Apple iBooks Copy Protection Cracked for First Time

709193 large2The Digital Reader points to reports that Apple's iBooks Digital Rights Management (DRM) copy protection has been cracked for the first time:

Reports are coming in today that the latest version of Requiem, an app that removes Fairplay DRM from music and videos sold via iTunes, will now also remove the DRM from iBooks ebooks.

The news is notable in that it's the first time that iBooks DRM has been circumvented. This would allow iBooks downloaded from iTunes to be used on other platforms besides Apple's iBooks reader.

Apple's DRM for music and movies have been circumvented in the past, and resulted in a cat and mouse game of updates to iTunes to disable these hacks. Apple will likely respond in a similar fashion to this hack.

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...

Top Rated Comments

logandzwon Avatar
167 months ago
You can't read iBook on your desktop. Not even Mac OS X can read iBooks. This is the main reason I stopped buying ebooks from iBooks.

Now I can. Thanks "stupid pirates"
Score: 72 Votes (Like | Disagree)
andyprit Avatar
167 months ago
I've never understood DRM, it's premise seems to be to penalise those who purchase content legally, whilst pirates still get their more flexible content for free.
Score: 45 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Sjhonny Avatar
167 months ago
<wishfull thinking>
Maybe this is a reason for Apple to drop the drm on the ibook ebooks altogether (like what happened with the AAC's)
</wishfull thinking>
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cambookpro Avatar
167 months ago
What for?
I understand that its a kind of sport for hackers, but for end-user...



Pirates? I dont see anything related to pirating. Its just hacking formats.

Oh I dunno...

* Reading on a Mac
* Reading on Kindle
* Able to copy and paste from iBooks
* Reading on any other ereader
* etc...


:D
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
arn Avatar
167 months ago
You are welcome to discuss the merits of DRM and circumventing it, but please no links to such software, etc...
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AppleMark Avatar
167 months ago
It was always going to happen at some stage.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)