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GNU is Not Unix Open Source Hardware

FSF Prioritizes Creation of a Free-Software eBook Reader, Urges Avoiding DRM eBooks (fsf.org) 65

Posted by EditorDavid from the independence-day dept.
Since most ebook readers run some version of the kernel Linux (with some even run the GNU/Linux operating system), "This puts ebook readers a few steps closer to freedom than other devices," notes a recent call-to-action in the Free Software Foundation Bulletin.

But with e-ink screens and DRM-laden ebooks, "closing the gap will still require a significant amount of work." Accordingly, as we announced at the LibrePlanet 2021 conference, we've decided this year to prioritize facilitating the process for an ebook reader to reach the high standards of our Respects Your Freedom (RYF) hardware certification program, whether this means adapting an existing one from a manufacturer, or even contracting its production ourselves...

The free software community has made some good strides in the area of freeing ebooks. Denis "GNUToo" Carikli has composed a page on the LibrePlanet wiki documenting the components of ebook readers and other single-board computers; this has laid the groundwork for our investigation into releasing an ebook reader, and is one of the wiki's more active projects. Also, earlier in the year, a user on the libreplanet-discuss mailing list documented their project to port Parabola GNU/Linux to the reMarkable tablet, thereby creating a free ebook reader at the same time. It's steps like these that make us feel confident that we can bring an ebook reader that respects its user's freedom to the public, both in terms of hardware and the software that's shipped with the device...

If the FSF is successful in landing RYF certification on an ebook reader, which I fully believe we will be, we can ensure that users will have the ability to read digitally while retaining their freedom.

It's up to all of us to make sure we have the right to read, by avoiding ebook DRM in each and every case, and celebrating free (as in freedom) resources like Wikibooks and the Internet Archive, bridging the divide between the movement for free software and the movement for free culture, empowering both readers and computer users around the globe.
The article also warns that ebook DRM has gotten more restrictive over the years. "It's common for textbooks to now require a constant and uninterrupted Internet connection, and that they load only a discrete number of pages at a time... Even libraries fell victim to 'lending' services like Canopy, putting an artificial lock on digital copies of books, the last place it makes sense for them to be."
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FSF Prioritizes Creation of a Free-Software eBook Reader, Urges Avoiding DRM eBooks More

FSF Prioritizes Creation of a Free-Software eBook Reader, Urges Avoiding DRM eBooks

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  • I once was working on a Pi Zero of this (Score:5, Interesting)

    by WinterSolstice ( 223271 ) on Saturday July 03, 2021 @05:42PM (#61548250)

    I once was working on a project to use a Pi Zero and Debian with the Pi 7" touch screen to make a little reader - not bad, but I got stuck when I needed to get a 3D printed case made.
    I currently do all of my ebook reading (and that's a LOT of reading) via only DRM-free platforms and read them on my little lenovo android tablet.
    Doesn't solve the textbook issue obviously, though stuff like OpenStax is a step in the right direction.

    I hope FSF has success in this area.

    • but I got stuck when I needed to get a 3D printed case made

      Fimo. [wikipedia.org]

    • not bad, but I got stuck when I needed to get a 3D printed case made.

      Try your local makerspace or hackerspace, they'll have 3D printers. Also, in the last 7 years, they have got a LOT better. They used to require a lot of care, feeding and calibration. The new one just kinda work.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by caseih ( 160668 )

        It's kind of a golden era for low-cost FDM 3d printers that work quite well out of the box. With just minimal calibration (adjusting the bed leveling knobs) I've had pretty good success with a $300 Ender 3. I regularly use it to make little enclosures for electronics and mounting brackets. 3D printing is easy. It's learning 3D CAD and the design process that takes time and effort. Despite its many quirks FreeCAD works very well for me. There are lots of enclosures for common electronics on thingiverse,

        • 3D printers have a lot opportunity for improvements, especially after last March where Stratasys's patent on keeping stepper motors and other stuff out of heated chambers expired. There are a lot of good, inexpensive printers out there. Creality comes to mind, as they have a great community. If one wants to pony up a little bit more, there is Prusa which is the good standard for the normal size "bedslinger" printers, and their MINI+ is a very good printer to start off with.

          Slicing, or turning a 3D model

          • I do a little 3D printing, mostly enclosures for electronics. I've always used OpenSCAD [openscad.org], which uses text entry and operates on the constructive solid geometry paradigm. This works incredibly well for me, since I am far more familiar with 3D geometry and programming than with mechanical CAD.

            • This. If you can program, OpenSCAD is the way to go. Poking a gui is the least efficient way to build a 3D shape and is utterly hopeless at parameterized models.

            • Yeah so I came from OpenSCAD and I prefer it. I do like to think that way, though one too many Minkowski sums and it's all over. Especially with curved surfaces since you need high detail geometry and they get slooww. It's much more intuitive for, say, making a tight enclosure to make the part and then do the sum than just about anything else.

              With that said...

              You can't program FreeCAD as much, but you can do fairly extensive parametrism, e.g. using the spreadsheet module. Fillets and chamfers are much easie

        • Despite its many quirks FreeCAD works very well for me.

          It is (was?) a bit crashy and slow, particularly with the parametric CAD stuff. I might have been doing it wrong though. You can have calculations either in a dimension box or of course in the inbuilt spreadsheet. I went for a mix. Anything simple, like dividing by two, finding a midpoint or a simple offset went in the dimension box, everything else went in the sheet (that was my general rule). I did find things started to get pretty slow after a while

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by caseih ( 160668 )

            It is still crashy and slow and some things are awkward. Once they have a solution for the feature naming problem it will get a lot better. Right now if you draw sketches on geometry faces, the slightest change up the chain can cause the names of the faces to change and then your sketch ends up on the wrong face or just not connected to a face at all, and everything breaks. Kind of defeats the purpose of parametric cad when you the linking is so fragile.

            I've used OpenSCAD and it appeals to me. But I'm mu

    • Plain HTML (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Spazmania ( 174582 ) on Sunday July 04, 2021 @02:18AM (#61548878) Homepage

      I convert all of my ebooks to HTML 2.0 and read them in any web browser, even ancient or text-only ones. The text is easy to read, the scroll bar works reasonably, and best of all I can read books the same way I read web sites without this fake virtual page flipping.

  • I hope they make one that can view textbook pages in full size. I'm tired of scrolling PDFs on my E-readers.

    • Re:I hope they make one that can view textbooks (Score:4, Informative)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Saturday July 03, 2021 @07:04PM (#61548364)

      My experience is that pdf files are terrible for reading on smaller screens. Markup files like mobi and epub render much nicer. On my old Kindle at least.

    • The Kobo Elipsa should be good. It's a 10.3 inch screen, which I feel would be large enough for textbook pages.

      https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/20/22444637/kobo-elipsa-e-reader-giant-screen-price-release-date-stylus

    • There have been several ~letter size e-ink readers but all of them have been madly expensive. "All" I want is a basic reader device which can handle PDFs without getting owned that has either an A4 or letter page so that at least some of the stuff I read will fit properly, and enough CPU to not be excessively pathetic at rendering. I don't need any high speed mode, and I don't care if it can run any other software but a reader (which ideally would handle a good range of formats besides PDF, but I'm willing

      • Define "really expensive", please? Making a robust screen that large is awkward and damage prone, a niche market compared to the somewhat smaller readers. So a price of $300 does not seem shocking.

  • I have quite a few books on Kindle for the convenience of it, but I've always felt pretty bad about this.

    I would love a physical reader devoted to making a great reading experience for DRM free eBooks, with the hope it would be at least as good as a Kindle paper white if not better.

    Not sure how soon there would be a wide variety of eBooks you could actually read on it, but even if it was just PDFs I would find value in it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Because of the device, or the books?

      You can put DRM-free books on your kindle. You can even e-mail them to Amazon and they'll stick them on wirelessly for you.

      • You can put DRM-free books on your kindle.

        You can, but it's annoying to do so...

        I also just think the Kindle is not a good reader for PDF's, it's very optimized (as you'd expect) for reading Kindle books.

        An open hardware based reader, I'm hoping would be better designed to handle all kinds of PDFs - especially scanned ones. Not sure exactly in what ways I'd seek to improve it, but I feel sure with some thought an eReader with much better general PDF handling could be made.

        • Re:Device (Score:5, Informative)

          by caseih ( 160668 ) on Saturday July 03, 2021 @07:14PM (#61548384)

          I find e-mailing books from the wonderful Calibre program to my Kindle to be pretty painless. I can't remember the last time I plugged my Kindle into a computer and copied books onto them.

          Also it is possible to transparently remove DRM from books you've purchased inside of Calibre.

        • Re:Device (Score:4, Informative)

          by CaptQuark ( 2706165 ) on Sunday July 04, 2021 @01:30AM (#61548830)
          I've always found Calibre [calibre-ebook.com] to be a great tool for managing my ebooks. I prefer to save my DRM-free books in .epub format since it is just a zip file with HTML and CSS files inside. You can actually change the extension on an .epub book to .zip and open it to see the files inside. You can also edit the HTML files or update the CSS files to change the font, size, etc. Calibe helps with this but you can do all of this manually with just notepad.

          Calibre also acts as a book manager, helping you move books and PDFs onto and back off your eReader. You can also convert many other file formats into something your eReader works with. I've converted several Word files into files for my Kindle. I've also used the Save as PDF, and "Microsoft print to PDF" to convert other sources to PDF for my Kindle.

          --

          • That's all good advice, but unfortunately doesn't make reading most PDFs better. If a book is available only in PDF that usually means it's a image based PDF without any OCR processing already done; this means common converters like those found in Calibre won't work. Kindle devices are too weak to scroll around single pages of a PDF, too small to show the whole "page" while still being readable, and don't have a simple software solution to what would be a good workaround: viewing the page in landscape and

  • Solving the wrong problem? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Richard_at_work ( 517087 ) on Saturday July 03, 2021 @05:57PM (#61548274)

    So, the FSF admit that the “problem” they see is DRM on the content, so they strive forward and make a DRM-less *reader*?

    Without solving the content problem, which they will not do because it gives them more political ammunition to bitch and moan about it, this new reader is dead in the water. It almost feels as if its meant to fail, to give the FSF something to point to in order to support their own arguments about DRM.

    What the FSF should do is create a community to support the production of DRM-less content, actually solve the problem they are complaining about, instead of creating another reader thats not going anywhere.

    • There is plenty of drm free content. You can also strip drm easily from ebooks. But open hardware is as important as software

    • Without solving the content problem

      I agree that is a pretty big problem.

      Even though you can strip DRM from Kindle and other eBooks, that doesn't really get to the core thing they are trying to accomplish - get stores to sell more DRM free books.

      But obviously we've had no luck with the way things are, so maybe a really good hardware reader that only takes DRM free eBooks, could start to shift the smaller parts of the market to support DRM free books. It's worth trying anyway.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        But obviously we've had no luck with the way things are, so maybe a really good hardware reader that only takes DRM free eBooks, could start to shift the smaller parts of the market to support DRM free books. It's worth trying anyway.

        Is the reader hardware really an issue? I mean, I haven't looked at ebook readers in ages, mostly because I have dozens of devices that can read ebooks. And there are thousands on Alibaba that will read any DRM free ebook out there. Heck, I'm sure those companies will give you

        • Is the reader hardware really an issue?

          Having used a kindle paper white, yes.

          And there are thousands on Alibaba that will read any DRM free ebook out there.

          I think it's pretty safe to assume they are much crappier.

          Someone please point me to anything worth anything?

          The problem is a content problem.

          Great!! How do you solve that?

          I put forth the notion that nothing tried to date has helped even a little.

          Therefore something different is required. A well designed open hardware reader is different.

          If you have a

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        Hm... FSF vs. Amazon, competing for people who aren't bright enough to find Project Gutenberg on their own.

        Seems like a fair fight.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by HiThere ( 15173 )

          Well, Project Gutenberg doesn't carry anything still in copyright...so it's not just a matter of finding it. Much of the stuff I want won't be there. (So I have a large paper library.)

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

            Exactly. If you're a publisher, are you going to go with Amazon, with DRM and a massive customer base who's used to paying for things, or with the FSF's no-DRM option?

            • Kindle books dont have to have DRM - you can choose not to enable DRM on your books as a publisher if you so wish.

              There is no way the FSF will win this fight, but thats not what they want to do, they just want to be heard again and this is their way of doing that.

    • My thoughts exactly. With DRM-free content, I can enjoy it on whatever platform I prefer. Without DRM-free content, a DRM-free reader is useless. You must solve the content problem first.

      And before anyone says you need the DRM-free reader to generate demand for DRM-free content: you don’t. All you need is an incompatible reader/system, of which there are many already (e.g. Kindle devices can’t read iBooks and vice versa, etc.) since none of them are compatible with the others. If I could take my

    • I think what Richard_at_work is trying to say is the issue of copyrights and DRM is a pervasive one. Instituting a DRM-free device (open software and hardware) would be hard in this climate. Companies like Amazon and B&N are too greedy.

      Enforcing DRM is not unlike the side issues that come up with royalties paid to artists so streaming services may play their songs. On places like Spotify, the royalties system is largely inequitable except for the most prolific artists. Those side issues can include the

    • Agreed. But I think the problem is the publishers; they are the ones insisting on DRM. Authors sign contracts stipulating DRM without understanding the ramifications, then years later when they become successful, there is nothing they can do about it (other than buying out each book, an expensive exercise). J.K. Rowling is one of the few authors who excluded ebooks from her contract.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luthair ( 847766 )
      I think FSF has repeatedly shown that that are true believers and you shouldn't really have high expectations on logic.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by HiThere ( 15173 )

        Whether this action is logical or not depends on your priors. So I wouldn't call this illogical. Unlikely to be a commercial success, yes, but that's not high on their list of priorities.

    • Yes. (Score:3)

      by Moskit ( 32486 )

      Exactly, while a good inititiative, it doesn't take into account that hardware is a minor part of the problem. Existing readers can be (at least currently) used for reading non-DRM ebooks.

      A larger problem is that the publishers and market platforms enforce DRM.

      There are successfull markets (check Poland) where no major store sells DRM ebooks anymore (only water-marked EPUB) and private sharing with friends & family is legal (as for paper copies). Thanks to competition prices have been brought down makin

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Open source tools to strip DRM from eBooks are readily available.

      The FSF should aim for something more valuable - automatically generated audiobooks. Instead of paying someone to read the book (expensive for good actors) we could use AI to automatically do it. Maybe at first the AI would be a first pass, like OCR where a human needs to make some corrections later.

      That would also spur development of really high quality voice synthesis software. Combined any text could be turned into a high quality audiobook,

  • The excellent FBReader was open source but went closed a while back. They should be able to dig that up and fork (I can see the older version, still on Github, is GPL: https://github.com/geometer/FB... [github.com])

  • No DRM? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by trparky ( 846769 ) on Saturday July 03, 2021 @06:31PM (#61548318) Homepage
    No DRM? Good luck with that. As long as there are cheapskates and/or just plain assholes that don't want to pay, there will always be a need for DRM.

    Do I like it? Oh, hell no! But I also understand why we need it. It's a necessary evil.

    • The dishonest stay dishonest, and the honest get screwed over or just say "fuck it" and download "bookz". And some will download bookz just to 'stick it to the man'.

      It's a losing game, especially for the content providers.

      • To those content creators that want to make a living practicing their art it is. For those that want to create without distribution, while working another job that piracy can't touch, there is also no problem. For those on the other end of this wondering where's the content, there's a lot of problem. Either they do without, or become the very person they abused. Karma indeed.

        • I guess the RIAA/MPAA are fine upstanding people who should be emulated by the book publishing community.

          I'm sure no one has ever complained about those media entities on Slashdot.

    • Re:No DRM? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Ostracus ( 1354233 ) on Saturday July 03, 2021 @10:04PM (#61548608) Journal

      Indeed, plus there's already a couple solutions already out there. One is the patreon model. The other is kickstarter. Two ways of ensuring the creator gets paid, and the readers get something to keep and enjoy.

    • "As long as there are cheapskates and/or just plain assholes that don't want to pay, there will always be a need for DRM. "

      How may of the "cheapskates and/or just plain assholes that don't want to pay" actually pay when digital restrictions management is applied vs. the costs that digital restrictions management imposes on those who would have paid anyway?

      If someone who was never going to pay gets an unpaid copy you haven't actually lost any revenue. If someone who would have paid for a copy with no restric

  • from Kindle format to whatever the new format is. Having to source original work in the new format is going to be too much trouble, at least in the short term.

  • BOOX reader? (Score:3)

    by mattr ( 78516 ) <mattr@te l e b o d y.com> on Saturday July 03, 2021 @08:31PM (#61548484) Homepage Journal

    I haven't bought one yet but they have a 10.3 inch reader. My impression is the FSF wants to create a reader+bookstore libre ecosystem, though it might be more useful to initiate a program like getting publishers to insert a link in the book that you can use to download a DRM-free version. By promoting the concept that if you pay for a physical book then you can add it to your digital library, it would have impact on several fronts. For example I binge read Kindle Unlimited especially during Covid. I was looking for a certain book I had read before and could have found it easily if I could only grep a few words I remembered from an awesome scene. Instead I had to look through the 3 years of history the iPhone app provides, then when that failed I started re-reading them. In the end I found it, though I didn't know for sure I had found the right series until I found the phrase 5 books into it. This is just super dumb. I'm willing to pay authors. What I really would like is to pay some amount, could even be $1000 I don't care, to get full access to a super huge database of books in both raw searchable text and display formatted versions, that can be used with open tools like Calibre for moving to different devices. The Kindle is nice especially for instant gratification and finding books in genres you read. But it is not perfect and I do not at all like having my library be subject to the whim of a cloud provider of questionable ethics. There should be a way for libraries to be libraries in the digital age, and for individuals to possess a personal library that is not stuck in some company's cloud server with the potential for being deleted by them. These are the areas I would like to see the FSF work on.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fleabay ( 876971 )

      I was looking for a certain book I had read before and could have found it easily if I could only grep a few words I remembered from an awesome scene. Instead I had to look through the 3 years of history the iPhone app provides, then when that failed I started re-reading them. In the end I found it, though I didn't know for sure I had found the right series until I found the phrase 5 books into it.

      This is just super dumb.

      Yep.

  • "Accordingly, as we announced at the LibrePlanet 2021 conference, we've decided this year to prioritize facilitating the process for an ebook reader to reach the high standards of our Respects Your Freedom (RYF) hardware certification program, whether this means adapting an existing one from a manufacturer, or even contracting its production ourselves...

    If the FSF is successful in landing RYF certification on an ebook reader, which I fully believe we will be, we can ensure that users will have the ability to read digitally while retaining their freedom."

    Will the FSF somehow manage to make an FSF-sponsored e-reader which is able to attain an FSF-created certification? I'm on pins and needles until we find out!

  • Sumatra reader works well with books in pdf, epub, and mobi. Free as in beer. Windows only, unfortunately. There are occasions, though, when particularly nasty pdfs require Adobe Reader to disentangle things.

    There are a couple of epub readers in Linux now. They work, within their realm. The default pdf reader in Mint (MATE) isn't horrible. But they suffer from the same problem as Sumatra - the files have to be DRM-free. Amazon, for instance, locks things up pretty well, so you need their Kindle reader.

    I'm q

  • Calibre is but one example but there are others. So it doesn't need FSF sticking their oar in and besides that they have rendered themselves toxic so probably best they don't involve themselves with anything really.

    But if an untainted rights org, e.g. EFF wants to do something useful, they should design a digital ownership system that imbues digital property with the same rights as physical property - the right to loan, sell, give or destroy a digital product by means of a token and then lobby governments

  • Epub.js is an open source Javascript library that allows any web page to render Epub documents on any device with a modern browser. http://futurepress.org/ [futurepress.org] https://github.com/futurepress... [github.com]
  • FSF should start a kickstarted for the DRM-free ebook reader. I'd kick in a few bucks.

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