The fact that we know how to easily break the DRM is fantastic, but it does not make the files DRM Free.

My point is that the files don’t contain DRM; they use a standard encryption format with a key that Audible gives you (your ID.) You could lock your own audio using the same formatting without installing anything special.

It would be DRM if Audible locked the file to their player with a key pairing that only they knew and refused to provide the user or forbade them from accessing via usage terms.

There were many years during which the only known way to decrypt Audible books was by burning CD's and ripping them back, or exploiting the analog loophole. The encryption may have been standard, but no one had figured it out, and it's not as though Audible told anyone what to do.

Again, it's great that we now know how the encryption works, and everyone should go ahead and decrypt their books. But DVD's aren't DRM Free just because the encryption format was broken a long ago.

Furthermore, Audible's usage terms do restrict you from decrypting your audiobooks! Whether you want to abide by them are of course up to you.

You’re right, the terms do ask you not to do that. My mistake.

I’m glad it’s at least straightforward to do so now if it wasn’t in the past, even if it’s against the terms.