Kindle DRM cracked

Want to read your you Kindle purchases on a bigger screen? You just may be able to, but that won’t make Amazon and the old school book publishers happy. My guess is that unlocking the Kindles’ files violates something in the end user agreement. Moving media from one device to another may be more convenient for you, but copyright holders aren’t always interested in making things easy for their customers.

One hack reportedly resulted from a Kindle DRM challenge issued on Israeli forum Hacking.org. On that site, an Israeli hacker known as Labba claims to have created a tool that lets e-books stored on the Kindle be transferred as PDF files.

A U.S. hacker who goes by the name “i♥cabbages,” meanwhile, created a program called Unswindle that promises to convert books stored in the Kindle for PC application into a different file format.

The free Kindle for PC app lets book buyers read their books right from their PCs without having to buy a Kindle reader. Unswindle has to be used in conjunction with MobiDeDRM, a program by another hacker named “darkreverser.”

Posters on i♥cabbages’ blog give Unswindle mixed reviews, ranging from “works like a charm” and “worked flawlessly” to descriptions of various errors. (Cnet)