Advanced eBook Inscriber (AEBIN)

Advanced eBook Inscriber (or simply AEBIN) is a program to convert Sealed eBooks in Microsoft Reader (.LIT) format to Inscribed ones. Sealed eBooks can be created with Microsoft Reader Content SDK (available for free) or various 3rd party tools; AEBIN allows to add any purchaser-specific information (such as purchaser's name or order number) to the Sealed eBook, so that information will be shown on the cover page of the book when it is opened in Microsoft Reader. This reinforces honest usage by consumers.

Requirements :
• Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 or WindowsXP
• about one megabyte of free space on hard disk

An eBook (electronic book) is simply a file that contains text and images – as in usual (printed) book, but with additional features such as hyperlinks (cross-references), searching capabilities and sometimes sounds/music. To read an eBook, you should have a PC with an appropriate software, or a special hardware device.

Most popular eBook formats are Adobe Acrobat PDF and Microsoft Reader .LIT. Nowadays, Acrobat .PDF's and Microsoft Reader.LIT's are quickly becoming the de-facto standard on the Internet for documents and previously published materials. The software to view (and under certain circumstances, to print and search) Acrobat .PDF and Microsoft Reader .LIT eBooks is free and available for different computer platforms.

One of the key features of all eBook formats is protection and security.

Microsoft Reader eBooks are protected by the Microsoft Digital Asset Server – the Digital Rights Management (DRM) solution for the secure distribution of eBooks. DAS enables consumers to download personalized, tamper-proof, and copy-protected digital books from publishers and resellers, and provides three levels of security for the protection and encryption, as described in Microsoft Reader Content SDK documentation:

Sealed: Titles are encrypted to prevent tampering (this does not guarantee authenticity of the copy or its source); that is, once created, a Sealed eBook title cannot be opened, changed, and saved. A Sealed title, in and of itself, does not provide for any copy protection.

Inscribed: Titles are Sealed and can prominently display data about their acquisition on the cover page so as to enable tracking and thereby reinforce honest usage. An Inscribed eBook can be read with any copy of Microsoft Reader.

Owner Exclusive eBooks: Titles are Inscribed, and can be opened only by recipients in control of a Reader-enabled device that has been activated for the receipt of such titles and that has furthermore verified that the title downloaded is intended for the recipient in control of that device.

Sealed eBooks can be created by Reader Content Software Development Kit (available for free from Microsoft); there are also some 3rd party tools such as ReaderWorks from OverDrive. With AEBIN, you cannot create Inscribed eBooks directly, but can convert Sealed eBooks (created with any software) into the Inscribed ones, adding custom information to the cover page.

First, press the Open .LIT file... button on the toolbar and browse for LIT file you want to inscribe. If selected file is a valid Microsoft Reader eBook, the full path to it will be written into the edit box below (otherwise, you will get an Error message). Alternatively, you can use the Browse button at the right of this box – it has the same functionality.

If the given eBook is Inscribed or Owner Exclusive (see About Microsoft Reader eBooks for more information), the bottom window will show the text (this book is already inscribed for) – usually, this is the name of the order, or the name of the person who purchased the book.

In the case when selected book is Sealed (DRM2) (and only in this case), you can add your own "inscription" text to it (so Microsoft reader will show it on the cover page, see below). Simply type that text in the second (bottom) window, or press the right mouse button there, and select Paste from File from context menu. Note: the program does not allow to inscribe more than 1024 bytes of text (even if you have more, it will not fit on the cover page, anyway), and so larget files will be just cut (at 1024th character, or first zero). Again, you will not be able to inscribe the book if it is already Inscribed (DRM3) or Owner Exclusive (DRM5).

Next, press Inscribe button in right-bottom corner of AEBIN window, or on the program's toolbar (you will be prompted for the file name (*.lit) to save), and Inscribed book will be created. Until, of course, it already has been inscribed, or some error occured.

AEBIN supports keyboard shortcuts for most operations:

CTRL+O Open .LIT file to Inscribe
CTRL+I Inscribe the file
ALT+O Open Options window
F1 Show help file
CTRL+A Open About window
ALT+X or CTRL+Q Close the program


Home page URL : http://www.elcomsoft.com/aebpr.html