HACKED Kindle .. Microsoft Word Stuffed

An Israeli hacker claims to have broken the copyright protection on Amazon's Kindle e-reader, reports say.The hack will allow the ebooks stored on the reader to be transferred as pdf files to any other device. The hacker, known as Labba, responded to a challenge posted on Israeli hacking forum, hacking.org. It is the latest in a series of Digital Rights Management hacks, the most famous being the reverse engineering of

The Kindle e-book reader has been very successful since it was launched in the US in 2007. Amazon hopes to have sold a million devices by the end of the year. It leaves it to individual publishers whether they want to apply DRM but books in its main proprietary format .azw, cannot be transferred to other devices. It did not immediately respond to the news but it is likely it will attempt to patch its DRM software. DRM has long divided opinion. While rights holders regard it as a crucial tool to protect copyright, consumers tend to hate it because it limits what can be done with content. "DRM is not an effective way of preventing copying nor is it a good way of making sales. There isn't a customer out there saying 'what I need is an electronic book that does less," novelist and co-editor of the Boing Boing blog Cory Doctorow told the BBC when the Kindle was launched. As soon as a new DRM system is active, hackers begin to try and break it. Most famously Jon Lech Johansen, known as DVD Jon, cracked the copy protection on DVDs in 1999. He went on to break the copyright protection on iTunes, leading Apple to offer DRM-free music. DVD Jon now runs a company with an application to take the pain out of moving different types of content between devices.

An Israeli hacker claims to have broken the copyright protection on Amazon's Kindle e-reader, reports say.The hack will allow the ebooks stored on the reader to be transferred as pdf files to any other device. The hacker, known as Labba, responded to a challenge posted on Israeli hacking forum, hacking.org. It is the latest in a series of Digital Rights Management hacks, the most famous being the reverse engineering of iTunes (Apple)

Ban on sales of Microsoft Word upheld

Microsoft has failed in its attempt to dismiss a court case that would stop it selling Word.The software giant appealed against a ruling which found it infringed a patent owned by Canadian company i4i. With the failure of the appeal Microsoft must now pay i4i damages of $290m (£182m) and comply with an injunction ending the sales of some versions of Word. The injunction is scheduled to go into effect on 11 January.

Microsoft said the ban would prohibit the sale of all available versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office software from the date that the injunction comes into force. Versions of the software sold before that date, including Word 2003 and Word 2007, will not be hit by the ruling. "We have been preparing for this possibility since the District Court issued its injunction in August 2009 and have put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from these products," Microsoft said. "Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for US sale and distribution by the injunction date," it said. "Beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction," Microsoft added. Microsoft was accused by i4i of infringing on a 1998 XML patent in its Word 2003 and Word 2007 programs. Word uses XML, or the Extensible Markup Language, to open .XML, .DOCX, and .DOCM files. The initial ruling in the court dispute between i4i and Microsoft was made in August. At that time Microsoft was found to have infringed the i4i patent and the Canadian firm was awarded damages. The injunction on sales was imposed at the same time but a Microsoft appeal initially overturned that ban on US sales. The stay on the injunction has now run out and, as a result, Microsoft must stop selling infringing versions of Word. Microsoft said it might file further appeals, but that it was keen to comply with the injunction. "While we are moving quickly to address the injunction issue, we are also considering our legal options," it said.