this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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This is not an anti-Kindle rant. I have purchased (rented?) several Kindle titles myself.

However, YSK that you are only licensing access to the book from Amazon, you don't own it like a physical book.

There have been cases where Amazon deletes a title from all devices. (Ironically, one version of "1984" was one such title).

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html

There have also been cases where a customer violated Amazon's terms of service and lost access to all of their Kindle e-books. Amazon has all the power in this relationship. They can and do change the rules on us lowly peasants from time to time.

Here are the terms of use:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201014950

Note, there are indeed ways to download your books and import them into something like Calibre (and remove the DRM from the books). If you do some web searches (and/or search YouTube) you can probably figure it out.

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[–] [email protected] 101 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I haven't used Kindles personally ever, but I helped my neighbor export their kindle collection a few years ago.

It dumped it into mobi files to use with calibre. Then from there, you can convert them into epubs.

I recall it being straightforward. Probably something a kindle owner should do periodically to back up their collection.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Another problem with DRM'd platforms is that you don't really know how long this will be easy or even viable. I recall these tools breaking in the past as Amazon changed their encryption, and it took time for them to be updated.

For anyone with a large library on Kindle, Audible, or any other DRM-infested platform, I recommend stripping that DRM sooner rather than later. You might think "I can always do it later" but there's no guarantee that will be true.

Also, shoutout to ebooks.com for having a dedicated DRM-free section and a simple checkbox to filter search results to only show DRM-free items. Not sure where to go for DRM-free audiobooks though. Anyone got suggestions? Personally I will simply not buy books with DRM, regardless of how easy it might be to crack it. If I'm going to have to break the law anyway (thanks, DMCA!), I might as well pirate it and find some other way to toss the author a few bucks.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

I use downpour.com for drm-free audiobooks. They let you straight up download the mb4 files haha it’s awesome.

It’s such a win-win b/c I get to buy audiobooks drm-free and I get to avoid supporting audible which has terrible business practices such as locking authors in exclusive deals.

Also thanks for the ebooks.com recommendation! I was reading this thread specifically to see if anyone knew of a good place online to buy drm-free ebooks :)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

You can get Audiobooks from Spotify using the app Soundbound. You need to insert a list of plugins, then it works.

Apart from that, youtube? Or sailing the high seas?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (4 children)

My understanding is they arent mobi files anymore but a proprietary DRM format. That being said, there are many wonderful calibre plugins that break the drm.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I've used Calibre and stripped DRM off eBooks, definitely recommend.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's a really nice app. Very customizable.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I use Calibre to remove the DRM from all ebooks I buy. Not that I buy a lot of them, but hell if I’ll let Amazon be the keeper of the keys.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago

Yup, making a DRM-free backup somewhere is the only way to protect the content you paid for from the whims of the overlords.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You don't own your Kindle books because you bought them from Amazon

I don't own mine because I pirated them

We are not the same

edit: I actually try to circle back around and buy physical copies of any book I really enjoy. But I'm much better about paying for video games, tabletop games, and even journalism than I am fiction... I think my bezos resentment gets in the way a bit there.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Better to give to their patreon if possible. Awesome authors like Shirlatoon have them. Because, quite frankly, fuck the publishers too.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Like hell I don't. Calibre plus NoDRM says otherwise.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago (7 children)

There are also Kindle books sold without DRM at the request of the author.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago

As someone who publishes on Amazon if you buy my book and Amazon takes it from you PM I will send said customer a epub version for free.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago (4 children)

You can strip the DRM if needed

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yea Audible too. I can't remember the name of the tool but you can connect to your account and it pulls all your purchases locally DRM free. It was handy for setting up Audiobookshelf

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I hate that pirating is the ONLY way to even semi own what you buy. Bought an album off Bandcamp (DRM free music) and when one of the songs on that album got in a pointless argument about copyright and got taken down from my Spotify playlists.

Songs being taken off of Spotify is really common if you're into older stuff as the rights get passed on when the artist dies. Though in this case it was a year old album.

I was glad I bought it DRM free as I thought they could only unlist it from the store, not from libraries... until I saw it was gone there too.
I payed MONEY for them to take it out of my library on a DRM free site. That's like them taking my music CD and scratching it with sandpaper.

Pirating literally gives me the same experience as buying it for literally no issue. (except the lossless files but who cares)

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yes, most Kindles allow you to load your own PDFs and .ebook files, so pirating them is inconsequential.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I am now of the opinion that you should just download books off indexing sites/IRC/ Usenet/torrents and if you like the book and want to support the author, buy a physical copy, or buy 2 and put one in a neighborhood free library. That maximizes the good you are doing and helps your community instead of just generating Bezos bux.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

I can't wait until a Senator or comparable "it's not a problem until it happens to me" lawmaker loses access to their digital library and goes on the warpath. That's the only way out of this "you will own nothing" hellhole we're in and moving deeper into.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago

Probably won't happen until Millennials and younger are in meaningful numbers in Congress or Parliament or whatever. A few Gen X politicians might be affected, but the rest probably don't have gigantic digital libraries of things they've "bought."

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

California is at least taking a step forward in legislating that "sellers" can't call it a purchase if you're only getting a revocable license. Shops wouldn't be allowed to use the word "buy" or "purchase" unless you get to own the product.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Yeah, I read that the other day. Wish it would do more than that, but it's a start I guess.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Jokes on you I pirates mine!

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago

Jokes on Amazon I can almost always find a copy of what ever book on libgen that I end up owning crazy how that works

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Kobo and epub only. Anything else, you don't own and you shouldn't pay for it.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'll just keep using my local public library.

Most of them lend eBooks these days so I know I won't get to keep them regardless, but I also don't have to pay for them.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Throw the Kindle to the ground and get a Kobo, they let you pirate books a million times easier

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Happy Prime Day to the GROUND!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Duh. Same goes for Steam games and most of digital content.

If you want to keep it, there's usually always an option to sail the high seas.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Any Kindle owner should go find out how easy it is to get library books on their Kindle. It’s totally the way to go. You don’t have to buy their shit and deal with their rules.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

You are right I get my books for my kindle from torrents. I do not own them. I also don't pay for them.

(Also library has epubs, librarys are great)

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is why I pirate my media, and you should too!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (13 children)

Readarr + calibre makes it very convenient and easy (the rest of the arr suite is great for other forms of media too)

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

I own the 1000s of ebooks I've downloaded to my personal media server.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (4 children)

That's why you shouldn't buy books from Amazon or other online ebook stores instead just download the ePubs elsewhere.

I'd also highly recommend KOreader if you have a Kindle or Ereader which supports it, as it supports many more formats and has a nice interface.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Amazon is on my shit list and will not buy any products from them ever again. They are one of the worst monopolist mega corporations. They treat their employees like slaves, are anti-repair, anti-consumer.

I gifted an older Kindle to my sister, and the screen broke (out of warranty). I contacted Amazon about it, and they basically said they don't make replacement parts and don't service the kindles, they can only give me a small discount for buying a new one.

I looked up a guide on doing it myself, and even if I find a replacement screen, it's really difficult. The screen is glued with a strong adhesive. The entire device looks very cheaply built and deliberately made really difficult to repair.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Jokes on them, I have a Gen1 Kindle that won't even connect to wifi.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Also to add that amazon has been caught encouraging users to "refund" e-books and purchase a different one, without telling users that these refunds are clawed back from the Authors.

Then to double fuck the Authors they didnt give authors detailed statements - only payments of the monthly total, so any "refunds" were deducted from the total sales from that month and author paid the difference. This was only noticed when an author with an accounting/finance background noticed a negative payment statement one month and looked into this and found amazon routinely charging back authors, sometimes for multiple copies of 'refunds' that didnt actually get refunded, straight up stealing from the Authors.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I do, I get them directly from IRC

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

it's the same with Google Books. you can't copy text from the book you bought into your notes. you're not allowed to copy text. i want to buy books legitimately for my research, but i cant use any of this shit.

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