Amazon’s Popular eReader, the Kindle, has been hacked this week, allowing users to completely circumvent the DRM (Digital Rights Management) on the device.
Israeli hacker Labba responded to a challenge posted on an Israeli hacking forum and has found a way to break Kindle’s DRM protection in such a way that will allow people to transfer all purchased content off the device via a PDF file. This will also enable users to view Kindle’s content on non-Kindle devices.
DRM is currently a controversial topic within the eBook sphere. Publishers and distributors generally regard DRM as an essential tool for protecting the copyright of the content. However, consumers tend to hate DRM because it limits what legitimate users can do with the content that they have purchased.
The process to hack the Kindle is described on hacking.org, but is only available in Python script. It is however probably just a matter of time until this process is adapted to a more user-friendly version for regular users.
A U.S. hacker that goes by the name "I <3 cabbages" has also recently created a program called Unswindle, which converts eBooks that are stored in Kindle’s free PC application into other formats such as PDF.
This is bad news for Amazon, and they might respond by issuing an update for the device to close the door on this hack. But even if they do, other hackers will undoubtedly find other ways around their DRM. When the DRM on iTunes was hacked, it eventually resulted in Apple offering DRM-free music. Is this the beginning of the era of DRM-free eBooks?
