"Free" Kindle encryption removal "service"

"I Love My Kindle" (wonder what his preferred eReader is) reports on a solicitation to break the DRM on Kindle books - all you have to do is send your books along with your Kindle's serial number. He's certainly correct in the many potential problems here (DMCA law violations, Kindle Terms of Service violations, plain ethical and moral concerns, etc).

He seems concerned about the request for the serial number. While I would be hesitant to share my device's serial number, also - I can understand why that's a requirement. There's a fairly well known set of Python scripts out there that convert your Kindle's serial number to the encryption key used to apply DRM to the books you retrieve from Amazon. Another bundled script then converts the file to a non-encrypted Mobi formatted book, with the exception of Amazon's newer Topaz book format, that apparently hasn't been hacked yet. If it wasn't a clear violation of the DMCA, I'd probably be pretty interested in all that as a way to move books from one device to another. So while I'd hate to share my serial number with a complete stranger, I do see why it's a requirement.