It is not about circumventing, but about keeping an eye on the ball
I have previously written about my experiences with ebooks. First it was about the delinquency and civil disobedience inspiring texture of the purchase of an ebook and looking at the market from a Romanian standpoint (#1), then it was about formats and their bringing up discontent and frustration (#2). Assuming there still are, like me, people who are into this for the thrill of reading (and its educational and leisure extra points), I took one step further trying to secure my purchases.
It was a trial&error procedure, and it’d have stayed at just how much I tried, hadn’t it been for reader and friend Béranger. A posting of his caught my eye one late evening and I marked it as unread in my RSS reader because I was not quite getting it, and I wanted to. I’m talking about this one here.
Now to get some context, you will probably need to go back to his posts I quoted and linked previously, as well as to my own posts and see there is no workaround to this huge complex beast called ebook purchases when what you want is simply to read some. I won’t vent again about the reasons (or shall I? stores that don’t deliver, formats that don’t take our fancy, or all the more are incompatible with our e-readers, books that are solely appointed to fulfill certain purposes: ‘thou shalt not print that’ and yada yada ‘kopieren verboten’), but, listen, I want to be able to rejoice my reading of personal favorites on any reader, no matter its format, no matter its market of distribution, and no matter my being ambivalent about where to read them, on my iPhone, on my Mac or my e-reader. I just want to be able to read them on my bathroom mirror if I decide on buying a pocket OHP. And more significantly, I want to have them forever, not just for their not at all considerate shelf (or be it reader) life. I am not so keen on sharing them, because here’s what. I remember a time when I needed to kindly ask friends who lived abroad to order books for me because Amazon did not deliver to Romania. And then Amazon’s Kindle did not deliver to Romania (and I gave away my useless Kindle). Well my point is, Amazon’s doing with ebooks what they did successfully with books in print. So there, I see no point in doing the same - I don’t want to share my ebooks, because I don’t share my printed books either. Does that say something bad about me? I don’t care, as long as my books are safe with me.
So. I always need long introductions to get to the simplest of things. You’re lucky I didn’t pull a story about what happened or might have happened as I was brushing my teeth this morning. Well, what I’m trying to say is, I don’t care about pricing, and about availability of ebooks in my country. What I care about is to be able, even if from a limited set of books, to have them, like, forever.
So fellow tumbler and reader Béranger, who is obviously a lot more of a technical mind than I am, proposes us some basic tools for circumventing DRM on *.epub and *.pdf books. And I’m here to testify that it worked. Here’s what I did (I’ll do the Mac explanation part, because he did the Win one here).
1. First of all, obviously, buy an ebook. Or if you’re me, buy more, and then ask yourselves, what you’re going to do with them. Reading comes to mind as one sound option, but hey, did you ask your seller if they allow you to? Most likely, the answer is going to be a straightforward yes followed promptly by a no less straightforward but. It depends on your reader. It depends on the number of devices you’ve used it so far. We don’t like Sony so we won’t let you read our books on a Sony reader. Oh didn’t you read the fine print?
If you’re me, then you didn’t.
2. Repent.
3. Since I don’t know anyone who’d actually buy Mobipocket books, I hereby let you know that you’ve probably bought an *.epub or *pdf book. It’s not like they’re two standalone categories, they have hordes of kids. The number of devices, actions and helas - readings! was decided upon purchase without letting you know.
4. If you’re in a but-I-want-my-f***ing-book mood, then read carefully. There’s hope. Optimistic as I am, I didn’t see any hope here, but the above post helped a lot. So there. Do your best. Concentrate.
5. Consider the above as you make yourself a strong coffee. No sugar.
6. Go to this page: http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2010/02/21/how-to-install-python-and-pycrypto/. Grasp the basic concepts. Xtube, Python, Pycrypto. Chant as you eventually put sugar in your coffee.
7. If you’re still a Leopard, not yet a Snow Leopard that is, you will need to download and install a package that Apple innocently left in their sandbox area (Xcode 3.1.3 Developer Tools Download). You’ll need an Apple ID and you’ll have to finally get that virtual persona you’ve always promised yourself to get. Name a corporation, a field and a target group. Apple’s choices have never been anything but limited, so if you lack imagination, they’re your perfect sidekick in the deed.
8. Download and install will take approximately an hour. Highlights are the two-score clicks you’re going to need to do. You can trash the image and package upon installing them.
Alternatively, if you really are a Snow Leopard, then the above package is already on your installation dvd. You didn’t know that, but Dear Author did, so there. Frankly, I think steps 6-8 take less time than installing the package from the dvd, but that’s just me. Anyway, accurate steps and guidance on installing the package are provided by the same Dear Author.
9. Now if you though this was tricky, take heed. You need to get a decent package of Python. You don’t need to know what it is, but you need to get it. You can get one here:
http://www.python.org/download/. Tested and recommended: Python 2.6.4 Mac Installer Disk Image. It won’t do you any harm, and needless to say, to your Mac. Install it as any regular *.dmg and be happy I don’t mention the shady steps 9.1. to 9.19. I did before getting around that.
10. Now you need to get a Pycrypto pack. You can get your hands on one here: http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/modules.shtml#pycrypto. Dear Author says you should aim as far as PyCrypto 2.1 for 32bit Windows and Python 2.6 (.zip) and I’m not complaining. Get it, unzip it, remember where it is and go further.
11. Now the funny part starts. You need to install the package from #10. For this, search the Spotlight for the Terminal. If you’re old enough to have lived through MSDOS, then this is going to be one more for the old times’ sake. Once open, command in the terminal ‘change directory’ - cd followed by the path of your unzipped Pycrypto folder. You can either copy it neatly on a post-it or drag’n’drop the folder in the terminal window. Press return. Dear Author has little nice snapshots that should tell you if what you’re doing is right or wrong.
12. Stand in awe, nothing happened.
13. Key in your installation command, i.e. python setup.py install. If all previous steps have been performed enthusiastically and diligently, then your terminal will be flooded by kazam text and finally your number #10. pack will have been installed.
14. You need to download now a little set of Santa helpers. Their file names are, apud Béranger:
ineptkey.pyw, version 4.3, source
ineptepub.pyw, version 4.1, source
ineptpdf.pyw, version 6.1, source
Now Béranger claims that you need to get the *.pyw down to *.py for Mac, but I forgot all about that and since it worked just as well, I cannot heartily encourage you to do so.
Did you see the download link? Well, that’s the one. There, you have three new files you don’t know what to do with (on your Desktop, more likely, or your Download folder).
15. Now it’s time to put the Python and Pycrypto to good use. Open your Python (I won’t tell you where it is, but your Spotlight will), and choose File>Open and open the ineptkey.pyw version 4.3 - that’ll download your personal key (in case you didn’t know you have one, it’s time you face the evidence, you bought your ebook AND the key, now, how super is that?).
16. It’s time to get down to the dirty job. If you purchased an *.epub book, repeat #15. with the ineptepub.pyw version 4.1 file. Lo and behold, a window will open right in front of your eyes. Navigate to your source file (Book Sellers are Sneaks and Put Your Purchases in Your Documents, in Your My Books/Reader Library Folder, in your own home!) and then give a name to your output file. Basically it should be relevant to the contents, so that you could easily track it afterwards. Or you could render all steps #1.-16. vain and rename it any way you want. Your call.
17. On pressing the decrypt button, new files will be generated for each of your books. You’ll now be able to resize and style your font faces any way you please, to copy and even print your books.
If instead you purchased a *.pdf book, then you need to do same as above with the ineptpdf.pyw file, and then decrypt your *.pdf book. In fact, it’s with a *.pdf book that I knew, I simply knew, that my efforts were not all for nothing, because instead of opening the book with the Reader Library, it opened it with Preview. That’s a motivational thing. That means you can now take your book anywhere, as they used to lure you in order to fall in the ebook trap.
18. Wash your coffee mug.
I still think it was supposed to be about reading.