Amazon formats and how to try to work with them

Amazon formats

This small series of articles part of the conviction that the e-book is interactive or it is not. I do not pretend to tell anyone what to do with his life and, I find it as respectable who considers touch and smell as part of the reading experience as one who enjoys his favorite comics on a tablet. My objection is that comparisons are being made.

Different types of material need different reading methods and, it is in those in which greater commitment is required on the part of the user that the e-book reaches its full potential.

Amazon formats

With its Kindle device, Amazon certainly took a step forward for the e-book market, but at the same time it was also a step back. Unless the author decides to publish his book without the protection of digital rights, if you want to read a book bought on Amazon, you have to use an Amazon device; This involves the cloud reader, the desktop versions for Windows and Mac, the versions for iOS and Android devices, or the hardware that Amazon sells itself.

Throughout its history, Amazon devices worked with the following formats:

  • .mobi: It was a format created by a French company and adapted by Amazon to the Kindle, its main characteristic was its adaptability to different screen formats.
  • .azw: Amazon needed to protect books against copy so they released a modified version of .mobi that includes DRM and a high compression option. The following version of the format is based on Epub3 (A mix between a web page and a zip file) plus the signature DRM technology.
  • .kfx: It is the format currently used by Amazon readers. It is more difficult to remove the protection. On the other hand, it seems that it has better options for rendering the text.

Let's put the cards on the table. Removing protection from an Amazon book violates the terms of use. Although, there may be perfectly valid reasons for doing so that have nothing to do with the unauthorized sharing of content.

Personally, I'm not comfortable with the Cloud reader's accessibility options, and being visually impaired, it's not just about aesthetic preferences. Also, it could be argued whether this form of technological vassalage that gives Amazon power over how we use the products we buy is legal. But, that's another discussion.

The reality is that a protection that cannot be removed was not invented and we can choose three methods to do it.

  1. A plugin for Caliber.
  2. Shareware tools.
  3. Sequential screen capture script.

A plugin for Caliber

This method is free and uses open source programs. The problem is that Amazon knows it and the utility window of each new version of the plugin is very short.

Caliber It is a suite made up of three programs that I will talk about later. Suffice it to say it comes with:

  • A book collection manager with conversion functions.
  • An e-book publisher.
  • An e-book viewer.
  • We have to install Caliber from its website and have Kindle (either the reader or a tablet or phone that has the app installed) or the PC program. Here I have to make a clarification. At least I was unable to install the latest versions of the desktop reader with Wine. The recommendation is to get an older version that has the advantage of using the .azw format instead of .kfx. Azw is much easier to crack.

Anyway, you have to Download the plugin file and extract the folder FromDRM_plugin.zip. Next, open Caliber and click on the right side to reveal the additional buttons.

Then click on Preferences and go down to Advanced where will you find the button Accessories.

At the bottom right you have the option to load plugins from file. Choose FromDRM_plugin.zip.

Once installed you just have to press en Add book and go to the folder where the .kfx or .azw files are saved.

If you were lucky, the copy protection was removed.

In the next article I explain the other two methods

Actualización

After the publication of this post I found that Caliber includes a plugin to decrypt .kfx. I also develop it in the next article.


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