
BooXtream EPub Watermark Remover - kfrwzwq
https://github.com/grayleonard/booxtream-epub-drm-remover
======
legulere
That's not DRM, but Watermarking.

I don't see any reason why you should object to watermarking. Contrary to DRM
it doesn't hurt real costumers at all and only helps finding people that
distribute books without compensating the author.

~~~
kfrwzwq
Some reasons why watermarks could be objectionable are covered in the
accompanying Torrentfreak article (already linked in other comments here):

"'Books should be used as tools for disseminating knowledge and information.
What ‘social DRM’ watermarking systems do instead is turn books into tools of
surveillance and oppression by monitoring who shares what knowledge, where,'
IBI explain.

"'We don’t like this, and because the publisher Verso has refused to remove
the watermarks themselves, we decided to do it for them, and to show everyone
how these systems work.'

"But there are bigger issues at stake. While people in the West take the
freedom to read books of their choosing for granted, not everyone has that
luxury.

"'Imagine if a watermarked ebook contains someone's name (as many do). Suppose
that someone is reading that watermarked ebook under a regime that bans the
particular kind of material covered in that book,' IBI add.

"'If the operatives of the regime see the watermark, they would then be able
to arrest and perhaps even execute the purchaser of the ebook if they too are
living under the same regime.'

"But matters of life and death aside, IBI say they believe that people should
not only be able to read whatever they want, they should also be able to share
that knowledge with others."

~~~
legulere
The first one lauds giving other people access to books for free, leading to
the author not getting compensated. Not even DRM (which watermarking isn't)
prevents you from sharing knowledge for free. Just write something on your own
containing that knowledge and put it up for free.

The thing with the regime seems a bit constructed, but even then authors can
just decide to publish those few books where this applies without watermarks.
If your goal is to reach people living in a regime you would want to translate
the text from english into the language of the place anyway (I don't know of
english speaking regimes)

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dbcooper
Any idea how this compares to Apprentice Alf's tools?

~~~
voltagex_
This is much newer, but I think it will eventually be included.

This tool is an implementation of
[https://pastebin.com/raw/E1xgCUmb](https://pastebin.com/raw/E1xgCUmb)

~~~
dbcooper
Thanks. I found the background article from Torrent Freak useful.

[https://torrentfreak.com/researchers-crack-social-drm-
ebook-...](https://torrentfreak.com/researchers-crack-social-drm-ebook-
watermarks-160625/)

------
gggggggggg
A bit of background context

[https://torrentfreak.com/researchers-crack-social-drm-
ebook-...](https://torrentfreak.com/researchers-crack-social-drm-ebook-
watermarks-160625/)

------
fernly
Would this not qualify as "producing and disseminating technology, devices, or
services intended to circumvent" DRM? Because that's a crime under the DMCA.
But I'm just askin', you know?

~~~
r3bl
> Because that's a crime under the DMCA.

It's a crime in the U.S., it's not a crime in my country. But this guy _has_
listed American University's email address, so I would definitely remove this
software if I were him.

In fact, if I were him, I would find someone not from the U.S. to host the
repository, make it private, give him the read/write privileges and then
occasionally push the changes to a new public repo (so that the .git folder is
different and one could not track the changes as they happen).

But that's just me...

~~~
drewbug
Or host it on a Tor hidden service!

~~~
wyager
A tor-ified github clone would be interesting. You'd probably see a lot of
cool pro-freedom software projects that are illegal in their originating
country, like this one.

~~~
jlgaddis
A bunch of version control'd child porn is what I'd be scared of.

~~~
anc84
Yeah, that or at least terrorists!!!!!!1

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jlgaddis
Every day I see submissions here that are cracks, keygens, etc., and they
always get flagged and killed.

I'm not familiar with BooXtream, specifically, but I'm curious what it is
about this that is different? This is for DRM, sure, but it seems very similar
to me.

~~~
dang
> _submissions here that are cracks, keygens, etc., and they always get
> flagged and killed_

Those are almost always spammy. If there's something intellectually
interesting about the post, that would be different. (Not saying that's the
case here.)

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ycombdev
I'm interested in a technical sense, but this is not DRM.

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dang
We s/DRM/Watermark/'d the title since people were complaining about that bit.

~~~
bhaak
It should be noted that BooXtream themselves call this watermarking 'social
DRM'.

