15 ms·

Kindle is removing download and transfer option on Feb 26th

374 points by andyjohnson0 2y ago

diana-404 2y ago
I'm surprised no one here has mentioned about how Winterbreak can now jailbreak any kindle regardless of its firmware, this is the way to go if you wanna get out of Amazon's ecosystem
nothingneko 2y ago
i have owned kindles for the better part of a decade and purchased books from the store a total of 4 times - the library and friend’s epub collections were far more appealing
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
poisonborz 2y ago
Bad, but anyone sideloading would skip Kindles anyway for a long time now for much better products.
- locusofself 2y ago
  I think you can still sideload? Seems like this applies more to getting stuff off of the kindle to the P.C.
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    No the books are downloaded from the Amazon site. This is what is being removed. They are for the specific purpose of officially supported sideloading so that is also being removed. Sideloading books from other sources is still ok.
- locusofself 2y ago
  Also, what better products are there? Kobo? I have a kindle oasis and it's a great device. Not that I love giving money to Amazon, I avoid that when I can with library or at least heavily discounted/public domain or side-loaded books whenever possible.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - cyberpunk 2y ago
    I kept my oasis chugging for as long as I could stand it but there was no replacement with physical buttons, so I switched to a kobo colour. It's pretty great, if you install koreader on it you can even get to an on-screen linux shell, if you just have to bang out some awk on the bus.. :}
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    At least kobo still has physical buttons on most of their devices. The oasis has them yes but it hasn't been updated in many years. It lacks mod cons like light temperature and white on black mode. The one thing that really bothers me about Kobo is that they no longer have a b/w reader in the Libra format. The Kobo colour has so much worse contrast. That degradation is not worth the slight benefit of mediocre colours for me. It really means always needing the blacklight.
  - marklar423 2y ago
    Kobo is definitely superior to Kindle in my book. The hardware is great and it's completely open to sideloading and even modding (it runs Linux under the hood). I can't speak to their digital bookstore but they integrate with Overdrive for library borrowing.
    - permo-w 2y ago
      besides books, which you can sideload very simply with kindle, what do you need to sideload to your e-reader
      - 2y ago
- loeg 2y ago
  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.
  - permo-w 2y ago
    you're right. it's an e-reader that you can email any epub file to and it'll read it. if you don't want to pirate, there's a functional store. what more do people need?
    - palata 2y ago
      People say that Kobo is hackable. Is it not possible to set up an email workflow there as well? Shouldn't be too hard, right?
      - permo-w 2y ago
        I don't know about kobo, but I know that with kindle you don't even have to hack it to do that, it's just a default feature
    - toyg 2y ago
      > you can email any ePub file Except when you can't, like literally yesterday: subscribed to Asimov's, sent ePub, got a link, clicked a link, "that link is not valid". Repeat, same message. Why? Who knows? My next ereader won't be a Kindle.
      - permo-w 2y ago
        you probably just didn't send it from a verified send-to-kindle email address. either add the email or send the epub from your kindle account email
      - int_19h 2y ago
        Can you clarify what you mean by "got a link"? If you're using Send to Email, there shouldn't be any links involved. You just, well, send an email to the designated address with the ePub attached, and it shows up in your library shortly after.
- tormeh 2y ago
  The Pocketbook Era Color is the best e-reader right now if you don't care about stores. Or at least it was the best device out there when I was in the market for a reader.
- int_19h 2y ago
  I sideload with my Kindle all the time and I don't expect to switch away. It still lets me grab any random non-DRM ePub and upload it over USB, or, better yet, add it directly to my cloud library with Send to Email (and then I also get position & bookmark sync across all devices etc).
- devilbunny 2y ago
  I only use eInk to read at the beach or pool. I am still happily using a Kindle 3G. That’s an old, old model, but it still works and it has physical page turn buttons. Too old to work with the Kindle store even over WiFi. But sideloading works just fine, and I always have a laptop on vacation. As long as I have 3-4 books ready each day I’ll never be caught short. Download, strip DRM if desired, sideload. Now I suppose it will just be Anna and me doing the sideload.
locusofself 2y ago
It sounds like this applies to backing up to a hard drive etc, and for some people, then removing DRM from their kindle books. I understand the worry, but for me I was more worried about losing the ability to side-load books, which I don't think is being removed.
gnabgib 2y ago
Discussions (120 points, 3 days ago, 93 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43041726 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43041726 (50 points, 2 days ago, 23 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43046995 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43046995 (120 points, 1 day ago, 101 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43058889 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43058889
42772827 2y ago
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. (3) The ability to send non-Amazon-licensed ePubs using the Send to Kindle email feature is not affected.
- spookybones 2y ago
  I was reading a Reddit thread on this, and not a single person there understood this. It isn’t good news, but it’s being severely misinterpreted.
  - permo-w 2y ago
    >I was reading a Reddit thread on this, and not a single person there understood this were you surprised by this revelation?
    - soygem 2y ago
      kek
- wkat4242 2y ago
  > (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 remove the DRM.
  - 42772827 2y ago
    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.
neilv 2y ago
For people already locked into Kindle, I don't know what to tell you. (Unless you DRM-crack, and get into the gray areas of the piracy culture that's creating much of the DRM problems.) But it would be healthy for everyone if people supported a DRM-free and non-surveillance ebook ecosystem. One solution I found is to buy ebooks as DRM-free EPUBs and PDFs, and read them in open source desktop tools and on my relatively decent PocketBook InkPad Lite. Some details at: https://www.neilvandyke.org/ebooks/ https://www.neilvandyke.org/ebooks/
- wkat4242 2y ago
  > (Unless you DRM-crack, and get into the gray areas of the piracy culture that's creating much of the DRM problems.) Meh. Even if there was no piracy there'd be DRM. It's not only used to limit privacy but also how you can legitimately use stuff you bought. Like how many devices you can access it on. Or how many times you can view video content. In fact I think the presence of piracy helps keep prices low. I'm sure Netflix would raise prices even more if they weren't losing customers to piracy every time they raise prices or add crap like ads.. And really, DRM does absolutely nothing to prevent this. It's not as if the latest shows aren't on the pirate bay hours after they appear on Netflix. > But it would be healthy for everyone if people supported a DRM-free and non-surveillance ebook ecosystem. That would be very nice yes, if there were one. I don't think there's anything like GOG for books. But yes I do always buy my games on GOG if they are available there.
  - buu709 2y ago
    ebooks.com does tell you if a title has DRM or not, which seems to be the best option currently. Outside of that I haven't found much.
    - input_sh 2y ago
      Not that I've ever encountered it in the wild, but I feel like pointing out that publishers can opt-out of DRM on Amazon as well. You'd recognise them by this in the description: > At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. I only know about it because of Cory Doctorow, never seen anyone else that does this. Heck, even re-packaged public domain books contain DRM for some inexplicable reason.
Retr0id 2y ago
By the way, all kindle models are currently jailbreakable: https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/WinterBreak/ https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/WinterBreak/
- rafram 2y ago
  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 other benefit that I’m missing?
  - jerjerjer 2y ago
    Folders.
    - aradox66 2y ago
      Ohhh shit
    - fooker 2y ago
      Why is this important? No one can physically read too many books at once. Maintain your directory structure on your computer. The kindle isn't the place to build a library.
  - beshrkayali 2y ago
    It’s a bit more than just supporting additional formats. KOReader for example is a highly customizable (and mature) reader that’s hard to beat. Plenty of plugins exist also. In particular, one nice thing about the Calibre plugin is wireless sending of books and progress sync across device(s) and desktop.
- shasheene 2y ago
  Oh finally! I have a Kindle Scribe, and it's really amazing hardware, but it's unusable for reading websites like Wikipedia and sending links to it using the Amazon bookmarklet is a pretty bad experience. The biggest issue is the web browser doesn't have pagination, ie a next page button. *It only supports smooth scrolling using the touch screen*. Which on an e-ink display is a completely awful, insanely frustrating experience that I can't believe they ship it (and the Scribe is an 11th generation product). Using a web browser to read pure text is a blurred mess that's takes several painful seconds to slowly scroll to the next page. Since I bought the Kindle Scribe (big mistake due to the above issue), I've wanted to jailbreak it to install a non-terrible Wikipedia browser. Eg the one available in the KOReader project -- the open-source alternative eink-optimized ebook app that is widely-supported across the eink ecosystem (including older Kindles). Thanks for heads up that a jailbreak is finally available!
ChrisArchitect 2y ago
[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43046995 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43046995 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43039924 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43039924 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43041726 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43041726
- hoppyhoppy2 2y ago
  This comment is itself a dupe of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43070314 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43070314
  - ChrisArchitect 2y ago
    Except it flags it properly as dupe and doesn't include more dupes.
rcMgD2BwE72F 2y ago
Kobo has a sideloading mode that disables all connected-services by default (no need for an account, no online store necessary). Highly recommended alternative. https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2022/01/21/kobo-software-update-4-31-released-adds-sideloaded-mode/ https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2022/01/21/kobo-software-u...
wiether 2y ago
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; "Parable of the Sower", bought it for 3.49€ on amazon.fr, it's at 5.26€ on ebooks.com and it still got DRMs. Even pirating is less convenient: some files are buggy, some files are weird OCR of physical books, you have to deal with the download and transfer... And I just can't read physical books. I hate that. So usually, if I really enjoy an ebook, I buy a physical copy in a local bookstore and give it to a friend/whoever I think is going to like it. I would love an open ecosystem where I could rent ebooks from a library, and buy books that can be read wherever I want. But that's not going to happen because the big guns of the industry think they know better. So that's where I'm at: buying & reading books in Amazon's walled garden, or doing neither at all.
- yreg 2y ago
  > 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.
  - aradox66 2y ago
    Sci Fi more than a decade old is the golden zone for piracy. Everything else is harder. Contemporary books, very hard.
    - goosedragons 2y ago
      Sci Fi tends more likely to be DRM free. Baen has been selling DRM free eBooks for forever direct and TOR also has a DRM free policy.
    - 2y ago
pmarreck 2y ago
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 exactly what I ended up doing. Decrypting 100% of my Kindle purchases so I can use them how I please, and using z-library when I was too lazy to even do so. Apple understood this when the first iPod came out. Offer a better service, not shinier handcuffs.
- runjake 2y ago
  What do you use to decrypt your Kindle purchases? I haven't yet found anything that works with modern purchases.
  - pmarreck 2y ago
    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.
- daveoc64 2y ago
  >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.
  - pmarreck 2y ago
    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.
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
How do I jailbreak Kindle books so they aren’t later removed or restricted in weird ways?
compootr 2y ago
something something library genesis
amluto 2y ago
This is especially obnoxious for books that are already DRM-free. For example, one can presently buy a Tor (the publisher, not the onion router) book from the Kindle store, download the azw3 file, use a tool like KindleUnpacker [0] to more or less losslessly convert it to ePub, and read it anywhere. There's no DRM to break! [0] KindleUnpacker follows in the IMO utterly bizarre tradition in the epub tool writing scene of making it obvious how to run a really bad Tk UI wrapper and hiding the actual command-line tool in lib/. And of wanting an output directory instead of a filename. And of leaving a whole pile of unnecessary temporary files around. And of forcing you to look through the temporary crap to even find the output. Oh well; the actual output is excellent.
- m463 2y ago
  I think if decent companies like Tor ("this book is sold without drm") could unlock "download this book" in your kindle library, it would be a great thing. also, in california with AB2426, I wonder if this would qualify as a purchase not a license. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2426 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml...
yohbho 2y ago
Stallman calls it Swindle, for a reason. Actually, many reasons.
addicted 2y ago
I’m not sure why anyone buys Kindles when there are so many better options available. I bought a Kobo Clara years ago, and it supports regular MOBI and ePub files. My book purchases are no longer liked with the reader and I’ve never had a problem in all these years. And this wasn’t even the best or best value for money device I could have bought. Today there are so many other better alternatives in all price points and form factors.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- EA-3167 2y ago
  I couldn't agree more. I use a Boox e-reader, and I had no interest in using the Kindle app, so stripping the DRM (on books I'd purchased, for my own use only) was a selling point. Without that I'm just moving my business over to Kobo, Calibre + a plugin and there's no DRM issue. I won't pretend to know if there are enough people like us to impact Amazon's calculus, but I hope there are.
- daveoc64 2y ago
  >I’m not sure why anyone buys Kindles when there are so many better options available. For me, the Kobo lacks something like the Send to Kindle feature. I can send books I've obtained from outside the Kindle Store (DRM free sellers, Humble Bundle, public domain etc.) and then store them in my Kindle library. These are then synchronised across all of my Kindle devices and apps - completely for free Kobo does have integration with cloud storage, but it's not the same feature. Plus it has the Kindle Store, which has the biggest selection of books for sale.
  - palata 2y ago
    > Plus it has the Kindle Store, which has the biggest selection of books for sale. Because Amazon abuses its position to get there, right? I see how it makes it more convenient, but I also see how that is a reason for not buying a Kindle.
    - 2y ago
fractallyte 2y ago
I spent yesterday morning downloading ALL my (~2400) Kindle books using the command line utility from https://github.com/yihong0618/Kindle_download_helper https://github.com/yihong0618/Kindle_download_helper In case anyone else needs to do something similar: Log in to your Amazon account > Manage Your Content and Devices Copy the cookie and save it to a file ('cookie.txt'): https://github.com/yihong0618/Kindle_download_helper?tab=readme-ov-file#retrieving-cookie https://github.com/yihong0618/Kindle_download_helper?tab=rea... Execute the Python utility (this example accesses amazon.co.uk): python kindle.py --cookie-file cookie.txt --uk -o DOWNLOADS --device_sn [Your Kindle serial no.] --mode all You can also download a JSON list containing details of all your Kindle books: python kindle.py --cookie-file cookie.txt --uk --list --device_sn [Your Kindle serial no.] There are other methods outlined in the README, but this worked best for me. I also extracted a list of cover URLs from the JSON file using a basic Python script (with output redirected to a file 'covers.txt'): import json with open('book-list.json') as f: json_data = json.load(f) for i in range(len(json_data)): print(json_data[i]['productImage']) And then I used wget to download them all too: wget --wait=3 --random-wait --input-file=covers.txt Of course, the books are still DRM'd, but it's trivial to DeDRM them later. The crucial thing was to get the files before it's too late!
- int_19h 2y ago
  Last time I tried to DeDRM my Kindle book collection, there were many books with "newer" DRM that wasn't possible to strip. Did that improve recently?
  - fractallyte 2y ago
    My collection is mainly .azw3 and .azw, with a handful of .tpz and azw4. The former were trivial to strip; the latter, I'm not so sure yet. However, I have no .kfx books, so perhaps I haven't been exposed to the newer DRM?
  - myko 2y ago
    If you download them using the serial # of an older kindle it should get the older file type and work
linotype 2y ago
I just ordered a Kobo. Done with Amazon.
- rocky1138 2y ago
  Someone above mentioned all models are jailbreak-able.
  - linotype 2y ago
    I’d prefer to just be completely away from it. This will force me to build a totally separate library without DRM, etc.
syntaxing 2y ago
I don’t really get the Kindle hype. Kobo is a vastly better experience and the unlimited plans are more affordable. Kobo is $8 a month, $10 for books and audiobooks. Kindle is $12 flat. Kobo has g drive and Dropbox integration. Also the e-readers use the same screens (minus the “colorsoft” which is still a e-ink product).
- t-writescode 2y ago
  Marketing, first mover advantage, brand recognition, entrenched userbase, ubiquitous company name. People use Kindles because they’re the easiest to find, most well known, integrated with one of the most popular online shps on the planet that also encourages easy publishing, were one of the first, used to “just work”, don’t need to be changed, already have their books on there, and so on.
- josteink 2y ago
  Uh. My Kindle cost me $100 like 8-10 years ago and has literally zero running costs. What are these figures you are mentioning? If a Kobo means a monthly fee, I swear I’ll never even consider getting one.
  - vohk 2y ago
    They're referring to the subscription plans that give you unlimited access to their catalogue (or at least most of it), like Spotify versus buying an album. Both Kobo and Kindle offer individual purchases as well.
  - tfsh 2y ago
    Kobos doesn't require a subscription. I switched from a Kindle to a Kobo Clara Colour recently and it's honestly one of the best tech choices I've ever made. Kobos are hackable by default, so you can literally plug them into Chrome and flash new software onto them via WebUSB (or just via the file system). The real kicker for me though is the support with Calibre, I have a massive collection of maybe 2000 books, and this perfectly syncs with my Kobo supporting filtering, collections, etc. attempting this with even 10 books with my Kindle would routinely break down, books not appearing even after waiting hours for it to index, corrupt file systems, etc, the entire device is designed to push you towards Amazon store, including the scammy "pay £20 more to remove adverts" and them disguising the actual price as "reduced". The fee GP pointed to is a monthly subscription similar to Amazon's Kindle book club offering.
Hackbraten 2y ago
I bought a Tolino vision color (a rebranded Kobo Libra Color with shittier software) a few months ago. If Amazon no longer allows me to download purchased books, I can no longer de-DRM them and read them offline on my phone, on my Tolino or on my computer. It seems that most stores outside Amazon have even shittier DRM than Amazon has. How am I going to be able to buy books in the future so I can actually read them? I’m absolutely willing to pay for ebooks. I always did. For me, removal of the download feature will absolutely be a bookalypse.
- barbazoo 2y ago
  Kobo, I never had problems downloading the books and getting rid of the DRM.
kqr2 2y ago
Is there a script to download all your Kindle books?
- abawany 2y ago
  perhaps this will help you as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43071284 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43071284 .
Dxtros 2y ago
does anyone know if this affects the older versions of kindle for pc? You’re able to download your books from there still currently.
bloomingkales 2y ago
Libby is the way to go. It's going to suck when they defund the library.
- bitsoda 2y ago
  I love Libby. It's introduced me to so many titles by browsing what's currently available that I otherwise would've skipped over. The 21 day loan period gives me just enough of a gentle push to read that I wouldn't have if I owned the book outright.
nindalf 2y ago
I have a medium sized collection of Kindle books. I stay in the ecosystem because I enjoy the convenience of being able to read on my phone and tablet, and I enjoy being able to write and sync notes and highlights. I would have liked to have all the books on my hard drive, fully searchable. But it seems like it won’t be possible now? I guess I’ll have to make do with my notes.
exe34 2y ago
Thank goodness I made a habit of downloading and unlocking the books that I bought on Amazon. I would hate to rush and download >100 books one by one now.
npteljes 2y ago
Good reminder to all of us to check the dependencies from time to time. Services don't last forever, which is not a problem at all, if people enter into contract consciously. What's painful is overly relying on a service, and then having the rug pulled from underneath the feet. I don't think that this instance is particularly painful, but the lesson is still the same. If it's important, it's worth to back up at least the metadata.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
NunoSempere 2y ago
I bought a Pocketbook after Amazon started nagging too much about connecting to the wifi. Would recommend.
- abawany 2y ago
  Pocketbook is a solid choice. I've been very happy with my Pocketbok Inkpad Color 3 - their free cloud offering is great for transferring my ebooks around and their send-to feature is also great. I've never trusted the Kindle jail but in my various trials with eink devices, I've come to appreciate the clean experience that Pocketbook currently offers.
samjohnson 2y ago
I’ve tried leaving kindle but keep coming back because of how well it syncs side-loaded (via email) epub reading progress between the physical reader and the kindle app on my iPhone. I recently got a Boox Palma, which I love, but the Android Kindle app can’t display time remaining in a chapter for emailed epubs. I find this very surprising, considering both the kindle hardware readers and iPhone kindle app have no problem doing this. Sharing this story in case someone else has run into this and identified a solution.
- genericuser256 2y ago
  I recently got a Palma as well, but just had the display randomly break in my soft coat pocket (note screen and touch are totally fine, just the eink). I would recommend other people avoid them due to this random breakage.
rand17 2y ago
As of this writing I can still connect my kindle and then read the kfx file with Calibre and then convert it to azw3 or epub (with the dedrm plugin). Should I loose every way to backup my books, then probably I'd use tesseract, puppeteer and their cloud reader to re-ocr the books (it's better than nothing). Also note that the country I live in, libraries have no ebooks. Kobo drm is another nuisance.
- gjm11 2y ago
  When I try to do this, it flatly doesn't work -- I get a popup message saying "This book has DRM". I have what I believe to be the latest version of the DeDRM plugin installed in Calibre. (I am currently attempting to follow a recipe off the internet that begins with "install an old version of the PC Kindle app, disconnect from the internet before running it so you can tell it not to auto-update itself, ...". Perhaps that will work.) [EDITED to add:] Yup, looks like that has worked, though most of the titles and authors will need to be entered manually.
  - rand17 2y ago
    I keep a file with details for myself that change every year, thanks to Amazon being a dick and I a moron for giving them money. I still use an older calibre version and a dedrm plugin fork, not the original.
hnpolicestate 2y ago
That quote really is true about present and future power moving society towards owning nothing. Sounds awful and is awful for the user in practice.
nhod 2y ago
There was a post on HN a couple days ago about the launch of bookshop.org, which lets you buy e-books from your local bookseller. Good timing! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43056526 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43056526
- daveoc64 2y ago
  That's arguably got even more restrictive DRM than the Kindle Store. And it's only available in the US.
zxcb1 2y ago
Solution: Buy physical books, then clone at home.
- waonderer 2y ago
  How does one close a physical book into an ebook? Is it simple scanning? That won't allow selection, copying, or highlighting as easily.
metalman 2y ago
this feels like living in an alternate universe where instead of the guide changing it's moto from "dont panic" to "panic" we get a change of user agreement notification on e reader screens
gjm11 2y ago
For me, although this option is still there on Amazon's webpages, it doesn't actually work. I get a popup saying "You do not have any compatible devices registered for this content. Buy a Kindle or get the free Kindle reading app." (I already have the Kindle app on my phone.) The files containing the book content appear to be on the phone (an Android device) and I can transfer them off it. Perhaps these are the same things that I would get on my computer if I were able to do "download and transfer"? So far as I can tell, however, there is no way to do anything with them. At least, if Calibre + the DeDRM plugin + the KFX input plugin are able to interpret them, then I have failed to find how to do so using Calibre's famously clear and intuitive user interface. (This sort of thing is why I only "buy"[1] Kindle books when they are much, much cheaper than actual physical books.) [1] To buy something is to give money to its owner, after which you become its owner. Whatever it is you do when you get access to a Kindle e-book, it isn't buying it; you own nothing more after handing over the money than you did before.
- stevewodil 2y ago
  To use download and transfer you are required to have a kindle device that supports it registered on your account (11th gen or older), so that's why the option doesn't show up for you. If the files are .azw3 then it's the same
shirro 2y ago
I have a heap of graphic novels I bought for my kids that are basically unusable because Amazon moved everything into Kindle and I couldn't have them in a separate comixology app for my kids anymore and Kindle doesn't allow me to curate family books for kids as I wish. Lesson learned. No more Kindle/comixology/audible purchases in this household. I considered breaking the DRM but we never bought into their readers. I think hard copies (not from Amazon) are the only reasonable non-infringing option for book lovers. Returning to real libraries to supplement individual purchases lets you access more content for your money and buying a physical copy that might be read once or twice is unsustainable. If you have to do digital I think piracy is becoming the only reasonable answer. I always thought it was immoral to deprive authors of income if you could afford to do the right thing but with AI companies like Meta downloading terabytes of copyright content for their own commercial gain why should the rest of us feel guilty downloading for personal use?
- Hackbraten 2y ago
  > If you have to do digital I think piracy is becoming the only reasonable answer. What I do is purchase the ebook and remove the DRM, so I can read it on whatever device I want. It may be illegal but would you really consider that piracy?
- mcgrath_sh 2y ago
  My library has an incredible selection of ebooks I can send straight to my Kindle. The process is less hassle than pirating, too. I get 90% or more of what I read on my Kindle from my library. The only books I buy are from a couple series I adore and always go back to and reference books. Those are few and far between.
homarp 2y ago
see also All Kindles can now be jailbroken - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43073969 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43073969
dwedge 2y ago
I didn't know that feature existed until I saw this. Downloaded all my books last night and now I'm able to switch ecosystem - an option I didn't think I had and probably never would have tried if they hadn't removed it.
swayvil 2y ago
Coincidentally, Libgen has been down for 4 days. Never saw that before. Maybe the dark publishing forces are trying to corral their herd.
TruePath 2y ago
This is a problem that can only be fixed by legislation. Other things being equal DRM that's convenient for the vast majority increases book sales and consumers aren't willing to pay enough more for DRM free books to cover the difference -- much less understand the difference between 'owning' books and 'if we feel like it' licenses. And even if a general (i.e. not O'REILLY) ebook/ereader vender just wanted to do the right thing it's far from clear you could write a license that is flexible enough to allow pivoting with changing market conditions, get good deals with publishers but not so flexible as to be meaningless. And it's hard to sell a more expensive DRM free option alongside since, as the DRM free price goes up each sale is more likely to be sold to a 'pirate'.

374 points by andyjohnson0 2y ago

I'm surprised no one here has mentioned about how Winterbreak can now jailbreak any kindle regardless of its firmware, this is the way to go if you wanna get out of Amazon's ecosystem

nothingneko 2y ago

i have owned kindles for the better part of a decade and purchased books from the store a total of 4 times - the library and friend’s epub collections were far more appealing

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

poisonborz 2y ago

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

locusofself 2y ago
I think you can still sideload? Seems like this applies more to getting stuff off of the kindle to the P.C.
- wkat4242 2y ago
  No the books are downloaded from the Amazon site. This is what is being removed. They are for the specific purpose of officially supported sideloading so that is also being removed. Sideloading books from other sources is still ok.
locusofself 2y ago
Also, what better products are there? Kobo? I have a kindle oasis and it's a great device. Not that I love giving money to Amazon, I avoid that when I can with library or at least heavily discounted/public domain or side-loaded books whenever possible.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- cyberpunk 2y ago
  I kept my oasis chugging for as long as I could stand it but there was no replacement with physical buttons, so I switched to a kobo colour. It's pretty great, if you install koreader on it you can even get to an on-screen linux shell, if you just have to bang out some awk on the bus.. :}
- wkat4242 2y ago
  At least kobo still has physical buttons on most of their devices. The oasis has them yes but it hasn't been updated in many years. It lacks mod cons like light temperature and white on black mode. The one thing that really bothers me about Kobo is that they no longer have a b/w reader in the Libra format. The Kobo colour has so much worse contrast. That degradation is not worth the slight benefit of mediocre colours for me. It really means always needing the blacklight.
- marklar423 2y ago
  Kobo is definitely superior to Kindle in my book. The hardware is great and it's completely open to sideloading and even modding (it runs Linux under the hood). I can't speak to their digital bookstore but they integrate with Overdrive for library borrowing.
  - permo-w 2y ago
    besides books, which you can sideload very simply with kindle, what do you need to sideload to your e-reader
    - 2y ago
loeg 2y ago
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.
- permo-w 2y ago
  you're right. it's an e-reader that you can email any epub file to and it'll read it. if you don't want to pirate, there's a functional store. what more do people need?
  - palata 2y ago
    People say that Kobo is hackable. Is it not possible to set up an email workflow there as well? Shouldn't be too hard, right?
    - permo-w 2y ago
      I don't know about kobo, but I know that with kindle you don't even have to hack it to do that, it's just a default feature
  - toyg 2y ago
    > you can email any ePub file Except when you can't, like literally yesterday: subscribed to Asimov's, sent ePub, got a link, clicked a link, "that link is not valid". Repeat, same message. Why? Who knows? My next ereader won't be a Kindle.
    - permo-w 2y ago
      you probably just didn't send it from a verified send-to-kindle email address. either add the email or send the epub from your kindle account email
    - int_19h 2y ago
      Can you clarify what you mean by "got a link"? If you're using Send to Email, there shouldn't be any links involved. You just, well, send an email to the designated address with the ePub attached, and it shows up in your library shortly after.
tormeh 2y ago
The Pocketbook Era Color is the best e-reader right now if you don't care about stores. Or at least it was the best device out there when I was in the market for a reader.
int_19h 2y ago
I sideload with my Kindle all the time and I don't expect to switch away. It still lets me grab any random non-DRM ePub and upload it over USB, or, better yet, add it directly to my cloud library with Send to Email (and then I also get position & bookmark sync across all devices etc).
devilbunny 2y ago
I only use eInk to read at the beach or pool. I am still happily using a Kindle 3G. That’s an old, old model, but it still works and it has physical page turn buttons. Too old to work with the Kindle store even over WiFi. But sideloading works just fine, and I always have a laptop on vacation. As long as I have 3-4 books ready each day I’ll never be caught short. Download, strip DRM if desired, sideload. Now I suppose it will just be Anna and me doing the sideload.

locusofself 2y ago

It sounds like this applies to backing up to a hard drive etc, and for some people, then removing DRM from their kindle books. I understand the worry, but for me I was more worried about losing the ability to side-load books, which I don't think is being removed.

gnabgib 2y ago

Discussions (120 points, 3 days ago, 93 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43041726 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43041726 (50 points, 2 days ago, 23 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43046995 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43046995 (120 points, 1 day ago, 101 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43058889 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43058889

42772827 2y ago

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. (3) The ability to send non-Amazon-licensed ePubs using the Send to Kindle email feature is not affected.

spookybones 2y ago
I was reading a Reddit thread on this, and not a single person there understood this. It isn’t good news, but it’s being severely misinterpreted.
- permo-w 2y ago
  >I was reading a Reddit thread on this, and not a single person there understood this were you surprised by this revelation?
  - soygem 2y ago
    kek
wkat4242 2y ago
> (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 remove the DRM.
- 42772827 2y ago
  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.

neilv 2y ago

For people already locked into Kindle, I don't know what to tell you. (Unless you DRM-crack, and get into the gray areas of the piracy culture that's creating much of the DRM problems.) But it would be healthy for everyone if people supported a DRM-free and non-surveillance ebook ecosystem. One solution I found is to buy ebooks as DRM-free EPUBs and PDFs, and read them in open source desktop tools and on my relatively decent PocketBook InkPad Lite. Some details at: https://www.neilvandyke.org/ebooks/ https://www.neilvandyke.org/ebooks/

wkat4242 2y ago
> (Unless you DRM-crack, and get into the gray areas of the piracy culture that's creating much of the DRM problems.) Meh. Even if there was no piracy there'd be DRM. It's not only used to limit privacy but also how you can legitimately use stuff you bought. Like how many devices you can access it on. Or how many times you can view video content. In fact I think the presence of piracy helps keep prices low. I'm sure Netflix would raise prices even more if they weren't losing customers to piracy every time they raise prices or add crap like ads.. And really, DRM does absolutely nothing to prevent this. It's not as if the latest shows aren't on the pirate bay hours after they appear on Netflix. > But it would be healthy for everyone if people supported a DRM-free and non-surveillance ebook ecosystem. That would be very nice yes, if there were one. I don't think there's anything like GOG for books. But yes I do always buy my games on GOG if they are available there.
- buu709 2y ago
  ebooks.com does tell you if a title has DRM or not, which seems to be the best option currently. Outside of that I haven't found much.
  - input_sh 2y ago
    Not that I've ever encountered it in the wild, but I feel like pointing out that publishers can opt-out of DRM on Amazon as well. You'd recognise them by this in the description: > At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. I only know about it because of Cory Doctorow, never seen anyone else that does this. Heck, even re-packaged public domain books contain DRM for some inexplicable reason.

Retr0id 2y ago

By the way, all kindle models are currently jailbreakable: https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/WinterBreak/ https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/WinterBreak/

rafram 2y ago
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 other benefit that I’m missing?
- jerjerjer 2y ago
  Folders.
  - aradox66 2y ago
    Ohhh shit
  - fooker 2y ago
    Why is this important? No one can physically read too many books at once. Maintain your directory structure on your computer. The kindle isn't the place to build a library.
- beshrkayali 2y ago
  It’s a bit more than just supporting additional formats. KOReader for example is a highly customizable (and mature) reader that’s hard to beat. Plenty of plugins exist also. In particular, one nice thing about the Calibre plugin is wireless sending of books and progress sync across device(s) and desktop.
shasheene 2y ago
Oh finally! I have a Kindle Scribe, and it's really amazing hardware, but it's unusable for reading websites like Wikipedia and sending links to it using the Amazon bookmarklet is a pretty bad experience. The biggest issue is the web browser doesn't have pagination, ie a next page button. *It only supports smooth scrolling using the touch screen*. Which on an e-ink display is a completely awful, insanely frustrating experience that I can't believe they ship it (and the Scribe is an 11th generation product). Using a web browser to read pure text is a blurred mess that's takes several painful seconds to slowly scroll to the next page. Since I bought the Kindle Scribe (big mistake due to the above issue), I've wanted to jailbreak it to install a non-terrible Wikipedia browser. Eg the one available in the KOReader project -- the open-source alternative eink-optimized ebook app that is widely-supported across the eink ecosystem (including older Kindles). Thanks for heads up that a jailbreak is finally available!

ChrisArchitect 2y ago

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43046995 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43046995 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43039924 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43039924 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43041726 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43041726

hoppyhoppy2 2y ago
This comment is itself a dupe of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43070314 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43070314
- ChrisArchitect 2y ago
  Except it flags it properly as dupe and doesn't include more dupes.

rcMgD2BwE72F 2y ago

Kobo has a sideloading mode that disables all connected-services by default (no need for an account, no online store necessary). Highly recommended alternative. https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2022/01/21/kobo-software-update-4-31-released-adds-sideloaded-mode/ https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2022/01/21/kobo-software-u...

wiether 2y ago

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; "Parable of the Sower", bought it for 3.49€ on amazon.fr, it's at 5.26€ on ebooks.com and it still got DRMs. Even pirating is less convenient: some files are buggy, some files are weird OCR of physical books, you have to deal with the download and transfer... And I just can't read physical books. I hate that. So usually, if I really enjoy an ebook, I buy a physical copy in a local bookstore and give it to a friend/whoever I think is going to like it. I would love an open ecosystem where I could rent ebooks from a library, and buy books that can be read wherever I want. But that's not going to happen because the big guns of the industry think they know better. So that's where I'm at: buying & reading books in Amazon's walled garden, or doing neither at all.

yreg 2y ago
> 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.
- aradox66 2y ago
  Sci Fi more than a decade old is the golden zone for piracy. Everything else is harder. Contemporary books, very hard.
  - goosedragons 2y ago
    Sci Fi tends more likely to be DRM free. Baen has been selling DRM free eBooks for forever direct and TOR also has a DRM free policy.
  - 2y ago

pmarreck 2y ago

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 exactly what I ended up doing. Decrypting 100% of my Kindle purchases so I can use them how I please, and using z-library when I was too lazy to even do so. Apple understood this when the first iPod came out. Offer a better service, not shinier handcuffs.

runjake 2y ago
What do you use to decrypt your Kindle purchases? I haven't yet found anything that works with modern purchases.
- pmarreck 2y ago
  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.
daveoc64 2y ago
>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.
- pmarreck 2y ago
  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.

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

How do I jailbreak Kindle books so they aren’t later removed or restricted in weird ways?

compootr 2y ago

something something library genesis

amluto 2y ago

This is especially obnoxious for books that are already DRM-free. For example, one can presently buy a Tor (the publisher, not the onion router) book from the Kindle store, download the azw3 file, use a tool like KindleUnpacker [0] to more or less losslessly convert it to ePub, and read it anywhere. There's no DRM to break! [0] KindleUnpacker follows in the IMO utterly bizarre tradition in the epub tool writing scene of making it obvious how to run a really bad Tk UI wrapper and hiding the actual command-line tool in lib/. And of wanting an output directory instead of a filename. And of leaving a whole pile of unnecessary temporary files around. And of forcing you to look through the temporary crap to even find the output. Oh well; the actual output is excellent.

m463 2y ago
I think if decent companies like Tor ("this book is sold without drm") could unlock "download this book" in your kindle library, it would be a great thing. also, in california with AB2426, I wonder if this would qualify as a purchase not a license. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2426 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml...

yohbho 2y ago

Stallman calls it Swindle, for a reason. Actually, many reasons.

addicted 2y ago

I’m not sure why anyone buys Kindles when there are so many better options available. I bought a Kobo Clara years ago, and it supports regular MOBI and ePub files. My book purchases are no longer liked with the reader and I’ve never had a problem in all these years. And this wasn’t even the best or best value for money device I could have bought. Today there are so many other better alternatives in all price points and form factors.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
EA-3167 2y ago
I couldn't agree more. I use a Boox e-reader, and I had no interest in using the Kindle app, so stripping the DRM (on books I'd purchased, for my own use only) was a selling point. Without that I'm just moving my business over to Kobo, Calibre + a plugin and there's no DRM issue. I won't pretend to know if there are enough people like us to impact Amazon's calculus, but I hope there are.
daveoc64 2y ago
>I’m not sure why anyone buys Kindles when there are so many better options available. For me, the Kobo lacks something like the Send to Kindle feature. I can send books I've obtained from outside the Kindle Store (DRM free sellers, Humble Bundle, public domain etc.) and then store them in my Kindle library. These are then synchronised across all of my Kindle devices and apps - completely for free Kobo does have integration with cloud storage, but it's not the same feature. Plus it has the Kindle Store, which has the biggest selection of books for sale.
- palata 2y ago
  > Plus it has the Kindle Store, which has the biggest selection of books for sale. Because Amazon abuses its position to get there, right? I see how it makes it more convenient, but I also see how that is a reason for not buying a Kindle.
  - 2y ago

fractallyte 2y ago

I spent yesterday morning downloading ALL my (~2400) Kindle books using the command line utility from https://github.com/yihong0618/Kindle_download_helper https://github.com/yihong0618/Kindle_download_helper In case anyone else needs to do something similar: Log in to your Amazon account > Manage Your Content and Devices Copy the cookie and save it to a file ('cookie.txt'): https://github.com/yihong0618/Kindle_download_helper?tab=readme-ov-file#retrieving-cookie https://github.com/yihong0618/Kindle_download_helper?tab=rea... Execute the Python utility (this example accesses amazon.co.uk): python kindle.py --cookie-file cookie.txt --uk -o DOWNLOADS --device_sn [Your Kindle serial no.] --mode all You can also download a JSON list containing details of all your Kindle books: python kindle.py --cookie-file cookie.txt --uk --list --device_sn [Your Kindle serial no.] There are other methods outlined in the README, but this worked best for me. I also extracted a list of cover URLs from the JSON file using a basic Python script (with output redirected to a file 'covers.txt'): import json with open('book-list.json') as f: json_data = json.load(f) for i in range(len(json_data)): print(json_data[i]['productImage']) And then I used wget to download them all too: wget --wait=3 --random-wait --input-file=covers.txt Of course, the books are still DRM'd, but it's trivial to DeDRM them later. The crucial thing was to get the files before it's too late!

int_19h 2y ago
Last time I tried to DeDRM my Kindle book collection, there were many books with "newer" DRM that wasn't possible to strip. Did that improve recently?
- fractallyte 2y ago
  My collection is mainly .azw3 and .azw, with a handful of .tpz and azw4. The former were trivial to strip; the latter, I'm not so sure yet. However, I have no .kfx books, so perhaps I haven't been exposed to the newer DRM?
- myko 2y ago
  If you download them using the serial # of an older kindle it should get the older file type and work

linotype 2y ago

I just ordered a Kobo. Done with Amazon.

rocky1138 2y ago
Someone above mentioned all models are jailbreak-able.
- linotype 2y ago
  I’d prefer to just be completely away from it. This will force me to build a totally separate library without DRM, etc.

syntaxing 2y ago

I don’t really get the Kindle hype. Kobo is a vastly better experience and the unlimited plans are more affordable. Kobo is $8 a month, $10 for books and audiobooks. Kindle is $12 flat. Kobo has g drive and Dropbox integration. Also the e-readers use the same screens (minus the “colorsoft” which is still a e-ink product).

t-writescode 2y ago
Marketing, first mover advantage, brand recognition, entrenched userbase, ubiquitous company name. People use Kindles because they’re the easiest to find, most well known, integrated with one of the most popular online shps on the planet that also encourages easy publishing, were one of the first, used to “just work”, don’t need to be changed, already have their books on there, and so on.
josteink 2y ago
Uh. My Kindle cost me $100 like 8-10 years ago and has literally zero running costs. What are these figures you are mentioning? If a Kobo means a monthly fee, I swear I’ll never even consider getting one.
- vohk 2y ago
  They're referring to the subscription plans that give you unlimited access to their catalogue (or at least most of it), like Spotify versus buying an album. Both Kobo and Kindle offer individual purchases as well.
- tfsh 2y ago
  Kobos doesn't require a subscription. I switched from a Kindle to a Kobo Clara Colour recently and it's honestly one of the best tech choices I've ever made. Kobos are hackable by default, so you can literally plug them into Chrome and flash new software onto them via WebUSB (or just via the file system). The real kicker for me though is the support with Calibre, I have a massive collection of maybe 2000 books, and this perfectly syncs with my Kobo supporting filtering, collections, etc. attempting this with even 10 books with my Kindle would routinely break down, books not appearing even after waiting hours for it to index, corrupt file systems, etc, the entire device is designed to push you towards Amazon store, including the scammy "pay £20 more to remove adverts" and them disguising the actual price as "reduced". The fee GP pointed to is a monthly subscription similar to Amazon's Kindle book club offering.

Hackbraten 2y ago

I bought a Tolino vision color (a rebranded Kobo Libra Color with shittier software) a few months ago. If Amazon no longer allows me to download purchased books, I can no longer de-DRM them and read them offline on my phone, on my Tolino or on my computer. It seems that most stores outside Amazon have even shittier DRM than Amazon has. How am I going to be able to buy books in the future so I can actually read them? I’m absolutely willing to pay for ebooks. I always did. For me, removal of the download feature will absolutely be a bookalypse.

barbazoo 2y ago
Kobo, I never had problems downloading the books and getting rid of the DRM.

kqr2 2y ago

Is there a script to download all your Kindle books?

abawany 2y ago
perhaps this will help you as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43071284 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43071284 .

Dxtros 2y ago

does anyone know if this affects the older versions of kindle for pc? You’re able to download your books from there still currently.

bloomingkales 2y ago

Libby is the way to go. It's going to suck when they defund the library.

bitsoda 2y ago
I love Libby. It's introduced me to so many titles by browsing what's currently available that I otherwise would've skipped over. The 21 day loan period gives me just enough of a gentle push to read that I wouldn't have if I owned the book outright.

nindalf 2y ago

I have a medium sized collection of Kindle books. I stay in the ecosystem because I enjoy the convenience of being able to read on my phone and tablet, and I enjoy being able to write and sync notes and highlights. I would have liked to have all the books on my hard drive, fully searchable. But it seems like it won’t be possible now? I guess I’ll have to make do with my notes.

exe34 2y ago

Thank goodness I made a habit of downloading and unlocking the books that I bought on Amazon. I would hate to rush and download >100 books one by one now.

npteljes 2y ago

Good reminder to all of us to check the dependencies from time to time. Services don't last forever, which is not a problem at all, if people enter into contract consciously. What's painful is overly relying on a service, and then having the rug pulled from underneath the feet. I don't think that this instance is particularly painful, but the lesson is still the same. If it's important, it's worth to back up at least the metadata.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

NunoSempere 2y ago

I bought a Pocketbook after Amazon started nagging too much about connecting to the wifi. Would recommend.

abawany 2y ago
Pocketbook is a solid choice. I've been very happy with my Pocketbok Inkpad Color 3 - their free cloud offering is great for transferring my ebooks around and their send-to feature is also great. I've never trusted the Kindle jail but in my various trials with eink devices, I've come to appreciate the clean experience that Pocketbook currently offers.

samjohnson 2y ago

I’ve tried leaving kindle but keep coming back because of how well it syncs side-loaded (via email) epub reading progress between the physical reader and the kindle app on my iPhone. I recently got a Boox Palma, which I love, but the Android Kindle app can’t display time remaining in a chapter for emailed epubs. I find this very surprising, considering both the kindle hardware readers and iPhone kindle app have no problem doing this. Sharing this story in case someone else has run into this and identified a solution.

genericuser256 2y ago
I recently got a Palma as well, but just had the display randomly break in my soft coat pocket (note screen and touch are totally fine, just the eink). I would recommend other people avoid them due to this random breakage.

rand17 2y ago

As of this writing I can still connect my kindle and then read the kfx file with Calibre and then convert it to azw3 or epub (with the dedrm plugin). Should I loose every way to backup my books, then probably I'd use tesseract, puppeteer and their cloud reader to re-ocr the books (it's better than nothing). Also note that the country I live in, libraries have no ebooks. Kobo drm is another nuisance.

gjm11 2y ago
When I try to do this, it flatly doesn't work -- I get a popup message saying "This book has DRM". I have what I believe to be the latest version of the DeDRM plugin installed in Calibre. (I am currently attempting to follow a recipe off the internet that begins with "install an old version of the PC Kindle app, disconnect from the internet before running it so you can tell it not to auto-update itself, ...". Perhaps that will work.) [EDITED to add:] Yup, looks like that has worked, though most of the titles and authors will need to be entered manually.
- rand17 2y ago
  I keep a file with details for myself that change every year, thanks to Amazon being a dick and I a moron for giving them money. I still use an older calibre version and a dedrm plugin fork, not the original.

hnpolicestate 2y ago

That quote really is true about present and future power moving society towards owning nothing. Sounds awful and is awful for the user in practice.

nhod 2y ago

There was a post on HN a couple days ago about the launch of bookshop.org, which lets you buy e-books from your local bookseller. Good timing! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43056526 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43056526

daveoc64 2y ago
That's arguably got even more restrictive DRM than the Kindle Store. And it's only available in the US.

zxcb1 2y ago

Solution: Buy physical books, then clone at home.

waonderer 2y ago
How does one close a physical book into an ebook? Is it simple scanning? That won't allow selection, copying, or highlighting as easily.

metalman 2y ago

this feels like living in an alternate universe where instead of the guide changing it's moto from "dont panic" to "panic" we get a change of user agreement notification on e reader screens

gjm11 2y ago

For me, although this option is still there on Amazon's webpages, it doesn't actually work. I get a popup saying "You do not have any compatible devices registered for this content. Buy a Kindle or get the free Kindle reading app." (I already have the Kindle app on my phone.) The files containing the book content appear to be on the phone (an Android device) and I can transfer them off it. Perhaps these are the same things that I would get on my computer if I were able to do "download and transfer"? So far as I can tell, however, there is no way to do anything with them. At least, if Calibre + the DeDRM plugin + the KFX input plugin are able to interpret them, then I have failed to find how to do so using Calibre's famously clear and intuitive user interface. (This sort of thing is why I only "buy"[1] Kindle books when they are much, much cheaper than actual physical books.) [1] To buy something is to give money to its owner, after which you become its owner. Whatever it is you do when you get access to a Kindle e-book, it isn't buying it; you own nothing more after handing over the money than you did before.

stevewodil 2y ago
To use download and transfer you are required to have a kindle device that supports it registered on your account (11th gen or older), so that's why the option doesn't show up for you. If the files are .azw3 then it's the same

shirro 2y ago

I have a heap of graphic novels I bought for my kids that are basically unusable because Amazon moved everything into Kindle and I couldn't have them in a separate comixology app for my kids anymore and Kindle doesn't allow me to curate family books for kids as I wish. Lesson learned. No more Kindle/comixology/audible purchases in this household. I considered breaking the DRM but we never bought into their readers. I think hard copies (not from Amazon) are the only reasonable non-infringing option for book lovers. Returning to real libraries to supplement individual purchases lets you access more content for your money and buying a physical copy that might be read once or twice is unsustainable. If you have to do digital I think piracy is becoming the only reasonable answer. I always thought it was immoral to deprive authors of income if you could afford to do the right thing but with AI companies like Meta downloading terabytes of copyright content for their own commercial gain why should the rest of us feel guilty downloading for personal use?

Hackbraten 2y ago
> If you have to do digital I think piracy is becoming the only reasonable answer. What I do is purchase the ebook and remove the DRM, so I can read it on whatever device I want. It may be illegal but would you really consider that piracy?
mcgrath_sh 2y ago
My library has an incredible selection of ebooks I can send straight to my Kindle. The process is less hassle than pirating, too. I get 90% or more of what I read on my Kindle from my library. The only books I buy are from a couple series I adore and always go back to and reference books. Those are few and far between.

homarp 2y ago

see also All Kindles can now be jailbroken - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43073969 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43073969

dwedge 2y ago

I didn't know that feature existed until I saw this. Downloaded all my books last night and now I'm able to switch ecosystem - an option I didn't think I had and probably never would have tried if they hadn't removed it.

swayvil 2y ago

Coincidentally, Libgen has been down for 4 days. Never saw that before. Maybe the dark publishing forces are trying to corral their herd.

TruePath 2y ago

This is a problem that can only be fixed by legislation. Other things being equal DRM that's convenient for the vast majority increases book sales and consumers aren't willing to pay enough more for DRM free books to cover the difference -- much less understand the difference between 'owning' books and 'if we feel like it' licenses. And even if a general (i.e. not O'REILLY) ebook/ereader vender just wanted to do the right thing it's far from clear you could write a license that is flexible enough to allow pivoting with changing market conditions, get good deals with publishers but not so flexible as to be meaningless. And it's hard to sell a more expensive DRM free option alongside since, as the DRM free price goes up each sale is more likely to be sold to a 'pirate'.