This is reproduced without permission from http://www.onlinereporter.com because the only URL to the story looks like it's one that will decay, and I wanted to be able to read this story more than once...
From:Ruslan@AudioBooksForFree.Com Sent:30 September 2002
Last Thursday, I had, as managing director of AudioBooksFor Free.Com, a top-level meeting with WHSmith Online management, the big bookseller.
Among other things, I expressed my very strong belief that so-called "copyright-protected" formats are impossible in principle and that in reality all "copyright-protected formats" are just another way that unscrupulous software companies and programmers are milking gullible media industry executives. It is the same as it was with the so- called "millennium bug."
I was immediately challenged by one of WHSmith's directors "to break" Microsoft Reader, which is the copy- protected format that WHSmith adopted for their e-books.
No one on my team has any experience with e-books. None have any knowledge of e-book formats or e-book encryption.
Three hours later we sent WHSmith one of their top e-books now totally unprotected.
It took us just 30 minutes to work out how to do it without any hacking or programming. We did it using ordinary, widely available free tools.
All you need is screen-capture software or the [PrintScreen] key to capture each page of the e-book to a graphic file.
We used a free demo version of HyperSnap-DX4 from www.hyperrionics.com to capture all of the pages automatically, but it could also have been done simply with the [PrintScreen] key of your keyboard.
After that you could have read the unprotected copy of this e-book, e-mailed it or posted it on bulletin boards or WebPages.
The size and quality will be comparable to the original.
If, for some reasons, you also wanted to convert the book into text (or Word, Adobe Reader or Microsoft Reader formats), you would just need to run those graphic files through a good OCR (optical character recognition program),. e.g. OmniPage Pro from www.scansoft.com.
Anyone without any knowledge of programming could have done it easily. I agree that the Microsoft Reader file is well protected, but not the file contents.
We did not break the Microsoft Reader file protection. We just copied the contents of the e-book from its well- protected file.
Initially, I thought absolutely nothing about this challenge. I was just happy to prove my point that "protected formats" are theoretically impossible.
But the next day my PR specialist looked into past news related to MS-Reader protection and to our great surprise we seem to have accomplished something "spectacular."
Several months ago there was news that some unknown programmer, "hiding" somewhere in USA, declared and demonstrated that he had designed an algorithm to break MS-Reader protection, but refused to tell anyone and promised never to use this "knowledge."
This "news" was reprinted by an astonishing number of reporters around the world and produced lots and lots of comments and interviews.
So now I'm wondering how we should exploit our "breakthrough" to our PR advantage and promote audiobooksforfree.com and what is most important to me, my strong view on "copyright" in this digital millennium:
Reliably "protected format" files, e-books, music, films, audio books, etc. is possible and relatively easy. But, at some stage, unavoidably, you need to allow users to listen/read/watch the entertaining contents of those files.
And that is where your very sophisticated, unbreakable protection ENDS.
If it plays, it can be redirected back to the sound card.
If it on your screen it can be captured as we did with the Microsoft Reader file.
If it's film, it can be recorded by the video card.
If it's not a file but a stream or web cast, then you can always use one of the many "StreamRippers" programs to save it to a file on the PC.
Let us not kid ourselves. You do not need to be a programmer or even a sophisticated user to copy anything.
Anyone can do it. ALWAYS. From now on and FOREVER.
So the task for media company executives is not how to stop them all. The task is how to operate in the new digital environment that has an Ocean of Opportunities as well as many new but often bitter realities.
Best Regards Ruslan G. Fedorovsky, Director AudioBooksForFree.Com PLC
When contacted for a response, Microsoft's PR firm responded, "Thank you for calling us with your story about the MS Reader. At this time, we are choosing not to participate in this particular opportunity, but wish you well." ...