If you buy e-books from Amazon and want to engage in a bit of digital civil disobedience—by stripping the files' DRM and making sure that Amazon can’t deny you access—we’re about to show you how. Yes, many parts of the Internet have known about this technique for some time now, but we feel that it bears mentioning again here.

Over the past week, the tech world has been abuzz with news that—surprise, surprise—Amazon can remotely wipe any Kindle, at any time, for effectively any reason. (The company did it before, ironically, with George Orwell’s 1984, back in 2009.)

This week’s case involves a Norwegian women (Google Translate) named Linn Nygaard. She bought a Kindle in the United Kingdom, took it home to Norway, and bought UK e-books on the Kindle. This week, Amazon suddenly disabled her account, taking away her access to an e-book library of 40 books. That move was  reversed about 24 hours later, with access to her Kindle account restored.

"I have not heard anything from Amazon about this, except that I got a very strange phone [call] earlier from someone with a hidden number," Nygaard told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. "They claimed that they worked in Amazon.co.uk and would give me a new Kindle, but they would not talk to me about my account."

Many speculated that because she was buying content licensed for the UK from Norway, Nygaard somehow ran afoul of Amazon’s licensing deals. (For two years, my wife and I regularly bought e-books for our US-bought Amazon Kindle while we were living in Germany—I can’t believe that we just got lucky. More likely, Amazon turns a blind eye to most people who fall into this category.)

Amazon declined to respond to media queries (including those from Ars) as to exactly what Nygaard, and IT consultant, had done to prompt the company’s wrath.

Many other websites also lamented that many digital retailers (Amazon, Apple, and plenty of others) are not selling digital goods, but rather license them. It's a distinction many Ars readers may already understand, but it's less apparent outside the ranks of the tech-savvy. (After all, those purchase buttons usually say BUY, not BUY A LICENSE.)

Fortunately, though, there’s an easy way to ensure you can avoid the same fate as Nygaard. By downloading a free and open-source e-book management app known as Calibre, and a corresponding plugin that cracks Amazon’s DRM encryption, you can convert any Kindle e-book into an iBook format, or pretty much any other format that you like.

We will offer this caveat, however: it’s quite possible the technique we’re about to outline violates not only Amazon's Terms of Service, but the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as well. We are not advocating breaking the law, but we are demonstrating for non-American Kindle users how this technique can be used to safeguard against remote deletion tactics. Related laws may differ in countries around the world, so be sure to check your local situation if you’re unsure. In short, follow these instructions at your own risk.

Ex Calibre, electronica librae!

Zac West, a San Francisco-based iOS developer wrote up his instructions about a year ago. We used his directions on a Mac (although repeating the same trick on Windows is likely quite similar), and found they worked well transferring books to an iPad 3. But the program should allow you to load DRM-stripped books onto your Kindle, Nook, Nexus 7, or other device as well. Let’s dive right in:

You’ll need to download Calibre, which is available for OS X, Windows, and Linux. The software describes itself as a "free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books."

Then, download the DeDRM plugin and unzip it. That’s the actual piece of code that, as the name implies, cracks Amazon’s DRM scheme. Once Calibre is installed, open its Preferences (under the File menu). At the bottom of the screen, in the lower left-hand corner, click "Plugins."

Then, "Load plugin from file," and choose the K4MobileDRM plugin’s zip file—it’s a zipped file inside of the DeDRM zipped file you downloaded. Don’t decompress this second file.

Now, be sure to download Kindle for Mac (or the Windows/Linux equivalent), and connect it to your Amazon account. (If you have the app already installed, go ahead and skip this step.) Download all your e-books—open them up from "Archived Items" in the top left of the app. Once done, your "Archived Items" count will go to zero and "Downloaded Items" should show a number greater than zero.

As West notes, Kindle e-books come in the MobiPocket format, while iBooks requires ePub, so we’re going to be converting from one to the other. On a Mac, open up ~/Library/Containers/com.amazon.Kindle/Data/Library/Application Support/Kindle/My Kindle Content/.

Note: this does require the Library file found under the "username" directory. An easy way to open that folder is by holding the Option key while clicking the "Go" menu in the Finder. (On Windows, you can find the "My Kindle Content" folder under My Documents.)

Now we have to drag the .azw files (each Kindle e-book) into Calibre—why not do them all?

Converting Books: the waiting game

Next, click "Convert books" in the app’s toolbar. When the "Bulk Convert" window pops up, make sure that EPUB is selected in the upper right corner of the screen. Then click the third item on the left-hand side, "Page Setup," and configure the output profile to whatever device you want to export to—we’re working with an iPad 3, so that’s what we chose. Similarly, choose Kindle as the input profile.

Click "OK" to begin the conversion. Depending on how many books you have, it may take a little while. Our 44 books, including some Lonely Planet travel guidebooks, took around 10 to 15 minutes. You can monitor Calibre’s progress by clicking the "Jobs" button in the lower right-hand corner.

On a Mac, Calibre defaults to creating its "Calibre Library" file under the username directory. If everything has gone correctly, you should have a bunch of sub-folders, organized by author’s name, complete with cover art and a converted file in EPUB format. Drag all of those folders directly into iTunes, which should open them all under "Books" (found in the upper left part of the app, between "Podcasts" and "Apps.") Then, when you sync Books with your iPad, you’ll have all your Amazon e-books for your own use in iBooks, safe from Amazon’s whims.

As West himself noted, these files are for your personal use only—they’re not meant to be distributed anywhere. Enjoy!

Source from: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/10/drm-be-damned-how-to-protect-your-amazon-e-books-from-being-deleted/?utm_source=Ars+Technica+Newsletter&utm_campaign=93f96cf039-September_02_2011_Newsletter&utm_medium=email

More About DRM Removal:

If you have many movies or TV shows downloaded from iTunes Store, you will also need some DRM removing tools to remove the DRM from those iTunes videos. In this case, you need Tune4mac iTunes Video Converter for Mac or Noteburner M4V Converter for Windows to help you convert DRM protected iTunes M4V movies to other popular video formats, like MP4, MOV, AVI, etc on Mac and Windows OS.

M4V, as we know, is a file container format developed by Apple and is very close to MP4 format but protected with Apple's FairPlay DRM copyright policy. Apple puts the DRM protected M4V on its iTunes to encode movies, TV episodes, music videos, etc. Which means, a M4V movie purchased or rented from the iTunes Store is only allowed to play on Apple devices because of the Digital Rights Management. But if you want to put the DRM M4V videos on third-party players, you have to remove the DRM protection form the M4V movies firstly and then convert the movies to popular video formats, like MP4, MOV, AVI, etc.

So, you may ask whether there is any way to remove DRM from iTunes M4V and convert the M4V to MP4 video format. The answer is yes.

1. Video recording software, like Any Video Converter Ultimate for Mac.

This way is a little complicated. It allows you to record the screen activity of the M4V movie when you play it on iTunes or QuickTime. And after the M4V movie is recorded, you can convert the record to other video formats, such as MP4, AVI, etc or other non-Apple devices.

Because the recording process and conversion process are separated, this method is a little bit time consuming and according to some tests, it only works for some protected M4V movies.

2. DRM removing tool, Noteburner M4V Converter Plus for Mac.

This way is direct and easy. It is a specially designed DRM removal software to remove the DRM and convert the DRM M4V to MP4, MOV, AVI, FLV, etc video formats. Theoretically it also uses the recording method. But the video recording is invisible and the recording process is synchronous with the converting process. That means it removes the DRM protection while converting the M4V to other formats, like MP4.

This method is more professional and simple. You can download the trial version to have a test.

Step 1. Impot M4V videos into Noteburner.

After you launch Noteburner DRM M4V Converter, you can add M4V files to the conversion. There are two ways to import M4V into Noteburner, you can directly drag M4V videos into the program or import them via the "Add" button on the top left.

Step 2. Select MP4 as the output video format.

Click on the Profile drop-down list on the bottom left of Noteburner. You can choose Same as source for MP4 or Customized MP4 as output format.

Step 3. Convert DRM M4V to MP4.

After the setting and editing before the conversion finished, click on "Convert" button and begin to convert M4V videos to MP4 on your Mac. After the conversion between M4V and MP4 on Mac, you can enjoy the DRM free MP4 files on your Mac.

Tips: You can also watch the video tutorial: Convert DRM M4V to MP4 on Mac.

For Windows users, you need Noteburner M4V Converter for Windows.

iTunes is not the only way to get to HD movies, but it is a great and convenient way. With iPhone, iPod or iPad, videos purchased or rent could be synced from iTunes easily to your devices for watching. However, what if you want to differ from your friends and trying to use Galaxy S5, Google Nexus 5 and HTC One to play iTunes movies? What if your next dreaming tablet is not iPad, but Samsung Galaxy Tab? Apple wants people to use as many products from them so they created such a platform and videos from their iTunes store being protected by Fariplay DRM. But we are "the gamer, the fashion hunter, the page turner", we always want more than a single brand products. We want things to be easy, convenient, fascinating, and colorful. We want iTunes videos being played on every portable device.

What's DRM & Why We Need to Remove DRM?

DRM is short for Digital Rights Management, which is a kind of technology used by copyright holders with the intent to control the use of digital content and devices after sale. Take FairPlay DRM as an example. It's one of the most controversial DRM in the world. When we purchase or rent a movie from iTunes Store, we only own the right to play the downloads on authorized PC and Apple devices. But we can't copy and shart them with others or re-encode the movies with other codec for playing on more devices. What's worse, if we rent a movie from iTunes we only have 30 days from the time of rental to watch that movie rental. It only allows 24 hours or 48 hours for us to finish it after started watching the rental.

All these problems caused by DRM. Because movies and TV shows purchased or rent from Apple iTunes are all DRM M4V files protected by DRM FairPlay policy which prevents us from transfering iTunes movie purchases and rentals on mobile devices like Samsung Galaxy S5, Note 3, HTC One, Xperia Z, etc. 

But the DRM control policy is not accepted by most consumers who own the contents. They contend that there is no evidence shows that DRM helps prevent copyright infringement. That's why we need to remove DRM.

How to Remove DRM from iTunes Movie Purchases and Rentals

In order to put DRM protected iTunes M4V movies on non-Apple devices for watching, we should firstly strip the DRM off the locked video files. To remove DRM from iTunes movie rentals and purchases, we need a professional iTunes DRM Video Converter.

Aimersoft DRM Media Converter is one of the most powerful iTunes M4V DRM Remover in the world to help you bypass DRM protection from purchased and rented iTunes movies to any DRM-free formats as you like. With this all-in-one DRM killer application, you can get almost all DRM-ed videos and audios like M4V, WMV, ASF, AA, M4P, M4A, M4B, M4R downloaded from iTunes or BBC iPlayer, Xbox Live Store, Amazon Audible etc to conver them into plain formats such as MP4, MOV, AVI, MP3, FLV, MPEG etc to play on as much devices as you want.

How-tos: Strip DRM off iTunes Purchased and Rented Movies

Before we start to crack DRM from iTunes movies, please confirm you have got the things already:

• M4V Movies or TV Shows Downloaded from iTunes
• Aimersoft iTunes DRM M4V Converter Downloaded and Installed on PC
• Latest iTunes Downloaded and Installed
• Windows OS Running

Now, follow the steps below to get DRM removed from any iTunes movie or music video purchases and rentals with Aimersoft DRM Media Converter.

Step 1. Launch the program and click "Add" button to import iTunes DRM protected M4V movies.

Step 2. Click "Video Files to..." drop-down to choose the output format as you wish.

Step 3. Click "Start" to begin converting iTunes DRM M4V movie rentals or purchases to any DRM-free formats you like.

That's all, wait a minute and you will get non-DRM protected iTunes movies so as to play them on any devices you own.

“Recently I get a Samsung Galaxy S III and it seems to be satisfying except that I was not able to put M4V movies to Galaxy S III purchased from iTunes. Please help! I do want to keep my iTunes movie collections on it since it is comfortable to enjoy movies on its rather large screen. “
This is a common problem among those people who use Android phones like Galaxy S III and usually download movies from iTunes Store.  Most of them cannot find an effective way to play iTunes M4V movies on Galaxy S III. This article is mainly to introduce a simple and quick solution to transferring iTunes M4V for Galaxy S3 playing.

As we know that all of the iTunes movies which have been purchased or rented are protected by DRM, and as a result, those movies can’t be directly transferred to other non-Apple devices or media players. So if you want to enjoy iTunes M4V movies on Galaxy S3, you must remove DRM protection first, and you need NoteBurner M4V Converter Plus for Mac - a top iTunes DRM Removal Tool.

       

NoteBurner M4V Converter Plus for Mac aims to help you get rid of DRM and convert M4V movies to Galaxy S3 compatible video formats like MP4, AVI, MOV, WMV, and etc. (If you are running Windows OS, you can click to viewNoteBurner M4V Converter for Windows.) Follow below step by step guide to convert iTunes M4V to Galaxy S III on Mac.

Step 1. Import movie resource.
Launch this top iTunes DRM M4V to Galaxy S III converter on Mac, and iTunes would automatically run soon after that. Click the add button and choose the M4V movies you want to convert from pop out library. Then press OK to fulfill the importing step.
Step 2. Choose output settings.
If you want to sync iTunes M4V to Galaxy S3, you are recommended choose Customized MP4 movie (*.mp4) from profile menu and change the video size and bitrate from advanced settings tab on the right side of the program. Recommended video size: 1280*720, bitrate: 1024k.

Step 3. Start DRM M4V to Galaxy S3 conversion on Mac.
After changing the settings, you can just click the convert button to start to transcode iTunes M4V to Galaxy S III MP4 video on Mac. This iTunes M4V to Galaxy S III converter requires iTunes play the movie in pause mode while converting, so do not close or operate the iTunes until the conversion finished. After the conversion, you can directly transfer the converted videos to Galaxy S 3 for enjoying via USB cable.

As one of the first Windows Phone 8 devices to be officially announced, this device augments Espoo's line with a larger, curved 4.5-inch PureMotion HD+ display, dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 CPU, 2,000mAh battery, NFC, integrated wireless charging and an 8-megapixel rear PureView camera capable of 1080p video. The display packs WXGA (1,280 x 768) resolution, is 25 percent brighter than the next best panel on the market and it's the fastest LCD that Nokia has ever shipped on a smartphone.

Once you get the Lumia 920, what do you most want to do with it? Perhaps most of us would like to take photos since the camera on Lumia 920 is one of the most attractive features. And what else can you do? Perhaps you may have downloaded and purchased many movies from iTunes, and do you want to enjoy iTunes movie on Lumia 920? You may think it impossible since iTunes movie has DRM protection. If only you have a useful iTunes DRM remove tool, it may be possible to play iTunes M4V on Lumia 920.

NoteBurner M4V Converter Plus for Mac is an ideal iTunes DRM removal to get rid of the DRM from iTunes M4V movies and make it possible to transfer iTunes movie to Nokia Lumia 920. Besides, it is not only a powerful iTunesM4V to Lumia 920 converter on Mac, but also a useful iTunes DRM video converter that can output various video formats like MP4, AVI, WMV, MOV and etc. Follow the step-by-step guide below and sync DRM M4V movies to Lumia 920.

 
Step 1 Free Download iTunes M4V to Lumia 920 converter on Mac.

       

Note: For Mac OS X 10.8 users, you need follow below tips to install the NoteBurner M4V Converter Plus for Mac on your Mac.

• Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy
• Click the lock icon in the lower-left corner and enter your administrator username and password
• Under "Allow applications downloaded from", select "Anywhere"

You may also refer to the screenshot as below:

Step 2 Add iTunes M4V files from library.

Launch the iTunes M4V to Lumia 920 converter on Mac, and click on "Add" button to locate your iTunes files. Select the M4V files from iTunes library and then click the OK button.

Step 3 Choose Output File Format for Lumia 920.

Check out the specifications of Nokia Lumia 920, you will find that it supports video formats in MP4, WMV, 3GP, M4V, M4A. To convert iTunes DRM M4V video for Lumia 920, you may click on "Profile" button, and select "Customized MP4 Movie (*.mp4)" as the output format. Of course, you can choose any other formats which are playable on Nokia Lumia phones.

Step 4 Remove DRM and Convert iTunes M4V for Lumia 920.

You may adjust the video and audio parameters on the right side of the main interface. After changing the profile setting, you may hit on "Convert" button to start removing DRM and converting iTunes movies to Lumia 920 friendly videos. After the conversion finished, you may connect your Nokia with Mac via the USB cable, then you can transfer iTunes media to Lumia 920 without limitation. Have fun.