Calibre

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/40762255

Cross-posted from "Calibre subreddit succumbs to (probable) pressure and removes a thread discussing a fully legal way of bypassing an e-book DRM solution (LCP) created by a particularly litigious organization" by @[email protected] in [email protected]

Sorry for the long title. Some context to this: Readium LCP is a DRM-solution created and delivered by the non-profit foundation EDRLab (I guess we've learned by now that non-profit doesn't equal good), based in France.

EDRLab is an international, non-profit development laboratory working on the deployment of an open, interoperable and accessible digital publishing ecosystem worldwide.

In recent years they've gained a large market share in the EU first and foremost, providing both regular e-book shops in many EU countries and libraries with this DRM (if you're interested in some more technical information regarding this DRM solution, I'd recommend reading Terence's previous blog post). What's particular to this solution is that they've historically been very litigious about any attempts to DeDRM it. The most famous plugin for DeDRMing books in Calibre (mainly Adobe DRM) has been the NoDRM plugin, and they did release a DeDRM solution to LCP v1.0 but they were threatened with legal action with a DMCA takedown request (read more on Github).

In recent days, Terence Eden posted a fully legal solution on his blog on how to bypass their DRM. This was also posted to the /r/Calibre subreddit, see the following image: I also made a thread on Lemmy here.

Nonetheless, after around a day the thread was removed on the Calibre subreddit. The only rule I could find that maybe could be applied to this (if it was illegal, and if Terence did this with any other material that wasn't his own) is the rule against piracy. But it feels weird.

This subreddit has previously allowed, and still allow, discussions around the NoDRM plugin and how to DeDRM the Adobe DRM. What makes this fully legal solution of bypassing LCP any different? It can probably be deduced that the EDRLab foundation contacted the subreddits moderators, or reddit admins, and "threatened" them in order to have it taken down. Or guilt tripped them as they also did towards Terence. Aside from their previous DMCA takedown request to the NoDRM people, just look at their arrogant correspondence towards Terence (more in his blog post). Threatening him on no legal basis as well as somehow blaming their failure on developing accessibility tools to him posting about this solution:

"We were planning to now focus on new accessibility features on our open-source Thorium Reader, better access to annotations for blind users and an advanced reading mode for dyslexic people. Too bad; disturbances around LCP will force us to focus on a new round of security measures, ensuring the technology stays useful for ebook lending (stop reading after some time) and as a protection against oversharing."

These are some of the reasons why I think a federated web will be necessary moving forth. I really dislike DRM, but also these methods that DRM organizations use in order to control the conversation. Thanks for reading and engaging with my small fixation on DRM and especially LCP :)

Hi, is there any way to sync devices directly to Calibre server? I would like to keep the database on a server and sync directly from there. This would allow to leave out syncinc the library to a laptop first. Thanks for your support!

I manage my ebooks locally and then upload them to my calibre-web container via the webui. It's there an easier way to do this? I no longer use a shared backend storage for fear of corruption/loss so i was looking for an easier way (export plug-in?). Any one have any ideas?

I use the page count plugin plus a template program I adapted from one found online (included below) to build a column that categorizes books by length. (I use this to build collections I use when I’m picking my next to read)

I’d like to exclude certain books from getting a classification though if they are PDFs or have tags like “Graphic Novel” or “Cookbook”. I’d appreciate any help figuring this out.

program:
val = field('#pagecount');
first_non_empty(
	cmp(val, 0, ' ', '', ''),
	cmp(val, 15, 'Flash Fiction', '', ''),
	cmp(val, 50, 'Short Story', '', ''),
	cmp(val, 100, 'Novelette', '', ''),
	cmp(val, 250, 'Novella', '', ''),
	cmp(val, 500, 'Short Novel', '', ''),
	cmp(val, 750, 'Long Novel', '', ''),	
	cmp(val, 1000, 'Tome', '', ''),
	'Toe Breaker');

I frequently use Calibre to convert academic papers from PDF to epub, so I can read them on my tablet. But the conversion often results in weird formatting artifacts.

I'm aware that in the Conversion tool, there's a Search & Replace section, where I can list various expressions that will help me remove things like page numbers. This post has some helpful expressions for that. For example:

\d+<br>\n|\d+\w<br>\n|\w\d+<br>\n

Does anyone have a list of more expressions that they use when converting academic papers from PDF to epub? Especially any good expressions for handling footnotes?? I would love to get a bunch together, save them, and then simply load them every time I have to do this.

Thanks all!

A bit of a long shot, but I guess it doesn't hurt asking.

I'm using Calibre with the library on a network share (I'm aware this is not recommended, however I'm using this for years without any problems on Windows and Mac OS). Recently I gave Linux another shot and I stumbled upon a problem with accessing my network share.

When trying to add this library which is sitting on the network share, the Calibre file explorer doesn't show the network locations I added in Dolphin in the "Remote" tab. Is there any way to convince Calibre to find these network locations without adding the shares in /etc/fstab?

Edited meta in Calibre doesn't stick with the epub file. Is there any method to edit dc: meta in epub and the designated series under series shows up in Calibre?

Thanks and trying my best to explain the concept. If this is to vague please provide guide to explain more specific.

New features

• PDF Output: Add an option to discard the book cover instead of inserting it as the first page of the PDF
• Content server: Allow opening the book details page for a matches book from the Full text search results page

Bug fixes

• Windows: Fix empty data folder getting created in directory calibre is launched from when changing title/author for a book with an existing data folder
• LIT Output: Fix error converting anything to LIT on Windows
• Ignore failures to expire old trash during startup
• Amazon metadata download: Fix retrieval of publisher information from amazon.fr

New news sources

• ThePressProject by Sotiris Papatheodorou

Improved news sources

• Guardian & Observer
• Washington Post
• Private Eye
• Associated Press

Source: link

I have my calibre synced from pc to Nextcloud and use the android app to link them together.

I mostly read reference books - recipes, photography, history - so I don't need, or have the space to keep the books on my mobile phone.

This works great however, what I'd really like to do is read my books without having to download them first.

I guess I'm looking for a lazy approach to reading my reference books without storing them all on my phone.

Anyone have any different approaches that I can learn from?

Hi! Does anybody know how to change the format of the dates to YYYY-MM-DD?

Thanks!

I have 3 different libraries, one for comics, one for TTRPG books, and my main one for actual eBooks. My main library is over 4GB with over 1,000 books.

No, I haven't read all of them, but I am working on it. They have been collected over the last 15 years from Sony eReader store, Kobo books, Amazon Kindle, B&N, Archive.org and other Public Domain books hosts, Humble Bundle, Story Bundle, and various other places.

Largest categories are Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Mystery.

I wish there was a way to link to an Android app.

This community is meant for discussion about the open source ebook management software Calibre. Technical questions and feature discussions about calibre are welcome.