3 ms·

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 a

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 their finger at the publisher instead of taking the blame themselves. Publishers was probably always the reason behind the move, but at least now Amazon have someone else to blame, which I guess is great for them.

Finnucane 11mo ago
It’s pretty unusual for Amazon to put any other entity’s interest ahead of it’s own, so they can be presumed to have some business reason for it, like the number of people who’ve decided not to buy from them any more.
ay 11mo ago
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.
- ashton314 11mo ago
  What do you do now? I’ve been buying physical books off of Abe Books—not a bad thing at all—but I’d like to use my jailbroken kindle again because the form factor is so convenient.
  - JimmyBiscuit 11mo ago
    Not the guy but you can just buy your ebooks from someplace else and use calibre to convert/send them to your kindle. Im kinda cheeky and use Amazons Send-to-Kindle service to send ebooks in epub format to my kindle via wifi
    - brewtide 11mo ago
      I do this as well and leave the site name in the filename where it was downloaded from if it was part of the filename originally.
  - ay 11mo ago
    I try to buy physical books, and make an effort to buy it elsewhere, with AMZN being the reluctant last resort if I truly can’t find it. I don’t have a specific go to place anymore. Also, I reduced the buying pace - owning physical books takes up space, so the bar for getting something into the library is now much higher than before.
  - exe34 11mo ago
    If you already bought them, just download them off anna's archive.
  - wishfish 11mo ago
    Buy DRM free when you can. Not only is this convenient for you but will hopefully help nudge the market. When you can't, buy the book from one of the easily cracked sources (Kobo, Google, Adobe DRM). Or you can save yourself the bother of removing DRM by buying the book from wherever and then downloading a copy from Anna's.
  - dredmorbius 11mo ago
    FYI: Abe is Amazon: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AbeBooks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AbeBooks>, citing <https://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/01/amazon-to-acquire-abebooks/ https://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/01/amazon-to-acquire-abeb...>.
  - eldaisfish 11mo ago
    Use your local library? I’m amazed to see so many comments focused on everything but libraries.
    - derwiki 11mo ago
      It’s a shift but I agree. I think we’re used to having instant access to what we want. Waiting 3 weeks on Libby is a change. I do think it’s been healthy and gives me something to look forward to!
    - pyuser583 11mo ago
      Libraries are not great on in demand books, tech books, or erotica.
- BeetleB 11mo ago
  > But after they decided the ebooks were actually just license to read They decided that when they launched the Kindle. It's always been that way.
  - kstrauser 11mo ago
    No, it hasn't. Until very recently, their website said "Buy now with 1-Click", minus the new "By placing an order, you're purchasing a content license & agreeing to Kindle's Store Terms of Use." wording underneath it. The process was identical to buying a physical book: you give them money, and you end up with your own physical or electronic copy of it. Any interpretation of that transaction as anything but a purchase of a copy is delusional. I couldn't care less what their ToS said about it, any more than I'd care what a sign on the wall of a bookstore said.
    - BeetleB 11mo ago
      > No, it hasn't. Yes, it has. They made it clear right when they launched the store. > I couldn't care less what their ToS said about it You're welcome to not care about whatever you feel - your concerns and reality are orthogonal. This became big news a long time ago: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/jul/17/amazon-kindle-1984 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/jul/17/amazon-ki...
      - kstrauser 11mo ago
        > Yes, it has. They made it clear right when they launched the store. No one except those who explicitly went looking for this knew it. It wasn't made clear in any way. > This became big news a long time ago: Speaking of orthogonal. I remember this well. It was a case where Amazon stole back books people had purchased. The core concern at the time wasn't that Amazon had revoked a license to read a book, but that they had deleted purchased books from users' collections. But at the end of the day, for many years Amazon had an action button saying "Buy now with 1-Click" with no legal fiction disclaimer. The button was identical to what you'd see when buying a bag of cat food, DVD, or anything else you'd flat-out purchase from them.
Rebelgecko 11mo ago
YMMV depending on the kind of books you read, but I think the majority of the ones I've gotten from Amazon are labeled as DRM-free. A lot of fantasy/science fiction authors (as well as some publishers like Tor!) feel strongly about that kind of thing

Finnucane 11mo ago

It’s pretty unusual for Amazon to put any other entity’s interest ahead of it’s own, so they can be presumed to have some business reason for it, like the number of people who’ve decided not to buy from them any more.

ay 11mo ago

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.

ashton314 11mo ago
What do you do now? I’ve been buying physical books off of Abe Books—not a bad thing at all—but I’d like to use my jailbroken kindle again because the form factor is so convenient.
- JimmyBiscuit 11mo ago
  Not the guy but you can just buy your ebooks from someplace else and use calibre to convert/send them to your kindle. Im kinda cheeky and use Amazons Send-to-Kindle service to send ebooks in epub format to my kindle via wifi
  - brewtide 11mo ago
    I do this as well and leave the site name in the filename where it was downloaded from if it was part of the filename originally.
- ay 11mo ago
  I try to buy physical books, and make an effort to buy it elsewhere, with AMZN being the reluctant last resort if I truly can’t find it. I don’t have a specific go to place anymore. Also, I reduced the buying pace - owning physical books takes up space, so the bar for getting something into the library is now much higher than before.
- exe34 11mo ago
  If you already bought them, just download them off anna's archive.
- wishfish 11mo ago
  Buy DRM free when you can. Not only is this convenient for you but will hopefully help nudge the market. When you can't, buy the book from one of the easily cracked sources (Kobo, Google, Adobe DRM). Or you can save yourself the bother of removing DRM by buying the book from wherever and then downloading a copy from Anna's.
- dredmorbius 11mo ago
  FYI: Abe is Amazon: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AbeBooks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AbeBooks>, citing <https://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/01/amazon-to-acquire-abebooks/ https://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/01/amazon-to-acquire-abeb...>.
- eldaisfish 11mo ago
  Use your local library? I’m amazed to see so many comments focused on everything but libraries.
  - derwiki 11mo ago
    It’s a shift but I agree. I think we’re used to having instant access to what we want. Waiting 3 weeks on Libby is a change. I do think it’s been healthy and gives me something to look forward to!
  - pyuser583 11mo ago
    Libraries are not great on in demand books, tech books, or erotica.
BeetleB 11mo ago
> But after they decided the ebooks were actually just license to read They decided that when they launched the Kindle. It's always been that way.
- kstrauser 11mo ago
  No, it hasn't. Until very recently, their website said "Buy now with 1-Click", minus the new "By placing an order, you're purchasing a content license & agreeing to Kindle's Store Terms of Use." wording underneath it. The process was identical to buying a physical book: you give them money, and you end up with your own physical or electronic copy of it. Any interpretation of that transaction as anything but a purchase of a copy is delusional. I couldn't care less what their ToS said about it, any more than I'd care what a sign on the wall of a bookstore said.
  - BeetleB 11mo ago
    > No, it hasn't. Yes, it has. They made it clear right when they launched the store. > I couldn't care less what their ToS said about it You're welcome to not care about whatever you feel - your concerns and reality are orthogonal. This became big news a long time ago: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/jul/17/amazon-kindle-1984 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/jul/17/amazon-ki...
    - kstrauser 11mo ago
      > Yes, it has. They made it clear right when they launched the store. No one except those who explicitly went looking for this knew it. It wasn't made clear in any way. > This became big news a long time ago: Speaking of orthogonal. I remember this well. It was a case where Amazon stole back books people had purchased. The core concern at the time wasn't that Amazon had revoked a license to read a book, but that they had deleted purchased books from users' collections. But at the end of the day, for many years Amazon had an action button saying "Buy now with 1-Click" with no legal fiction disclaimer. The button was identical to what you'd see when buying a bag of cat food, DVD, or anything else you'd flat-out purchase from them.

Rebelgecko 11mo ago

YMMV depending on the kind of books you read, but I think the majority of the ones I've gotten from Amazon are labeled as DRM-free. A lot of fantasy/science fiction authors (as well as some publishers like Tor!) feel strongly about that kind of thing