, a free, open-source app that safeguards your audiobook library.
I contacted Robert McRackan, the developer of Libation, to shed light on how the app functions and why it was developed. McRackan responded, "...what apps like Libation do is a service to the community that I firmly believe in. It's also at odds with Audible's terms of service..." Free tools such as these continue to exist, contingent on the developers' ability to allot time for updates. If this changes, it could be the end of the road for these apps.
I can't advise on downloading these apps or using them to remove DRM from your e-books. However, they do exist, and, as of now, they seem to function.
A World Beyond Amazon for Digital Books
If you yearn to truly own your digital media, consider exploring digital book purchases outside of Amazon. Numerous alternatives exist, offering DRM-free e-books and audiobooks. When I posed this question to Vertesi and Doctorow, they recommended Bookshop.org (for DRM-free e-books), Tor Books (entirely DRM-free), and Libro.fm (for DRM-free audiobooks).
While Libro.fm is completely DRM-free and has a collection reminiscent of Audible's, the landscape beyond Amazon isn't always rosy. Doctorow wrote, "Even exceptional e-book stores like Bookshop.org encounter pressure from publishers to apply DRM to most books they sell." Similarly, Audible might entice authors into exclusive deals that offer better royalties if they keep their audiobooks exclusive to the service.
If your favorite book is a part of such a deal, your only course of action is either to buy it through Audible or attempt to acquire a DRM-free e-book using text-to-speech tools to have AI-generated voices read it to you. This makeshift method converts any book into an audiobook, and though it doesn't rival a proficient narrator, it's a DRM-free alternative. If your favorite e-book is an Amazon exclusive, you can procure it via your local library. Alternatively, consider purchasing it in good ol' paper format: a format that remains unchained by DRM.
However, without altering the DMCA, we can't expect meaningful, lasting change in this domain. Doctorow put it succinctly: "What we truly need to do is abolish DMCA 1201, a law that stands in the way of format shifting, repairs for farm machinery, auto repairs, and alternative app markets for phones and games consoles...this law is pernicious!"
- In an attempt to bypass the restrictions imposed by DRM on my Kindle books and audiobooks from Audible, I explored tech solutions like Calibre for e-books and Libation for audiobooks, which allow for format shifting and reading on any preferred platform.
- Despite the legality of format shifting e-books under copyright laws, bypassing DRM to do so is considered a felony due to Section 1201 of the DMCA, making it illegal to use tools like Calibre or Libation to remove DRM from digital goods.
- To safeguard my investment in digital books and audiobooks, I began to seek out alternative platforms that do not impose DRM, such as Bookshop.org for DRM-free e-books, Tor Books for entirely DRM-free e-books, and Libro.fm for DRM-free audiobooks. However, these platforms sometimes succumb to publisher pressure and add DRM, limiting the scope of DRM-free digital media.
