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How to crack ebooks
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how_to_crack_ebooks.md

How to crack ebooks on Linux

If you made the mistake of buying Kindle ebooks and you don't have an iPad or a Kindle to read them on, or if you decided to buy ebooks off a third party reseller and realised they aren't epubs but some bullshit "Adobe DRM" file, this guide is for you.

Adobe DRM

If you have an (unopened) Adobe DRM ebook, forget DeDRM and similar tools, the only tool you should use is knock. Install it by following the instructions or using pre-made packages (the AUR has knock-bin).

$ knock book.acsm  # generates book.epub or book.pdf

Magic.

Kindle

All the guides for this method are way too long and weird, so I'll just provide steps which likely always work. They involve installing Windows on a VM so don't complain too much if you'll be downloading 6GB worth of software to crack a 300kb file. Of course, if you already have a Windows setup you should skip the first two steps.

Don't try to be smart and think of installing the required software in a Wine bottle instead, it will be a huge waste of time and it won't be guaranteed to always work.

  1. Download a Windows 10 ISO from the Microsoft Website
  2. Install it and activate it (😉)

All of the following steps are to be executed inside the VM.

  1. Install Calibre
  2. Grab the latest release of DeDRM tools and install the Calibre plugin (you need to install the .zip plugin as a file from Calibre's plugin settings)
  3. Download Kindle for Windows 1.17
  4. Disconnect your computer from the internet
  5. Open the Kindle app
  6. In the settings, prevent it from updating automatically, although because Amazon people are not pleasant it might still update on its own.
  7. Connect to the internet again
  8. Activate the Kindle app with your account.
  9. Download the books you want to crack
  10. Find the .azw files in the Documents\My Kindle Content folder
  11. Add them to your Calibre library
  12. Open them with Calibre, you should be able to read them
  13. Convert them to EPUB and share them to your Linux host the way you prefer. If you can't be bothered to set up shared folders you can use a cloud provider or your email or whatever.

It is possible that the next time you open the Kindle app it might get upgraded. Make sure to downgrade it before doing anything.

Where should I buy my ebooks?

Given how easy it is to crack Adobe DRM and how annoying it is to crack Kindle DRM, and how impossible it is to crack Apple's DRM, if "no DRM" isn't an option (it often isn't), follow these tips:

  • Wherever you're buying books from, check the DRM section in the listing.
  • Buy from smaller vendors, publishing companies etc., as they'll usually use either no DRM or Adobe's
  • Buy from popular country-specific websites e.g. buecher.de, ibs.it, casadellibro.com as they often offer books with Adobe DRM.
  • Kobo books provide an Adobe DRM option (untested).
  • Whatever you crack, make sure that you keep a copy in whichever cloud share you like to use.
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