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Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks

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Re: Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks

#111

Post by freedomben »

delecti wrote: post #95
NikolaNovak wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it appears highly genre-correlated. High percentage of science fiction books come with a small statement "this book is drm free on request of publisher / author". Zero of my photography, music, computer science or graphic novels came with such a tag.

Yeah, Tor Books publishes without DRM, and they seem to be one of the bigger SFF publishers these days. John Scalzi, George R.R. Martin (though not the ASoIaF books), Robert Jordan, Annalee Newitz, Charlie Jane Anders, and a bunch of other SFF authors I recognize. I'm sure there are others, but all the once I've noticed have been from Tor.

Indeed, and I love Tor for this. Brandon Sanderson has also come out against DRM. I already loved the man's books, now I love the man too

Re: Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks

#112

Post by MaKey »

nippoo wrote: post #51
icqFDR wrote: post #44

I’d advise anyone buying e-books on Amazon to think it through carefully. My account was banned recently because, years ago, I ordered two paper books that Amazon said would be split into two shipments. Both books arrived without any issues, but later Amazon refunded me for one of them, claiming that one package never arrived. This happened 4–5 years ago. Apparently, during a recent review, they decided this counted…

They failed to deliver a Pixel phone to me - they never even tried to deliver it and the status said "permanent delivery failure" so I assumed they'd automatically refund me. Fast forward a few months, I never received a refund and they claim they have no record any more. I could chargeback my credit card but I imagine I'd also be permanently banned from Amazon - so instead I accept they've just stolen $1000 from me…

It seems wild to me to just accept a loss of $1000 for something that isn't your fault. I'd be persistent in each contact with Amazon and if you're really not getting anywhere I'd go to small claims court or do a chargeback.

Re: Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks

#113

Post by [deleted] »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #104
stringsandchars wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> pirating everything on annas archive et. al. cannot be beat by any commercial offering While I understand people pirating movies - there are hundreds of movies I'd happily pay to watch, but which are literally unavailable to me because of some arbitrary 'regional' restriction imposed by the distributors. But I can't think of a single book that isn't available in most parts of the world - certainly they're available…

>Would you like your work to be pirated, Imagine being so good at writing, that people out there are trying to get a copy of it that they can upload to The Pirate Bay. Hell yeh, I'd love that... seems like reaching the big leagues.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks

#114

Post by zecg »

Insanity wrote: post #87
icqFDR wrote: post #44

I’d advise anyone buying e-books on Amazon to think it through carefully. My account was banned recently because, years ago, I ordered two paper books that Amazon said would be split into two shipments. Both books arrived without any issues, but later Amazon refunded me for one of them, claiming that one package never arrived. This happened 4–5 years ago. Apparently, during a recent review, they decided this counted…

Damn that is scary. I’ve been reading on Kindle since 2017, I have about 200 books on there. I doubt I would re-read many of them, but my partner is still going through some of them (with the family library thing). I’d be pissed if it got wiped.

I'd download epubs of everything from Anna's Archive and/or soulseek (Nicotine+ is nice) and kindly tell them to fuck off with their account.

Re: Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks

#115

Post by freedomben »

IAmBroom wrote: post #79
Gazoche wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...in the US. I tried to buy an ebook of the Stormlight Archive from Australia and was sad to discover that DRM-free versions were not available.

I think you missed the joke. Tor is an anonymous relay service, often used for pirating copies.

I assume GP was referring to Tor Books, (which name confused me immensely at first since I've been using the Tor project for many years) but that would have been an absolutely hilarious joke and I think you interpreting it as a joke is totally reasonable given how prominent the onion router project is.

Re: Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks

#116

Post by freedomben »

bambax wrote: post #15
TheSilva wrote: post #8

Too little too late, already ditched the whole ecosystem after so many years and devices.

Same. I'm done.

Yep, never again. I tried to take a pragmatic position with the DRM, and it is just not possible. I buy the crap out of DRM free stuff, but if it's not DRM free, it's not for me

Re: Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks

#117

Post by ay »

embedding-shape wrote: post #20

Hah, they actually did a slight rollback! When I first heard about them stopping the downloads, I immediately downloaded all the books I purchased from Amazon and went from buying ~1 book per week to 0. Seems a lot of us doing so had some sort of effect. Unfortunately, it seems like this will be chosen by the publisher, so of course probably most of the books won't be downloadable at all, and Amazon can now point the…

I have bought more than 600 books over a decade or so;

But after they decided the ebooks were actually just license to read, I did exactly the same as you, and now rather than happily buying from them, actively discourage everyone in my social circle from using kindle.

I am not going back, whoever they decide to blame.

Re: Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks

#118

Post by freedomben »

carlosjobim wrote: post #73
rgegerge wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two single line comments recommending kobo over kindle in this thread. How do I know this is a genuine recommendation and not astroturfing?

How do you know anything? You can never know for sure if you can trust another person, and this is why people can get schizophrenia. Asking people to verify that they are honest will never help you. Dishonest people will of course lie to you and say they are honest. While honest people will be insulted by your question and not want to engage with you. What you can do is verify. Try a Kobo, try a Kindle. Make up your…

Indeed, and it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to do an internet search to get more opinions. If you think everyone is astroTurfing and shilling, then you have to fall back to the good old-fashioned scientific method of trying things out yourself.

It would be great too to bring that information back to HN and share it with us.

Re: Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks

#119

Post by mynameisash »

robin_reala wrote: post #57
nippoo wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They failed to deliver a Pixel phone to me - they never even tried to deliver it and the status said "permanent delivery failure" so I assumed they'd automatically refund me. Fast forward a few months, I never received a refund and they claim they have no record any more. I could chargeback my credit card but I imagine I'd also be permanently banned from Amazon - so instead I accept they've just stolen $1000 from me…

For $1k stolen from me I think I’d go with not shopping at Amazon again, tbh.

Yeah, I get that Amazon is incredibly convenient, but $1000 is $1000 no matter which company takes it from you. If some local mom and pop shop effectively stole $1000 from me, you can bet your ass I'd never patronize them again.

Re: Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks

#120

Post by freedomben »

everdrive wrote: post #74
jrm4 wrote: post #64

Haha, what a headline. The internet "allows" ePub and PDF downloads for ALL books. Adjust yourselves accordingly.

Amazon deserves a lot of criticism in the general sense, but this can only be seen as a positive move. Most importantly, if they set an industry standard, others might follow. Fundamentally, I prefer a physical book to a digital one. But, the primary reason I'd never even entertain a digital book is the lack of ownership. Ownership is incredibly important, and we need to celebrate victories when they happen.

I agree this is a positive step, but this is like notch 1 on a scale of 0 to 100, 0 being maximum abuse of your customer. I think it's downright evil not to allow this for DRM free books, which they have been doing for many years now. It is positive that they reduced the level of evil by a little bit, and I'll give them credit for that, but this movement is so minor in the scope of things that it does not sway me whatsoever to go back to buying from their Kindle store
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