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Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

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Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#81

Post by EA-3167 »

kmeisthax wrote: post #66
amazingamazing wrote: post #31

I wonder what percentage of kindle users even knew about this or used it.

AFAIK this was pretty integral to the Calibre + DRM cracking plugin workflow that everyone used to buy Kindle books and then use them on non-Kindle platforms. In other words, it's Amazon welding shut another unauthorized fire exit.

I've purchased hundreds of books through the Kindle store specifically because of that functionality, and I've just moved my business over to Kobo. I doubt that I'm the only person to shrug and bail on Amazon based on this move.

I don't know if that matters to them, or if it even registers tbh, but I think I'm like most people in that regard: I'm not going to struggle to send feedback to a megacorp, I'm just gone.

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#82

Post by [deleted] »

belter wrote: post #73
giaour wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true. Just like in every other time, many authors rely on multiple income streams, but book sales are an important part of that. Amazon would love for your assertion to be true, but we're not there yet.

Sorry...it is: "The median author income for full-time authors from their books was $10,000 in 2022" - https://authorsguild.org/news/key-takeaways-from-2023-author... "Nobody makes money from books" - https://malwarwick-98471.medium.com/nobody-makes-money-from-... Exceptions and wildly successful authors are just the exceptions that confirm the status quo.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#83

Post by toomuchtodo »

politelemon wrote: post #71
toomuchtodo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. https://bookshop.org/info/ebooks

IMO this is worse because the DRM books are limited to their app, and so completely locked away in their control. No possibility of reading on eink devices.

Depends on how hard it is to strip the DRM. It’s a checkbox to give publishers the warm and fuzzy feeling.

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#84

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

muhehe wrote: post #28
haltcatchfire wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works - amazing - with Calibre actually. I set up Calibre-Web-Automated last week and setup my Kobo Libra 2 to sync with my Calibre server (swapping one url in a config file), and now my Kobo acts like my self hosted Calibre server is the actual Kobo Store, meaning I can browse and download all of my books. I think it syncs reading progress too.

Hey, this look neat. I'm not familiar with kobos, are they good (compared to kindles)? Does this require some sort of jailbreaking or are they quite open by default?

In my experience they're more open than Kindles by default and there's no need for jailbreaking. I can read PDFs, project Gutenberg epubs, library books, sideload via Calibre and so on -- but maybe someone else has other needs that require a jailbreak? Not sure.

The hardware is good. I have a Libra Colour, which works great. Good screen, waterproof, nice hardware buttons to page-scroll one-handed, a good bezel to hold onto. No complaints from me about it.

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#85

Post by paulcole »

Rhea_Karty wrote: post #75
paulcole wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So, it's not possible for me to legally buy books from them Lol of course it is, you just convinced yourself that stealing was a better option. Get on with Amazon support and tell them that you’ve been a loyal customer for a decade and have a Kindle that no longer authenticates but want to continue buying books from them. If they don’t offer you a free Kindle, tell them you want one for free. I’ve done this a few t…

This is insane... we should not be throwing away good tech because of planned obsolescence and relying on groveling to customer service to use tech that we bought...

OK, then just buy a new Kindle if you feel groveling is beneath you? I’ll admit that’s an even quicker solution.

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#86

Post by paulcole »

stryan wrote: post #76
paulcole wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So, it's not possible for me to legally buy books from them Lol of course it is, you just convinced yourself that stealing was a better option. Get on with Amazon support and tell them that you’ve been a loyal customer for a decade and have a Kindle that no longer authenticates but want to continue buying books from them. If they don’t offer you a free Kindle, tell them you want one for free. I’ve done this a few t…

Begging for free things is not a solution to this problem, we should stop allowing corporations to break our things.

OK, you fight the corporations and I’ll just get a new Kindle.

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#87

Post by crtasm »

politelemon wrote: post #71
toomuchtodo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. https://bookshop.org/info/ebooks

IMO this is worse because the DRM books are limited to their app, and so completely locked away in their control. No possibility of reading on eink devices.

>We are working with Kobo to support Kobo devices later this year.

If that comes together I assume it'll use the standard adobe system and people can free their copies?

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#88

Post by 9dev »

nabla9 wrote: post #21
tene80i wrote: post #7

Earlier 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.

If it's OK for Meta, the society accepts it. Personally I'm glad to pay for a book later if author provides alternate method for payment. But to pay for the book just to flip trough it and decide it's not for me is not worth it.

Do you also go out for lunch and decide whether to pay for the meal after you’re done if it tastes well enough? Pay for games if you enjoyed the story? Go to a concert and pay for the tickets if it was a good show?

That isn’t fair, and also not how economic transactions work. If everyone did this, we would not have the majority of enjoyable things.

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#89

Post by KPGv2 »

crest wrote: post #43
pclowes wrote: post #12

I am weary of corporations still trying to own everything they already sold me. Additionally sick of them trying to control speech and thought based on whatever ludicrous corporate nanny culture is in vogue. The people censoring books with “inappropriate language” have no understanding of precedent, history, or art. 1/100th as talented as the authors whose work they “update”. Their life’s greatest accomplishment is m…

I don't have a problem with changing the language in older works, but I have a massive problem with hiding the change or the previous versions. Sell a perpetual, transferable license to the work and make newer (aka "improved") versions of the document available after the sale. I will appreciate better layout, fixed typos, timestamps to match up with audio books etc, but if you try to whitewash history and erase notes…

I switched to the Kobo store specifically because its DRM is so trivially breakable. They've gotten hundreds of dollars from me, and I switched to independent book sellers for physical copies of things. I order a few, and next time I'm in the suburb with my favorite indie store, I pick them up there.

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#90

Post by Carrok »

paulcole wrote: post #85
Rhea_Karty wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is insane... we should not be throwing away good tech because of planned obsolescence and relying on groveling to customer service to use tech that we bought...

OK, then just buy a new Kindle if you feel groveling is beneath you? I’ll admit that’s an even quicker solution.

Just glossed right over that e-waste part, eh?
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