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Converting Audible (.aa) Files: No Searching Involved
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ddintv
Newbie
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3. June 2008 @ 17:58 |
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As Leo Laporte always says, copy protection only helps the bad guys, who already know how to break the DRM anyway. All of us honest folks get screwed.
Here's a workaround I devised:
I installed the latest version of Audible Manager on my home PC. That will be the machine I'll use to download files from Audible. My laptop does not have Audible Manager installed on it - that is the machine I will use for file conversion. I've installed the Audible file filter that UT provided in his kit on my laptop.
I downloaded some Audible files on my home PC, dropped them to my thumb drive, and then loaded them on my laptop. Since Audible Manager is not installed on the laptop, the files aren't "restricted" there. I can then use the software of my choice (Goldwave, MelodyCan, etc) to convert the files on the laptop. It's kind of a pain not having Audible Manager on the laptop (especially if I buy an audiobook while I'm on the go), but it's a workable solution for anyone who has more than one PC. Otherwise, you're installing and uninstalling Audible manager, which can probably be rough on your hard drive and registry.
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rccbliv
Newbie
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12. June 2008 @ 14:48 |
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This "kit" that linkvoid is offering is full of trojan viruses, just a heads up.
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olyteddy
Senior Member
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13. June 2008 @ 00:01 |
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Or you can use Total Recorder as I suggested in the fourth post in this thread...
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ddintv
Newbie
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20. June 2008 @ 18:19 |
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Tunebite is another good program if you don't mind recording your Audible material in real time. Unfortunately, that's the problem. If you have, say, a 7-hour audiobook, then you need to set aside 7 hours where your computer can record the book (I guess it can be done overnight). I, however, prefer the programs which convert the material to standard MP3 in a fraction of the time - say a program which encodes at 24X or higher.
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olyteddy
Senior Member
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21. June 2008 @ 00:56 |
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Originally posted by ddintv:
Tunebite is another good program if you don't mind recording your Audible material in real time. Unfortunately, that's the problem. If you have, say, a 7-hour audiobook, then you need to set aside 7 hours where your computer can record the book (I guess it can be done overnight). I, however, prefer the programs which convert the material to standard MP3 in a fraction of the time - say a program which encodes at 24X or higher.
It's usually the encoding speed that slows things down. My laptop runs about 8X using LAME at a high bitrate VBR setting, up to about 20X for 22 KHz 64 Kb mono CBR (my audiobooks profile).
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ddintv
Newbie
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21. June 2008 @ 01:19 |
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If I leave my laptop alone, I can usually encode a 7-hour audiobook in about an hour using MelodyCan. The trick is to move the .aa file to a computer that doesn't have Audible Manager installed. I'll download the file on my home PC (which has Audible Manager installed), drop it to a thumb drive, then load it onto my laptop (which doesn't have AM installed).
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jangell2
Newbie
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21. June 2008 @ 09:57 |
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Does anyone know if you can have two audible accounts on one computer and download with either of them?
johnny
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audibler
Newbie
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23. June 2008 @ 05:50 |
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Hi!
Anybody who wants an Audible book without DRM, in plain MP3, mail me your login name (not password!) and the book's URL. I'll reply with a download link. The MP3s will be the same size as original book, ID3-tagged, no transcoding, one file per chapter - will play in ANY player, no DRM, no watermarks. I'm the one who cracked the protection. :)
It doesn't cost you anything, you just download from an anonymous upload service of your choice (can be Sendspace, 4Shared, RapidShare, MegaUpload, whatever). It's perfectly safe - you don't provide any personal info, no passwords, nothing against the rules. Everything in confidence via anonymous email.
You still have to buy your books as usual, of course - this is about Fair Use, not stealing. But when you do, you will really own them. Just when we're done, please, at least drop a line back here so everybody can see that it works!
What's in it for me, you ask? I upload free MP3, I keep a copy -- we both benefit. :)
PS: Other, less practical/more paranoid, way is to download AA files yourself, zip, upload to SendSpace.com or similar (not RapidShare!) and mail me URL of that upload. This way, you don't have to provide any info about you and it's completely anonymous. Although it means download+upload+download for you, instead of just one download, those files are quite small and you can check my genuineness safely. :)
See you!
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jangell2
Newbie
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23. June 2008 @ 09:44 |
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I believe your offer would be copyright infringement. There will be another person with copy of the book that was not paid for. I'm converting to mp3 for convenience and not to distribute to others.
johnny
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audibler
Newbie
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23. June 2008 @ 12:17 |
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One more thing -- I can also help those of you who unsubscribed from Audible and were left with unusable AA files. Just upload your collection somewhere and mail me.
I don't insist on anonymous upload services; with their arbitrary download limitations and stuff, they are the least preferable option, actually, so if you wish to use something else (e.g. Usenet, FTP, WebDAV, etc) we can do that. The only exception being P2P - too slow, too messy, too much work: not supported. :)
Audible content is great because it's very space efficient, they really got the file size to minimum. That's why I believe people will be interested in this, even without expired memberships. Converted files are water-marked (i.e. traceable), huge, worse quality and it takes a lot of time. Not to mention the chapter boundaries, meta-data and cover art are all lost in the process. It's a pain in the ass.
PS: I was thinking about the online storage and Usenet would be the best option, probably. We could, in private, pick up one of the unused groups and use it to share our stuff. Just an idea, you can safely ignore it. :) Plus, most people don't have Usenet access, so it wouldn't work anyway.
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jangell2
Newbie
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23. June 2008 @ 12:31 |
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Originally posted by audibler:
One more thing -- I can also help those of you who unsubscribed from Audible and were left with unusable AA files.
You are too much. Even if you no longer are a subscriber, your downloads remain in your library and you can download them again and you can put them on the device you chose. We don't need your help to do this.
What you are proposing is copyright infringement...it's stealing.
johnny
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audibler
Newbie
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23. June 2008 @ 13:24 |
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Originally posted by jangell2:
I believe your offer would be copyright infringement. There will be another person with copy of the book that was not paid for. I'm converting to mp3 for convenience and not to distribute to others.
Copyright infringement is something else. Like if you wrote a book and then I would steal and publish it, saying I wrote it. What I was talking about is the electronic equivalent of borrowing a book (and possibly scanning a copy) -- commonplace like 10 years ago. This is the exact same thing, although our corporate lobby-driven "digital millennium governments" would like to have us believe otherwise.
I'm not pushing anybody, don't get me wrong. I've helped two friends of mine, who had almost a grand invested in a useless pile of AA files after they unsubscribed. That wasn't fair. We pay for a book and we can do whatever we want with it - even lend it. It's ours. We pay the same amount of money for an electronic version and we may not even decide how to use it? It's rented for a limited time -- while you keep paying. Audible situation isn't wholly about the law, it's their Terms we have to accept to get in. Anti-circumvent-DRM laws just give them the ammo. I don't like it and I won't stand for it.
I strip my AA files as soon as I download, because once I've bought them, I have the right to listen to them on the operating system / player of MY choice. That's all there is to it. For me, that is.
I accept your position, even thought I don't share your enthusiasm. :) You are doing the same thing, circumventing their protection. It doesn't matter if you just keep one copy on your drive privately, or if you do it for somebody else. Either way, it's against the accepted Digital Rights Management rules of the publisher and consequently, the DMCA act.
I do not wish to start a flame here, each of us has a different point of view and means to get what we want -- I'm OK with leaving it that way. Anyway, thank you for your contribution, seriously.
See you around
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audibler
Newbie
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23. June 2008 @ 13:45 |
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Originally posted by jangell2:
You are too much. Even if you no longer are a subscriber, your downloads remain in your library and you can download them again and you can put them on the device you chose. We don't need your help to do this.
Unfortunately, not true. Once you stop paying you've got like a month or two to say bye or start paying up. After that period, your library and online authorizations are gone. I mean, you obviously don't know what you're talking about, both Audible policy and what constitutes a copyright infringement, that's why I'm explaining. I could even quote their emails to support this fact, but as I said, I do not wish to start a quarrel. Better stop now.
Good luck with your way of circumventing the protection. :) Still, one has to wonder why would need to do such a thing when "you can put them /AA files/ on the device you /legally/ chose". :)
Bye
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bratcher
Senior Member
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23. June 2008 @ 13:50 |
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Originally posted by audibler:
Audible content is great because it's very space efficient, they really got the file size to minimum. That's why I believe people will be interested in this, even without expired memberships. Converted files are water-marked (i.e. traceable), huge, worse quality and it takes a lot of time. Not to mention the chapter boundaries, meta-data and cover art are all lost in the process. It's a pain in the ass.
How are the files watermarked & maybe traceable? I wonder if the watermarking still exists if the books are burned into audio CD's with Nero Burning Rom?
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audibler
Newbie
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23. June 2008 @ 14:14 |
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Originally posted by jangell2:
BTW, is the a good and free program to do a batch rename of files?
The best one and the most universal is 'rename'. It's a tiny Perl script,
which allows you to apply arbitrary regular expression(s) to selected files.
You can download it here.
You'll also need Active Perl installed, the most basic installation will suffice.
It's a free download [15MB], registration not required.
You'll have to know the basics of regex matching. Here's an example how to use it:
c:\> rename.pl 's/^(\d+)\./$1 - /' *.*
This will rename any file beginning with digits and a dot ("10. Song A") to digits-hyphen ("10 - Song A"). There is no limit to what you can do with regular expressions. You can mix, add, remove, etc any part of the name and transform it completely beyond recognition. :) On the other hand, not many programmers know regular expressions. Only the really good ones. :)
You can try this neat guide for beginners on the Windows platform or the official documentation (multiplatform).
Not many people are willing to acquire new skills. You might settle for less universal solution in a shiny GUI package, but take it from the hardcore system programmer that it doesn't get more powerful than regular expressions.
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jangell2
Newbie
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23. June 2008 @ 14:23 |
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Originally posted by audibler:
Originally posted by jangell2:
You are too much. Even if you no longer are a subscriber, your downloads remain in your library and you can download them again and you can put them on the device you chose. We don't need your help to do this.
Unfortunately, not true. Once you stop paying you've got like a month or two to say bye or start paying up. After that period, your library and online authorizations are gone.
You are so full of it. I have been a member, purchased several books, and than stopped subscribing. A year later my books are still there for me to download again and I don't have to subscribe.
From an audible faq Quote:
If I cancel my membership, will I lose access to my online library?
No, when you choose to cancel your membership, you will not lose access to your online library. You may login to your account at anytime and access your Audible content.
You need to get your facts straight. Am I curcumventing audible drm, yeah I guess so. But I'm not putting my hand in their pocket and taking money from them. You are not borrowing a book. The person who sent the book to you still has it, and now you have a copy. Only one was paid for and it's not yours.
johnny
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audibler
Newbie
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23. June 2008 @ 14:31 |
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Originally posted by bratcher:
How are the files watermarked & maybe traceable? I wonder if the watermarking still exists if the books are burned into audio CD's with Nero Burning Rom?
Well, I didn't spent much time on it, my main goal was to find out how to reverse the DRM, because watermarking would then be out of the picture too. Still, even thought I can't tell you which algorithm they're using or how much the watermark will survive, I know that any audio coming from the driver is periodically watermarked. It's part of the decoding chain. Any audio produced. Be it "played" by Goldwave or burnt on the CD, it comes from the primary watermarking driver DLL. :(
Try searching their DDL's for the word "watermark" (case insensitive). What you'll find are the remnants of the compiled class called CWatermark -- or similar, don't remember exactly, it's been over a year. In case they've since removed all the debugging symbols from their libraries I can supply those I've worked on, where it's visible without any reverse engineering kung-fu, by plain hex editor. :)
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ddintv
Newbie
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24. June 2008 @ 02:03 |
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This has become an interesting discussion.
On one hand, I totally agree that, once you purchase an audio book from Audible, it should be yours with no restrictions. You should be able to convert it to any audio format you choose, and play it on any device of your choice, whether it is supported by Audible or not.
On the other hand, however, I think there is an issue with making a copy of the file for a second party. Granted, Audibler makes some good points, but let's be honest....when's the last time you Zeroxed an entire book for someone else?
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audibler
Newbie
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24. June 2008 @ 08:15 |
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Originally posted by ddintv:
This has become an interesting discussion.
On one hand, I totally agree that, once you purchase an audio book from Audible, it should be yours with no restrictions. You should be able to convert it to any audio format you choose, and play it on any device of your choice, whether it is supported by Audible or not.
On the other hand, however, I think there is an issue with making a copy of the file for a second party. Granted, Audibler makes some good points, but let's be honest....when's the last time you Zeroxed an entire book for someone else?
You're right, I didn't for at least 10 years. It's so much work that buying the book is easier. :) This, on the other hand, is extremely easy. If I sum up actual work without upload/download waiting, it doesn't take me more than a minute. Now that's fast. :) Of course, there was a huge amount of work involved before -- the crack took me 14 days and some of those days were quite long, if you know what I mean.
When I was finished I considered publishing the tool. It runs on any platform and even a child could use it. BUT once its use became widespread, Audible would notice. That would possibly mean legal trouble for me (remember Adobe?) and inevitable change of DRM - all work would be ruined. Basically everybody who hadn't any interest in it, suggested that I don't do it. So I didn't. It's my work and my know-how of a lifetime programmer and ethical hacker, who just tries to protect himself. I don't think it makes me the bad guy, as somebody said here before. I do everything for free. All my other works and applications are free (as in free speech and free beer) and I'm a full-time programmer. I believe in general freedom - free speech, free culture and free software - and I live accordingly. My free code isn't just in Linux, it's even in Windows and all of you use it daily.
I wanted to point out the huge difference between me and the previous speaker. I don't go around BT trackers pirating movies and music and stuff -- he does. I create, he only consumes. I fight DRM because of ethical reasons. He doesn't stand for anything but himself. He steals content off P2P daily, yet here he stands calling my thing stealing. How absurd is that? The reason is he's too envious and pissed off to see, poor angry simpleton...
DRM is the same evil as software patents and even copyright law in its current form. Unfortunately, providing people with anti-DRM tools doesn't solve anything. It only makes things worse. I offer a free service, because I cannot trust anyone of you with the tool -- not yet. I hope you understand. Free information exchange is our inseparable right. Don't let anybody tell you any different!
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jangell2
Newbie
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24. June 2008 @ 08:51 |
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Originally posted by audibler:
I wanted to point out the huge difference between me and the previous speaker.
Question: who is the previous speaker?
johnny
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audibler
Newbie
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24. June 2008 @ 12:57 |
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I forgot to include my email! It's audible at hush dot com. Pleease, don't spam me... :o)
Originally posted by jangell2:
Originally posted by audibler:
I wanted to point out the huge difference between me and the previous speaker.
Question: who is the previous speaker?
Hey! Did you try rename.pl? It's worth it. I can show you how -- paste here a few file names and for each, how you wish to rename it. I'll show you a command for each transformation...
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ut1880h
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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25. June 2008 @ 06:21 |
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A better batch file renamer is "RenameMaster" - hands down.. Google it or dl from RenameMaster installer
Also, I'm still a member of Audible.com and converting their newest to mp3 in spite of my rant a couple weeks ago. I just have to do the conversions a little different now - with one pc for downloading from them using their newest AudibleManager and another pc (on my network) using Goldwave and an older version of AM with the older WMF filter. Works great. I just dl the book to a shared folder on the first pc, then open it and convert it to mp3 using the other one. I can listen to the aa from either pc if I want and download the mp3 to my sukass Sansa e260 mp3-player that Audible doesn't support. [BTW - if you're ever thinking of buying any SanDisk stuff you better do some research. They have some very "interesting" issues with the e200 series.]
Again - "RenameMaster"! You won't be sorry about that suggestion. Also, "Tag & Rename" is the best tag batch editor I've ever tried - and I've tried many. The file renamer isn't as powerfull and user friendly as RenameMaster but the tag editor is SUPERB!
Oh - ya gotta check out the parts 1-4 TTC (The Teaching Company) collection here. At the linked site, click one of the "TTC part x" links - it shows a list of what all is included in that part. That's 87 Gigabytes if you dl'd all four parts! And 87Gb of mp3 no less! I guess that'd take ya a while to listen to :-) ... Well... at the 44000Hz 96kb/s mono settings that most of it is recorded in, it's almost 3 months of non-stop 24 hrs/day :-)
ut
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 25. June 2008 @ 06:46
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bratcher
Senior Member
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25. June 2008 @ 15:20 |
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Originally posted by audibler:
Originally posted by bratcher:
How are the files watermarked & maybe traceable? I wonder if the watermarking still exists if the books are burned into audio CD's with Nero Burning Rom?
Well, I didn't spent much time on it, my main goal was to find out how to reverse the DRM, because watermarking would then be out of the picture too. Still, even thought I can't tell you which algorithm they're using or how much the watermark will survive, I know that any audio coming from the driver is periodically watermarked. It's part of the decoding chain. Any audio produced. Be it "played" by Goldwave or burnt on the CD, it comes from the primary watermarking driver DLL. :(
Try searching their DDL's for the word "watermark" (case insensitive). What you'll find are the remnants of the compiled class called CWatermark -- or similar, don't remember exactly, it's been over a year. In case they've since removed all the debugging symbols from their libraries I can supply those I've worked on, where it's visible without any reverse engineering kung-fu, by plain hex editor. :)
But what is the actual watermark? The file owners user ID? Or something else? In other words how can an Audible be tracked once it's converted to mp3 format or audio CD's?
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audibler
Newbie
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26. June 2008 @ 09:48 |
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Originally posted by ut1880h:
A better batch file renamer is "RenameMaster" - hands down...
But you really don't have a clue, do you. You never used rename.pl and you don't know what regular expressions are. There is literally no limit to how you can transform text using regual expressions. Why? Because regular expressions are a full-featured programming language. What you present here is the compromise I was talking about - you lose practically all the functionality, but get a pretty GUI interface. Rename Master is not even compromise, it so debilitatingly primitive that I can without fear of wrongdoing say: the worse piece of shit is "RenameMaster" - hands down...
I ROFL knowing how absolutely incomprehensible this probably is for you. Rename.pl is a text file, effectively 40 lines long, whereas RenameMaster is a big-assed application with an installer. Yet, rename.pl is limited only by the potential of your mind and RenameMaster can only do a few fixed manipulations somebody else thought of when (wasting time) programming it. :))
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audibler
Newbie
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26. June 2008 @ 09:51 |
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Originally posted by bratcher:
But what is the actual watermark? The file owners user ID? Or something else? In other words how can an Audible be tracked once it's converted to mp3 format or audio CD's?
Audible origin and your unique ID, of course. If you want to know more about watermarking, look here.
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