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Tea eReaders Use Non-Adobe DRM on Pocketbook Hardware

Tea is a French ereader startup that has gotten little attention outside of France, and it is about time that changed.

This several year old startup recently signed a deal to provide the DRM used on a German library ebook platform. This DRM will also shortly be added to Tolino’s ereaders so they will be compatible with the library ebooks.

But first, let’s have some Tea.

Tea has built its own ebook retail platform with 500,000 titles and supports it with apps as well as ereaders. Its partners include a double handful of French retailers as well as Youscribe, the French ebook subscription service, and HarperCollins France, who uses Tea’s platform to run its ebookstore (this is part of the Big 5 publisher’s plan to fracture the market, and thus limit ebook vsales).

One reason Tea came across my desk today was that their ereaders are rebranded Pocketbook hardware running a custom firmware. Tea’s ereaders include the Pocketbook Touch Lux 3, Touch HD, and the Ultra, aka the worst ereader ever made.

Tea’s devices kept the original model names, but not the branding. They also gained a new type of DRM. It’s called Care, and is based on the DRM developed for Readium.

BTW, there are other apps that also use a form of Readium DRM; it’s not clear whether all the apps and ereaders use mutually compatible DRM (this is one of the perils of open-source software).

The big story today, however, comes from Germany.

The German library services company Ekz has announced that it is adopting CARE DRM to manage Divibib, its digital lending system. Divibib is used by 3100 libraries, most of which are in Germany, and accounted for 28 million ebook loans last year.

Supporting library ebooks is a great use for CARE DRM; it’s cheaper than Adobe’s DRM, and there’s little need to worry about long term access.

Divibib will be compatible with Tea’s apps and ereaders, and according to reports it will also support Tolino ereaders. Yes, according to press reports they are supposed to be getting an update to add support for the new DRM (in addition to Adobe DRM).

I can’t tell if that has happened yet; there’s no mention of the change on MobileRead. If and when it does happen it will be another blow against Adobe, the American company that provides DRM and CMS for most library ebook platforms around the world.

Adobe Digital Editions Now Available for Android

Adobe DE is available on MACos, Windows, and iOS, and now also Android. Some time last summer Adobe quietly launched a new version of its epub-reading app, Adobe Digital Editions.

Available in Google Play, Adobe DE for Android  is pitched as being the only app you need to read ebooks on Android:

One eBook reader for all your Adobe DRM protected books across your Android Devices, iPad, Mac or PC. Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) is free-to-download and use, and completely ad-free. Use it to read EPUB and PDF books, both online and offline. Borrow ebooks from many public libraries for use with ADE. Extend your reading experience by transferring books from your personal computer to your Android devices. Organize your books into a beautiful custom library.

I would suggest you take the description with a grain of salt, mix vigorously, and then pitch both over your shoulder. This app as a 2.5-star rating with almost as many 1-star reviews that 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-star reviews combined.

Don’t download this app; instead you should install Aldiko, Bluefire, Pocketbook, or another Epub Android app which supports Adobe DE.

There are many options, so there is no need to cause yourself pain by trying to use Adobe DE.

Google Play

The Oldest Version of Adobe Digital Editions No Longer Works With OverDrive’s Library eBooks

If you are using Adobe Digital Editions 1.7, and are having trouble downloading ebooks from OverDrive, I think I can tell you why.

I can also tell you how to fix it.

Why

Sometime in late November or early December 2016 OverDrive and/or Adobe updated their platforms in some way that broke Adobe DE 1.7. The app could still read ebooks, but numerous members of MobileRead reported that it could no longer download DRMed ebooks from OverDrive.

Users who still ran Adobe DE 1.7 on either Windows or MACos reported getting error #2038 when they tried to download an ebook.

The only way to fix the issue was to update Adobe DE to v2.0.1 or higher, and for many users that fixed the problem. But others, including my source Erica Sadun, reported that they could not download OverDrive ebooks until after they had reauthorized their computer with Adobe.

So if you are seeing the #2038 error in Adobe DE, here is how to fix it.

How

  1. Update Adobe Digital Editions
  2. Deauthorize and reauthorize your computer with Adobe by accessing the help menu in Adobe DE.

This fixed the problem for most people, including my source, but if you are still having issues then the best place to find a solution is either the Adobe support forums or on MobileRead.

If you ask me for help, that is where I will go looking for a solution.

Adobe Acrobat Reader Can Scan Docs With Your Smartphone’s Camera

Do you know how you can use note-taking apps like Evernote and OneNote to take a photo with your smartphone and then annotate it?

Now you can do the same with the Adobe Acrobat Reader app.

acrobat-reader-mobile-scan-2

Adobe rolled out an update today for its app for the iPad and iPhone which works with a phone’s camera to enable users to snap a photo of a picture, shopping receipt, tax document, whiteboard, form, or note, and save it as a PDF. Users can also take photos of multiple document pages, combine them into a single PDF, and reorder as desired.

 

According to the announcement on Adobe’s blog, the new scan feature is powered by Adobe Sensei, a new framework and set of intelligence services built into Adobe’s online services.

In the case of Scan in Reader mobile, Adobe Sensei works in the background to automatically detect document boundaries, correct perspectives, enhance text sharpness and make everything beautiful, usable and digital.

The iOS app is getting the feature today, but according to the relevant Googple Play listing the Adobe Acrobat Android app has the same functionality. You can find the app in iTunes and Google Play.

Liliputing

New Pernicious Adobe Epub DRM Found in the Wild

5438739352_9068fc990c_bIn early 2014 Adobe announced a new type of ebook DRM which had the dual properties of being unbreakable as well as incompatible with existing ebook readers and apps. After initially planning to force everyone to switch to the new DRM in less than six months (which would leave millions of ereader owners in the lurch), Adobe backed down and largely dropped the issue.

But what they didn’t do was kill the new DRM. It still exists, and now I am getting reports that it has been showing up in the wild.

Over the past few months I have been receiving suggestions that I should be pointing users to older versions of Adobe DE because ebooks downloaded with the later versions might come wrapped in a new type of DRM.

I hadn’t been able to confirm the reports until this week, but it turns out that they were true.

A reader has tipped me to a comment over on the Apprentice Alf blog from a user who is unable to strip the DRM from a PDF he bought. The book in question is a Spanish-language genetic algorithm textbook, and even though it opens correctly in Adobe DE 4.5 on Windows 10 it still kept defeating Apprentice Alf’s DRM-striping tools.

After confirming that the PDF would not open in Adobe DE 2.0.1, the user was told that:

Sounds like you probably have the newer DRM that hasn’t been figured out yet. And the tools can’t remove it. In the future, stick with ADE 2.0.1.

And so this user has an ebook which they can’t protect by removing the DRM – for now.

Now that the DRM has been spotted in the wild, it won’t be long before someone turns their attention to bypassing it and then sharing their work. Until then, your best best for avoiding the DRM is to stick to the major ebookstores.

The new DRM is rare because it is most likely only being used by the less popular ebook retailers which don’t realize how they’re harming their customers.

Google and Kobo, on the other hand, both know they have to support existing devices and apps, and so they avoid the new DRM like the plague. I would be stunned to find the new DRM in either store.

So to keep your ebooks safe, stick to the more popular ebookstores, and be sure to avoid the latest versions of Adobe DE.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Thanks, Purple lady!

image by rabanito

Adobe Digital Editions Now Comes With Free Bonus Bloatware

Adobe Digital EditionsAdobe isn’t making much money off of its Epub-reading apps, but they’ve found a new way to cash in. A reader has tipped me to the news that Adobe is now bundling Norton Security Scan with the Adobe Digital Editions 4 installer file.

Unsuspecting users who only want to read an ebook are now prompted to install an unnecessary piece of bloatware. And to make matters worse, the checkbox to approve the installation comes pre-checked:

norton bloatware adobe digital editions

I’ve tested this myself, and I can report that the bloatware is bundled into the same version of Adobe DE 4.0.3 that was released in February. According to user reports, Adobe only added the spam install file some time in early July.

How disappointing.

This kind of nonsense is usually the hallmark of a slimy company desperate to make a buck any way it can. Sourceforge, for example,  has lately been on the receiving end of a lot of grief lately for the way that has been seizing control of software projects hosted on the site and bundling said software into Sourceforge’s own spam-encrusted installers.

What Adobe is now doing with Adobe DE isn’t quite as bad, but it is in the same ballpark.

Adobe Reader for iOS and Android Updated, Renamed Acrobat DC

adobe acrobat dc ipadFor the past several years Adobe has been bundling more and more paid services into its consumer-level Adobe Reader app, and today they finally erased the last distinction between the two apps.

I got an update notice this morning for the Adobe Reader app on my iPad. Apple wanted me to update the  app to a new one called Adobe Acrobat DC (iTunes). I’ve spent a few minutes using it both before and after the update, and I can report that it is largely the same app.

The new Adobe Acrobat DC app has a different interface and organizational schema,  and it’s both faster and smoother, but if not for the name change you would think the app had simply gotten a major update.

Speaking of updates, Adobe has also updated the Adobe Reader apps for Windows and other platforms with the new branding. This includes the Adobe Reader app for Android. Also, The Next Web reports that the Windows 8 app now has a new touch-friendly interface. Not having a Windows 8 device, I can’t confirm that detail.

Like the old Reader app, the new Acrobat DC for the iPad lets read, edit, create, store documents in the Adobe document cloud (DC), and import/export. And like the older app, Acrobat DC requires you to pay to use most of the features. Everything except reading and exporting a PDF will cost you money, and the prices are too dear for this consumer.

The paid services cost either $10 a month (and up), or you can get lifetime subscription for $299 plus. As with a lot of their products and services, Adobe is focused on corporate and business customers, not consumers.

That’s okay with me; I was happy paying $5 for Goodreader. That app might not carry the Adobe brand but it fills my PDF needs on the iPad.

And when Goodreader comes up short, apps like Dropbox and Microsoft’s new Office Lens app for iOS should fill in the holes.

What can I say, my mobile needs are modest.

Microsoft Gets Serious About Web Standards: Adobe to Contribute to Project Spartan

Long a contributor to  open source browser engines, Adobe is going to be getting into the guts of Project Spartan.

Microsoft announced on Monday that Adobe is going to be one of many tech companies which will contribute to MS’s new web browser. Adobe will be bringing improvements in the areas of layout, typography, graphic design, and motion.

project spartan

The first improvements include Adobe’s work with gradients. This seemingly small contribution first showed up in the March update of the Windows 10 Technical Preview, and it gives web developers the option of specifying a custom gradient midpoint for a unique blend of the two colors in the gradient.

Another change that Adobe has recently committed is full support for <feBlend> blend modes. Where IE 11 supported only a limited part of the  W3C Filter Effects spec, Project Spartan sill fully support the spec (right up until something breaks).

adibe blend

While neither feature is critical, these are going to be fully supported options in other web browsers – but they wouldn’t have been fully supported in IE.

In short, this is good news for the web and for anyone developing for the web. With Project Spartan supporting more features, more web developers can adopt them knowing that they’ll be accessible to a wider audience.

Launching with Windows 10, Project Spartan represents a clean break with Microsoft’s past web browser work. MS has told us in the past that the new web browser features a new rendering engine, a new interface, and (obviously) a lot of third party contributions, but I think they may have downplayed the paradigm shift which Spartan represents.

It was just this week that MS told us that they had been "making changes internally to allow other major Web entities to contribute to the growth of our platform, as well as to allow our team to give back to the Web". With luck, this is going to result in a web browser which won’t force web developers to prove the 90-90 rule.

While Internet Explorer will ship with Windows 10, MS has already said that they view IE as a legacy product and that all of their attention will be devoted to Project Spartan.

Adobe Digital Editions 4.0.3 Update Adds MathML, Better Support for Audio and Video

Adobe Digital EditionsAdobe’s rolled out a new updtae this week for its flagship Epub app today.

According to the changelog, the update makes a couple changes to the interface, fixes a bug with deauthorized computers, and adds support for a few additional features from the Epub3 spec.

Adobe DE 4 now supports new ways to navigate ebooks, and it can also finally display equations in MathML. There’s also mention that video and audio content can be progressively downloaded, freeing up a reader to start watching immediately.

You can download the app from Adobe. Given that previous versions came bundled with free spyware, I am choosing to abstain.

Changelog:

  • Support is now available for navigational items like Landmarks, Pages list, Images list and Tables list.
  • MathML support is now available for ADE on Windows.
  • Audio and video content in the eBooks can be progressively downloaded on all platforms.
  • Erasing the authorization of this computer adds one more to your number of allowed authorizations.
  • An intuitive popup box for controlling media overlays.
  • The Scrubber bar can be used to navigate to pages across eBooks.
  • Full support for EPUB’s Fragment Identifier.
  • Full support for all input types in eBooks.

Digital-books.ru

Adobe Digital Editions Launches on the iPad

Adobe Digital EditionsSources have been telling me for about 3 months now that Adobe was going to release a Digital Editions app for the iPad, and that app showed up in iTunes yesterday.

And like any new app, it could use some work. In spite of its name, Adobe Digital Editions 4.0.2 for the iPad is very much a beta release of the app.

It offers the same Epub3 support found in the Adobe DE4 app which Adobe launched last fall for Windows and OSX, including rich layouts and embedded audio and video. From the mentions of support for interactive quizzes, and math formulas, it looks to be Adobe’s bid to enter the nascent digital textbook market.

The app doesn’t have much in the way of features yet, but there’s a search function and a timer which will tell you how long you’ve been reading. Readers can bookmark, highlight, or look a word up in the dictionary. There are optional dictionaries for a wide variety of languages from English to Russian to Thai.

The app doesn’t offer many formatting options, but it does let you change the font size and margins (in Epubs). It also has 5 color themes (including white, night, ivory, sepia, and blush):

adobe de ipad 4.0.2

I’ve been testing the app for a few minutes this morning, and it is rather slow and clunky. It works, but this wouldn’t be my preferred app (even if I hadn’t caught Adobe spying on users several months back).

But if you use Adobe DE 4.0, you might want to install the app. There’s been some speculation that Adobe’s spying activities had been intended to function as a syncing service which would let Adobe DE users share an Adobe account across multiple devices – PC and iPad.

Most of the major ebook platforms offer this kind of sync service, and it would make sense for Adobe to add a similar service. And since it would be useful to some readers, this app is worth a look.

But I also don’t see a way to enable that sync, nor is it mentioned as an option at this time. So there’s really no need to rush out and install the app.

You can find the app in iTunes.

Adobe Updates Flash Player to Fix Critical Vulnerability

Adobe may have deprecated Flash in favor of HTML5, but that doesn’t mean everyone has stopped using it nor have hackers stopped looking for vulnerabilities.

Adobe released a new critical security on Thursday which fixes a zero-day flaw in Adobe Flash Player. According to the release notes, the vulnerability, could be exploited to "cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system".

6167255518_7949376c48[1]

Adobe says that the exploit is in use by hackers, and they’re not kidding. Apparently the vulnerability was identified by a researcher who found it in a malware toolkit last week:

The Angler exploit kit is one of the most popular crimeware kit and according to the French security researcher Kafeine it was enriched with a fresh Adobe Flashzero-day vulnerability. Kafeine has discovered a new variant of the Angler exploit kit that exploit three different vulnerabilities in Flash Player, including the zero-day flaw for the latest version of Flash (version 16.0.0.257) in several versions of Internet Explorer running on Windows 7 and Windows 8.

The security hole affects computers running Linux, OSX, and Windows, although the researchers have only identified the exploit being used against computers running Windows XP, 7, and 8. But since it’s already being actively exploited you’re definitely going to want update Flash Player.

If you have automatic updates enabled then Adobe will be rolling the update out to you. But just to be safe, you should probably check with Adobe and see if you have the latest version of Flash Player for your system.

According to this page, I’m good. Are you?

You can download the update here.

Adobe via Security Affairs

image by smswigart

EFF Confirms Reports of Adobe’s Spying

eff-logo-plain-300[1]Yesterday the EFF weighed in for the second time on the Adobe spying scandal, offering a belated confirmation of both my initial report as well as a confirmation that Adobe has updated Digital Editions and stopped the spying.

When I first broke the news last month I reported that Adobe was tracking what users were doing inside Adobe DE 4, and that they were also scanning my ebook library and uploading all of the metadata to their servers.

While the tracking was readily confirmed, the scanning was not witnessed by more than a handful of technical experts. Now we can add the EFF to that list. Working from instructions I gave them, the EFF reported that:

We were also able to reproduce the results of the experiment run by The Digital Reader. To perform these tests we again used Wireshark. We plugged a Sony Reader PRS-600 into a computer with ADE installed. When we started ADE with the reader plugged in, we observed ADE sending back data about what has been happening on the reader such as books added and deleted from the reader. Books which were never opened in Adobe Digital Editions.

We were also able to confirm that Adobe Digital Editions gets information from other e-readers that simply have Adobe software installed on them, such as the Sony Reader, Nook, and Boyue. Of course, there may be other readers that are also susceptible.

The EFF goes on to report that they tested the new version of Digital Editions (4.0.1). Their tests went one step further than the other reports I have received; in addition to testing with Wireshark, they also used Fiddler to to track the encrypted data which Adobe was sending to itself. Not only can they report that Adobe is using encryption, the data being sent to Adobe’s servers really was limited to only the information required for DRM purposes.

This is what Adobe claimed in their initial response last month, and now it is finally true.

2962194797_06b1dc08ac[1]

There’s not much new to be said about this story, but the EFF did have a cogent codicil.

Adobe was able to spy on users because they had made their DRM one of the core technologies for the consumer ebook market. And as we know from Cory Doctorow’s Law, "Anytime someone puts a lock on something you own, against your wishes, and doesn’t give you the key, they’re not doing it for your benefit."

Similarly, the EFF proposed a corollary to Doctorow’s Law: "Anytime someones collect information about you, without your knowledge and against your wishes, they’re not doing it for your benefit."

That is clearly true in the case of Adobe.

image by laverrue

Adobe Updates Digital Edition, Stops Sharing User Info With the Internet

Adobe rolled out a new update for their Digital Editions Epub app today, and I have good news, bad news, and okay news.

This is a relatively minor update to the month-old Epub app, and the good news is that it adds a full text search option as well as a new display window for search results.

The bad news is that we don’t know for sure whether Adobe is still spying on users, because (and here’s the okay news) they say that they are now encrypting the data uploaded to their servers. According to the changelog posted by Adobe, one of the new features is:

Enhanced security for transmitting rights management and licensing validation information. With this latest version of Digital Editions 4.0.1, the data is sent to Adobe in a secure transmission (using HTTPS).

I got the tip from Adobe a couple hours ago, after having run several tests I can confirm that the data uploaded to Adobe’s servers is no longer being sent in clear text.

I can’t speak as to the quality of the encryption or what data Adobe is collecting, but at least they have taken the basic step of making it difficult for everyone in the world to listen in when that data is sent to Adobe’s servers.

Update: I’ve heard from another tester who identified that Adobe was using SSL, and that it didn’t appear to be sending any data at all (for DRM-free ebooks). But if you activate a DRMed ebook Adobe does send a lot of encrypted information. Removing that DRMed ebook stopped the app from sending info.  Thanks, Michael!

Second Update: I have an independent confirmation that Adobe only uploads data after a DRMed ebook has been activated.

For those just tuning in, earlier this month I broke the news that Adobe’s newest ebook app was logging users' reading habits and scanning the storage of any attached ereader and uploading that data to Adobe’s servers in the clear.

After my initial report was confirmed by Ars Technica, the shit hit the fan. Following criticism from the EFF and from librarians, leading to a partial admission from Adobe that they had been collecting data "in accordance with their privacy policies" (which just goes to show that Techdirt is right; such policies are a joke).

You can find a timeline of events on my original post.

My report has sparked a debate in the ebook world over just what activities are acceptable. Some took the position that Adobe’s actions were similar to the conveniences that we take for granted with the major ebook platforms (and web services in general). That would be a good point if not for the fact that Adobe was not providing me with any service which would require collecting that data, much less uploading to their servers.

The best you can say for Adobe is that they might have been intending to provide a syncing service in the future, possibly as part of the iPad app which I have been told is in the works, or as part of the ebook platform which they license to other companies (Kobo, B&N, Pocketbook, and so on). That could be true, but again Adobe was not providing that service and thus did not need to collect the data, much less upload it.

This is less a case of a company screwing up in supporting users than it is one of a major tech company grabbing more user info than is required and then, when they are caught, trying to write it off with a "My bad" and a promise to add encryption.

That is entirely the wrong response. What they should have said was that they would stop the spying, not that they would make it more difficult for the world to listen in.

Unfortunately there’s not much that users stop Adobe. This company is too central to the ebook world and that means that we will have to do business with them at some point.

The best the average user can do is to use a firewall or other utility to block Adobe’s apps from accessing the web, or possibly use one of the older versions of Adobe DE (which to the best of my knowledge does not collect user data).

Or we could always flee into the welcome embrace of Amazon, but many in the ebook world would call that a fate worse than death. Plus, there is no guarantee that Amazon is not collecting similar data on users.

If anything, this ensuing story has reminded us that there are maony circumstances where privacy is more of a figleaf than a reality. The best we can really hope for is that the services we use won’t blab our person details to the world.

image by Soctech

Adobe Responds to ALA on Spying Scandal With Fictitious and Misleading Statements

The American Library Association reported yesterday that Adobe has responded to the ALA’s concerns about the recent revaluations of Adobe spying on users.

You can find the AlA’s press release here, but the short version is that Adobe is still claiming that sending a user’s reading logs in the clear met the standards of Adobe’s privacy policy. Adobe also continues to pretend that they weren’t also scanning user’s libraries and uploading that info as well.

That last bit has been independently confirmed, a fact which renders Adobe’s continued use of misleading statements as out and out deceptive. Their claim that they only tracked a user’s current reading info has been proven to be false, and yet they stick to it.

While some might argue that tracking a user’s current reading info is a reasonable activity, there is simply no justification for Adobe to scan a user’s hard disk, as I initially misreported the story.

As it turns out, Adobe didn’t actually scan my HD. Instead they scanned the ereader which I had not realized had happened to be plugged in at the time that I was running Adobe DE. I did not authorize that scan, nor did I activate that ereader to use Adobe DRM, and yet Adobe still scanned it and part of my ebook library and uploaded that data to Adobe’s servers.

There is no justification to scan an attached ereader without permission. While Adobe might claim that the data was "collected for purposes such as license validation and to facilitate the implementation of different licensing models", that simply does not make sense for a device which had not been authorized with Adobe’s DRM.

But on the plus side, at least Adobe is now promising to encrypt their spying. They’re not promising to stop it but at least now no one will be able to listen in.

That means that we won’t have to worry – not until the next time that Adobe is hacked and user data is leaked to the web. 38 million users were affected the last time this happened, including ebook users.

I feel real safe with Adobe’s plan to use encryption, don’t you?

image by osseous

Bluefire Comments on Adobe Spying Scandal: It’s Not Our Thing, Baby

bluefireFollowing in the wake of the news that Adobe was tracking users' activities and then uploading the data to their servers without encryption, many ebook users, including librarians, readers, and even those in the digital publishing industry are wondering just how safe other Epub apps actually are.

At the request of several readers, I checked with Bluefire, one of the leading developers of Adobe compatible Epub apps. Bluefire makes an reading app for Android, iDevices, and Windows, but they use a very different standard when it comes to privacy:

We have been asked if we perform similar data collection in our free Bluefire Reader apps. The answer is No. While our apps are built on Adobe Reader Mobile SDK (RMSDK) versions 9 and 10, we are not aware of similar data collection by Adobe in these SDKs.

We do support an optional Bluefire developed sync feature that (when enabled by the user) sends anonymous, encrypted data to our servers. This data is used to sync the user’s reading location across the user’s activated reading devices. We also collect a limited amount of anonymous aggregated usage information. All of this is spelled out in our “Terms and Conditions” and “Privacy” statements.

We want you, our users, to know that we respect and value your privacy. While it is true that some technologies (like page location sync) require the transmission of user data, we believe that it is essential to implement these services in a manner that respects and protects the privacy of our users. We believe that our current apps meet this standard.

For those just tuning in, on Monday I broke the news that the latest version of Adobe Digital Editions was logging my reading activities and uploading the data to their servers in clear text. This feature, which has not been found in earlier versions of Adobe DE, was added for no clear reason. It involved collecting detailed into on everything a reader was doing inside of an ebook, including pages read, ebooks opened, and more.

Adobe defended the tracking with the claim that the data was "collected solely for purposes such as license validation and to facilitate the implementation of different licensing models by publishers". I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether knowing which pages had been read will help with that purpose.

As for me, I will simply remind you that the data was sent in the clear.