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Kindle is removing download and transfer option on Feb 26th

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Re: Kindle is removing download and transfer option on Feb 26th

#41

Post by daveoc64 »

pmarreck wrote: post #37

I own Kindles and I have bought a lot of ebook content from the Amazon store over the years but they don't seem to realize that the more restrictions they put in place, the more they are incentivizing just someone going to the effort to decrypt/de-DRM everything to epub and shoving it into a Kobo (or apple's Books.app, or comic book reader, or anything else that reads the ebook or comic book formats) ...Which is exac…

>Apple understood this when the first iPod came out. Offer a better service, not shinier handcuffs.

It's a shame they haven't tried to pressure the publishers into dropping DRM for books.

The DRM used by Apple's bookstore is entirely limited to Apple's own apps on its own devices. You can't even read the books in a web browser.

Re: Kindle is removing download and transfer option on Feb 26th

#42

Post by pmarreck »

daveoc64 wrote: post #41
pmarreck wrote: post #37

I own Kindles and I have bought a lot of ebook content from the Amazon store over the years but they don't seem to realize that the more restrictions they put in place, the more they are incentivizing just someone going to the effort to decrypt/de-DRM everything to epub and shoving it into a Kobo (or apple's Books.app, or comic book reader, or anything else that reads the ebook or comic book formats) ...Which is exac…

>Apple understood this when the first iPod came out. Offer a better service, not shinier handcuffs. It's a shame they haven't tried to pressure the publishers into dropping DRM for books. The DRM used by Apple's bookstore is entirely limited to Apple's own apps on its own devices. You can't even read the books in a web browser.

Which is why I try to decrypt everything I purchase, or obtain a decrypted version after purchase. (The only grey-area exception is if I own the physical copy of the book, I consider it ethical to download the ebook, but this is of course debatable to a degree)

I'm not trying to screw over authors and publishers, I just want to use my purchased content how I please.

They could easily do what Apple did and leave things un-DRM'd but digitally-signed as having been purchased by someone.

Re: Kindle is removing download and transfer option on Feb 26th

#43

Post by 42772827 »

wkat4242 wrote: post #13
42772827 wrote: post #6

There have been several threads about this on HN over the past few days and months. Just to avoid the confusion that seems to follow these, a few notes: (1) This is the "Download and Transfer" option where Amazon allowed users to select books they had purchased a license to and download them from the Amazon website. (2) The ability to transfer books from your computer to your Kindle using a USB cable is not affected.…

> (2) The ability to transfer books from your computer to your Kindle using a USB cable is not affected. Well, it kinda is. If you can no longer download the books you paid for, you can't upload them over USB. That's what that feature on their website was meant for, in fact. Of course you can still upload non-Amazon content yes. Which is probably what I'll end up doing. I won't buy books on Amazon anymore if I can't…

You can still download books you paid a license to Amazon for, you just have to use a Wi-Fi or 4G LTE-enabled Kindle to do it.

Re: Kindle is removing download and transfer option on Feb 26th

#44

Post by pmarreck »

runjake wrote: post #38
pmarreck wrote: post #37

I own Kindles and I have bought a lot of ebook content from the Amazon store over the years but they don't seem to realize that the more restrictions they put in place, the more they are incentivizing just someone going to the effort to decrypt/de-DRM everything to epub and shoving it into a Kobo (or apple's Books.app, or comic book reader, or anything else that reads the ebook or comic book formats) ...Which is exac…

What do you use to decrypt your Kindle purchases? I haven't yet found anything that works with modern purchases.

Most forums frown on sharing such information, but seek and ye shall find. Also, it's good to leave speed bumps in place due to the ethical concerns.

The last time I did it I had to basically procure an old Kindle app and get the content via that, because it used a weaker version of DRM. That loophole may have been closed in the meantime, though.

Re: Kindle is removing download and transfer option on Feb 26th

#45

Post by jsbisviewtiful »

42772827 wrote: post #6

There have been several threads about this on HN over the past few days and months. Just to avoid the confusion that seems to follow these, a few notes: (1) This is the "Download and Transfer" option where Amazon allowed users to select books they had purchased a license to and download them from the Amazon website. (2) The ability to transfer books from your computer to your Kindle using a USB cable is not affected.…

Thanks. I feel like the commentary and “news blogs” around this have been very confusing.

Re: Kindle is removing download and transfer option on Feb 26th

#46

Post by yreg »

wiether wrote: post #34

I hear the complaints about Kindle but... How are we supposed to do? In three "taps" I buy a book and 10s later I start reading it. Legally. The device just works. The alternatives? Libraries here (France) have a very limited offer of ebooks. Even for ebooks in English. I owned a Kobo circa 2013 and it was awful. I tried friend's devices more recently, and it's not the UX I expect from a "book". A simple comparison;…

> Even pirating is less convenient

I stopped reading ebooks and actually moved to physical books, but from what I remember pirated books were super convenient. I had this giant library of tons and tons of scifi/fantasy books I once randomly copied from someone and it didn't even take that much storage space. It lasted me my childhood and I've only managed to read a small fraction of it.

Re: Kindle is removing download and transfer option on Feb 26th

#47

Post by goosedragons »

wiether wrote: post #34

I hear the complaints about Kindle but... How are we supposed to do? In three "taps" I buy a book and 10s later I start reading it. Legally. The device just works. The alternatives? Libraries here (France) have a very limited offer of ebooks. Even for ebooks in English. I owned a Kobo circa 2013 and it was awful. I tried friend's devices more recently, and it's not the UX I expect from a "book". A simple comparison;…

What exactly is the UX you want from an eReader? I find Kindles and Kobos are pretty similar. So I'm curious what exactly was better about Amazon. I personally find Amazon has worse text options, font sizing, line spacing etc.

I have purchased eBooks that were just bad OCRs, some publishers just don't care.

Kobo will also price match with Amazon, you get credit back and an extra 10% too.

Re: Kindle is removing download and transfer option on Feb 26th

#49

Post by theshackleford »

loeg wrote: post #22
poisonborz wrote: post #3

Bad, but anyone sideloading would skip Kindles anyway for a long time now for much better products.

I use a Kindle and pretty much exclusively sideload. The display and form factor are fantastic. Battery life is very good. Last time I was in the market (late 2021), nothing else was as good.

My kobo is easily as good as my kindle was. Only better, because it has zero ties to Amazon.

Re: Kindle is removing download and transfer option on Feb 26th

#50

Post by aradox66 »

jerjerjer wrote: post #35
rafram wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I can tell, the main benefit of jailbreaking is to be able to install a reader that supports more ebook formats, since a stock Kindle can already browse the web and read ebooks from any source, but it only supports MOBI/AZW3, and the Send to Kindle EPUB converter is not very good. But it’s easy enough to use Calibre to do a lossless EPUB -> AZW3 conversion without the hassle of jailbreaking. Is there some o…

Folders.

Ohhh shit
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