I wonder what percentage of kindle users even knew about this or used it.
Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
31–40 of 114 posts
Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your solution hurts authors more than Amazon. Just buy ebooks from somewhere else! Don’t be cheap and pretend it’s principled. I know you say buy a copy if you enjoyed it but that’s not really how commerce works and none of these authors agreed to offer you donationware.
> Just buy ebooks from somewhere else! Where can I buy ebooks (epub) that give me access to download the file so that I can copy it to my other devices and keep it on my own backups and organize it in my digital library the way I want to? I want a good selection of anime / manga / sci-fi, and a little bit of the typical best seller stuff.
I've switched from Amazon to Kobo (in terms of a store, I don't use either's devices). I tested last night and I was able to copy epubs purchased from Kobo wherever I wanted. They have all of what you just described.
Like you, I insist on having the ability to archive and backup my media, and the second I learned that Amazon was removing that ability I was done with them.
Also just to echo what others have said, I'm of the belief that once you pay for a book/game/etc... as long as you're the only one using it, the rest is free game. Pirate away after you buy a copy and I don't think there's an ethical problem there.
Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
#33This is... terrible news. This is primarily how I get books from the library. I found that if you keep the Kindle on Airplane mode and download + transfer them, they never expire. Nothing malicious. I just can't read books arbitrarily in a 21 day period.
This has nothing to do what your use case since you get the books from the library.
Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
#34> Amazon has occasionally [1] removed books from its online store and remotely deleted them from Kindles or [2] edited titles and re-uploaded new copies to its e-readers. 1. Not remotely ok but we understand that contracts expire somehow and "purchase" is not a legal term any more. 2. Wait, what? When would this be useful to the corporation? Is Jeff gearing up for more censorship like he does at WaPo?
> Is Jeff gearing up for more censorship like he does at WaPo?
He already tried in the past:
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18am...
Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your solution hurts authors more than Amazon. Just buy ebooks from somewhere else! Don’t be cheap and pretend it’s principled. I know you say buy a copy if you enjoyed it but that’s not really how commerce works and none of these authors agreed to offer you donationware.
bookshop.org is very nice alternative! I'm happy to spend more money on that than using Amazon or any other big corp. They are heavily subsidized and in the long rung destroy people community and the world in general.
It has DRM and there is no way to read books from there except on their iOS and android apps and maybe the website (ereaders are excluded entirely at least for now - i think they’re hoping to add Kobo support eventually)
Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
#36The simple solution is to stop buying eBooks from Amazon. Pirate all of your epubs and PDFs so you will always have an offline backup. If you enjoyed the book buy a hard copy for a friend, relative, book club, etc from a local book store. Amazon doesn't need your money anymore.
Isn’t the simpler solution to not care?
I’d rather just pay to read books from Amazon right on my Kindle than go through the rigamarole of pirating all my epubs and PDFs.
In 16 years of Kindle ownership I’ve never once been like dang I wish I had an offline backup of that.
Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your solution hurts authors more than Amazon. Just buy ebooks from somewhere else! Don’t be cheap and pretend it’s principled. I know you say buy a copy if you enjoyed it but that’s not really how commerce works and none of these authors agreed to offer you donationware.
> I know you say buy a copy if you enjoyed it but that’s not really how commerce works when I was younger I pirated all my OS X software because I couldn't afford it. That machine broke some years back (2021-ish) and I was on Windows for a while, but after I got a job I bought a Mac again and dropped probably over $500 on copies of all the software that I had once pirated. I don't know how you think commerce works, b…
You’re describing something different, which is just paying later. I was objecting to someone proposing reading books and then paying only if they thought it was good. That’s the part that isn’t commerce, because one side is making use of a good and isn’t compensating the other side.
Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your solution hurts authors more than Amazon. Just buy ebooks from somewhere else! Don’t be cheap and pretend it’s principled. I know you say buy a copy if you enjoyed it but that’s not really how commerce works and none of these authors agreed to offer you donationware.
> Just buy ebooks from somewhere else! Where can I buy ebooks (epub) that give me access to download the file so that I can copy it to my other devices and keep it on my own backups and organize it in my digital library the way I want to? I want a good selection of anime / manga / sci-fi, and a little bit of the typical best seller stuff.
Honestly in most genres you're hosed, but if you're into Japanese nerd stuff, j-novel club sells light novels (and a few manga) with no DRM.
Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Just buy ebooks from somewhere else! Where can I buy ebooks (epub) that give me access to download the file so that I can copy it to my other devices and keep it on my own backups and organize it in my digital library the way I want to? I want a good selection of anime / manga / sci-fi, and a little bit of the typical best seller stuff.
I've switched from Amazon to Kobo (in terms of a store, I don't use either's devices). I tested last night and I was able to copy epubs purchased from Kobo wherever I wanted. They have all of what you just described. Like you, I insist on having the ability to archive and backup my media, and the second I learned that Amazon was removing that ability I was done with them. Also just to echo what others have said, I'm…
Some of the books on the kobo store come with DRM, but if that’s the case it says so in the description.
Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
#40I've got a 3rd generation Kindle. It's over a decade old, but it works flawlessly except that it can't authenticate with Amazon anymore, due to changes in their whatsits. So, it's not possible for me to legally buy books from them, which (according to me) gives me license to just pirate everything I want. Nobody will believe this, but I do buy physical copies of about 90% of the books I steal, if only used copies. Bu…
Bookshop.org sells ebooks now. There is DRM based on publisher specifications unfortunately. For DRM free books, I ship physical copies for scanning to get a PDF, which is not great unfortunately.