Download ACSM files in Linux - without using Adobe Digital Editions!


A cute penguin.

After my rant the other day about Adobe Digital Editions, I discovered libgourou by Grégory Soutadé libgourou is a free implementation of Adobe's ADEPT protocol used to add DRM on ePub files. It overcome the lacks of Adobe support for Linux platforms. There are a few limitations, but nothing too serious: Only ePub is supported. No PDF Command line only Alpha quality software. It works - but is a bit finickity You can compile the code yourself, but I just downloaded the pre-built b…

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A brief look at ACSM files


An eReader with a pen.

Adobe's accursed eBook DRM is just the worst. Not only does it lock up books that you have purchased - but it's impossible to use sensibly on Linux. Sure, you can futz around with Docker, WINE, and old versions of Python - and if you're lucky, you might get a book out of it. I wasn't quite so lucky. I wanted to see if I could download an ePub without using Adobe Digital Editions. Spoilers! I couldn't. But this is what I found. The First ACSM file When you buy an eBook, the vendor sends you…

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iToldYouSo


Screenshot of a Tweet. The BBC say they're testing a new version of iPlayer for Android Jelly Bean.

Two years ago, a bunch of smart people told the BBC that its plans to build iPlayer for Android on Adobe Flash was nuts. We argued loudly, passionately, deployed logic and reason, and provided specific technical details. Naturally, we were ignored. Sure, Flash was only on a few high end devices now, but the BBC were confident that Flash would be soon be available on all Android devices and our perceived problems would evaporate. Naturally, reality decided to ignore their wishful thinking. …

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