The DRM removal tool to remove DRM from ebooks was taken down from github and will most likely be taken down from gitlab soon as well. The more archives we have the better so im sharing the gitlab in hopes some Datahoarder types will archive it and keep it shared via torrents etc https://gitlab.com/bipinkrish/DeGourou

Heres an article about why it was taken down https://torrentfreak.com/internet-archive-targets-book-drm-removal-tool-with-dmca-takedown-230714/

Edit: does anyone here use https://radicle.xyz/ ? Its a p2p network built on top of git and could be a good way to host it while still being able to contribute to it besides making a .torrent for archiving

  • HughJanus
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    1 year ago

    Imagine spending years writing a book for the benefit of others, only to have it downloaded, stripped of it’s licensing and given away to others for free and being robbed of compensation for the time you invested.

    • mochi@lemdit.com
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      1 year ago

      Imagine buying a physical book, reading it, and putting it on the bookshelf in your living room, only to have family members and friends borrow it and read it for free.

      • Auli@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I imagine your circle of family and friends is a lot smaller then posting it on the web and have people downloading it.

      • HughJanus
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        1 year ago

        Yes because that’s totally the same as xeroxing someone else’s work and handing it out in the street to anyone who wants it, all day every day.

    • daFRAKKINpope@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      As soon as they stop using DRM to force you into a specific ereader ecosystem, you’ll have an argument.

      Until then, I’m going to strip the DRM off of a book I buy on Amazon and read it on my Nook. All other parties involved can fuck all the way off.

      • HughJanus
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        1 year ago

        Those public libraries pay to have those books on their shelves 🤦‍♂️

          • HughJanus
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            1 year ago

            I don’t know, that’s between them and the publisher.

            E: weirdly enough, I happen to have just got a library card a couple days ago so I hopped on Libby and, sure enough, they have a finite number of copies of each book that you can “borrow”. So pretty much the same as renting them from the library without the pfaff.

          • HughJanus
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            1 year ago

            Guess what? They pay for those too.

    • Tippon@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Imagine buying a book only to find out that you can’t read it anymore because the store you bought it from decided to remove it from sale and stop all downloads of it. You can’t restore it from a backup because the DRM prevents that.

    • drz@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Imagine going on the piracy Lemmy community and preaching the moral wrongs of copying.

      Seriously though, DRM is a cancer. I usually pirate my books from LibGen, but I buy them on the Kobo store at the same time to support the author. It’s easy to strip DRM from Kobo and they’re better than Amazon, but I would really prefer not to support a store with DRM in the first place.

      Can anyone recommend a DRM-less store? Something akin to GOG for books.

      • HughJanus
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        1 year ago

        Imagine being so entitled that you think you have a right to others’ work for free.

        • snowbell@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          Why do people join communities for things they hate just to shit on everyone? Are you addicted to being angry?

          • HughJanus
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            1 year ago

            I didn’t join anything. It’s just at the top of my “all” feed.

            I speak out because the sense of entitlement among people in this community is fucking insane.

            • zbecker@mastodon.zbecker.cc
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              1 year ago

              @HughJanus @snowbell

              Piracy is more often then not a symptom of the problem rather than a problem itself.

              For example, game piracy was much more common prior to steam as it was just much much more convenient to pirate at that time.

    • Gatsby@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It sounds like you wrote a book for profit then, not for the benefit of others.

          • HughJanus
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            1 year ago

            …so doing work and expecting to be compensated for said work is depressing to you? That is Olympic grade mental gymnastics.

    • jonny@social.coop
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      1 year ago

      @HughJanus
      @cupcakezealot
      this is not how compensation for writers works, generally, and also the whole idea is to break a traditional publishing system that exploits writers in favor of one where people directly pay the authors.

      • HughJanus
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        1 year ago
        1. Go on then, tell us how compensation works. Authors don’t get paid when they sell books, is that it?

        2. What’s preventing authors from selling directly?

        • zbecker@mastodon.zbecker.cc
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          1 year ago

          @HughJanus @jonny

          Authors are paid by the publishers upon completion of the book.

          When you buy a book the publisher gets the money directly.

          In some cases there is some revenue split, but that is uncommon for less well known authors. Either way, it usually isn’t very big.

          There is the option to self-publish, but that is very expensive to do.

          • jonny@social.coop
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            1 year ago

            @zbecker
            @HughJanus
            I think hugh Janus logged off this thread after so confidently insinuating that it was the pirates that don’t understand intellectual property monopolies

        • jonny@social.coop
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          1 year ago

          @HughJanus
          sure. so in commercial publishing, most authors are paid with an advance against future royalties. so they are paid upfront, and only start receiving additional royalties once the advance has been paid up by sales. this makes it so the publisher has some incentive to market your book - recouping the advance. royalty payments are usually extremely small, except for the most well-established authors. so as with music, your purchase usually nets the author nothing or a very small amount

          • jonny@social.coop
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            1 year ago

            @HughJanus
            the reason why authors don’t sell directly is because the publishers control the distribution outlets, either directly or with agreements with the vendors. People go to buy books from marketplaces, not from your website, and there are relatively few ways for authors to directly advertise their work.

            hence piracy - encouraging people to not give any money to the publisher, but instead find some means of paying the author directly. breaking the monopoly over the marketplace.

    • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Imagine selling someone a book and then later clawing it back without a refund and without giving the victim a big fat warning that you’re going to do so.

      • HughJanus
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        1 year ago

        God that would be awful. Good thing that’s not what we’re talking about.

        • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          That’s what will likely happen when this company eventually goes out of business. The DRM server will go offline, and the books will be inaccessible. Cracks like this one are an insurance policy for that eventuality.

    • CuriousGoo@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Unless the book is being bought directly from the writer, isn’t it really the publisher who is gaining the rewards? My understanding is that the writer is paid a lumpsum for rights of a book by a publisher.

      If the entire motto is “benefit of others”, the writer themselves can publish it for the public to read openly, or make it a collaborative project where their and other people’s contributions are added together.

      It’s not black and white, both sides of a piracy debate (much like anything else) have their arguments, and could have had reached a better medium.