Starting next Wednesday, February 26th, Amazon isn’t going to let users download the ebooks they’ve purchased, forcing users to keep everything within the corporation’s proprietary ecosystem.…
  • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.socialEnglish
    3·
    48 minutes ago

    As someone who likes to have a fallback way of purchasing digital content that I can remove DRM from, this annoys me.

    I can still purchase mp3 and flac files from various online retailers, and I can rip bluray for my movies and tv shows, but now I need a new place to purchase ebooks that are downloadable. Anyone have any recommendations? The first few independent retailers i’ve found seem to require their own apps.

  • GooberEar@lemmy.wtfEnglish
    12·
    12 hours ago

    Here’s my purely capitalistic problem with Amazon:

    A decade+ ago, I realized that major brands were using the site as their outlet store. I’d buy a pack of socks, and they’d be hideously deformed. I’d buy a few pants for work, one pair would be too small, one too large, and one would fit just right. I’m not fucking Goldilocks.

    The final straw for me was when my coffee maker broke. I ordered a new one via same day shipping, which at the time had a minimum order of something like $50. The coffee maker did not cost quite enough, so I added something random to the order so that my same day shipping would be free. Ultimately, the coffee maker arrived late (i.e. not the same day) and the decanter was broken.

    When I contacted Amazon about the issue, the agent said they could reship, but they wouldn’t send it same day so for that specific item it was going to take 3 - 5 days to arrive. They also tried to hassle me with a straight up return, telling me I had to take it to a UPS store, which at the time was 30+ minutes away.

    Ultimately, I pulled a Karen and told them to cancel my Amazon Prime, which they did. Only problem is, I was 2 or 3 months into the year long subscription and assumed I’d get a pro-rated refund. I did not. When I got back in touch with customer service, they told me that Amazon adds up the value of the “free” shipping I received, the rental value of the movies and shows I watched on Prime, and the value of all the other services included with Prime and if that total exceeds the remaining value of the Prime subscription, then no refund.

    They basically stole almost a year of Prime from me with no recourse.

    Scum company. I got a lot of hate for saying this back in those days. But at least now, a decade+ later, people are finally starting to wake up. Not everyone, obviously. But at least I don’t get hateful responses and DMs quite as much as I used to.

    • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.socialEnglish
      2·
      59 minutes ago

      It’s been a while since I’ve heard about libgen and aa - and actually i’m not sure how they operate with direct downloads of copyrighted material? I find my ebooks through more conventional p2p means, but i’ve always just assumed that was necessary to avoid sudden takedowns

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    5·
    13 hours ago

    I pulled down the eight Kindle books I actually bought, about half of the books in my Kindle library are public domain, stuff like old Sherlock Holmes novels, some FAA handbooks, etc.

    Next I guess is Audible. Over the years Audible has offered a lot of free trials with a complimentary audiobook several times, and I’ve amassed a bit of a collection. Including the edition of The Martian narrated by R.C. Bray you can’t get anymore. Those I’d like in mp3 format if I can get it.

  • Schorsch@feddit.orgEnglish
    901·
    1 day ago

    “your” ebooks. – You never owned them in the first place. And if buying isn’t owning, questionably acquired ebooks aren’t stolen.

    • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      5·
      19 hours ago

      Even after years and years of this being discussed, it shocks me how many people keep dropping money into services which force them to own nothing.

      Convenience is a helluva drug.

      • RaoulDook@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        51 minutes ago

        It depends, sometimes you can “buy” digital ownership from these places in the form of DRM-free files. If you are able to download the DRM-free file and make a reliable backup of it, then I could call that actual ownership. This is how I approach my music and ebook libraries. I don’t do subscriptions for streaming anything but TV.

      • yenahmik@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        38 minutes ago

        I download books from my library to my kindle. It goes through Amazon though, so I assume I am also impacted by this BS.

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          36 minutes ago

          It shouldn’t. The DRM is on the Amazon book file format. The books I get from my library are usually epub format.

      • TheMinions@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        1 day ago

        I mean authors don’t see money anytime someone rents an ebook do they? Libraries just need to pay for licenses to the publisher annually from what I’ve read on reddit/Lemmy.

        I can understand renting ebooks so that your library continues to fund a digital library, but if the book is available in paper form that doesn’t really benefit the author either.

  • pr06lefs@lemmy.mlEnglish
    162·
    23 hours ago

    Unaffected since I’ve never participated in the Kindle ecosystem. I’ve been gifted a few Kindles but never was on board with that walled garden. Fuck Amazon.

    • kava@lemmy.worldEnglish
      141·
      21 hours ago

      Up until fairly recently, you could just drag and drop files onto the Kindle with a usb. I’ve had my first generation Kindle for almost 15 years now and it still works. Just download an .epub file, convert it to .mobi with Calibre, and drag and drop it over to the Kindle.

      I have a newer one too, that I got a couple of years ago as a gift.

      The trick is just disable the wifi and never let it communicate with Amazon servers. They will mess with your settings and push secret updates that remove features. For example, it could “sync” your books with your Amazon account if you naively log into your Amazon account and that literally results in you not being able to remove items from your Kindle without logging into your Amazon account on your computer and going through a million menus. It won’t let you do it from the Kindle, even if you’re offline.

      But if you just never let it connect it to the internet at all, you’re fine.

      Although the new Kindles now require a special Amazon software to copy files over (because of “convenience”) and it won’t communicate with the usual protocol so you can’t drag and drop like you could for the last 15 years.

      So yeah, don’t buy a Kindle. at least not a new one.

      • Drewski@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        5·
        20 hours ago

        Which generation of kindles requires Amazon software for USB transfer? I’ve always put mine in airplane mode and just used Calibre. I don’t want to buy a newer one that doesn’t work without special software.

        • kava@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          18 hours ago

          I’m not sure where exactly they made the switch. Basically, I got my girlfriend one a year and a half ago and it did not need the software. I explained to her to turn off the wifi and just download books and drag and drop.

          But then around Christmastime last year my girlfriend’s cousin wanted an ebook ready so we bought her a Kindle and I gave the same advice. But she couldn’t figure out how to drag and drop, so she brought it over. I was fussing around thinking something was wrong with my USB cable but then I realized it required that special software.

          So the switch happened at some point in the last ~18 months or so my memory’s a bit hazy

          Amazon just couldn’t let it be. There’s a certain set of people that just aren’t going to opt into all the bullshit. These people just want a plain and simple ebook ready to host their ebooks. They think if they force the special software they’ll be able to do things like sign into your Kindle and change your settings by force.

          But what happens? Instead of gaining those people like me or you into their ecosystem, they’re just gonna lose future hardware customers. I would have been perfectly fine buying Kindles for the rest of my life if they had just kept that feature.

          I’m sure it’s going to be reversed engineered at some point but it’s absurd. I don’t understand the short-sighted greed.

  • Geodad@lemm.eeEnglish
    13·
    23 hours ago

    I borrow them from my library through the Libby and Hoopla apps. If I want to support the author, I’ll buy a copy through some other means. Directly from them, if possible.

  • Macaroni_ninja@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    1 day ago

    I think with applications, like Calibre its relatively painless to save the whole library, if someone is ready to jump ship. Now its the perfect time.

    I personally use a Kobo without the online features, which is fantastic, but there are many great Kindle alternatives without the corporate spyware bullshit.

  • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    361·
    1 day ago

    I wonder if this is a response to someone jailbreaking all kindles ever the other day

    Fuck kindles, get a different brand of ereader that just runs stripped android

    • IonAddis@lemmy.worldEnglish
      443·
      1 day ago

      Some have speculated it’s complying in advance with stealth editing of books to remove whatever content has been decided to be censored. If you can’t download the original copy and keep it, they can change the one you have and make it seem like the original text never existed.

    • suburban_hillbilly@lemmy.mlEnglish
      9·
      1 day ago

      It’s because the first few generations of DRM were extremely poorly implemented. My og kindle keyboard still works and will ignore the DRM (that would be locking me out of, for example, a library book after its due date) if you just change the file extension to one of the DRM free file types. It will also then let me distribute that ebook to others without restriction.

    • Luffy@lemmy.mlEnglish
      13·
      1 day ago

      The kobo unes run Linux ootb, and they are as easy to install something like pluto on as an android one, but I still prefer them because I can do all kinds of shinanigans with the command line

      Also if they are too expensive for you, just get a used one, as long as they have a backlight you can read just as well on them as a libra color

    • techforwhat@lemmy.todayEnglish
      3·
      24 hours ago

      I’m planning on buying a pocketbook soon!!! I’ve been trying to get a sense of what the PocketBook interface is like on the device but haven’t found anything online. You don’t have a picture of the home / library page do you? Also, can you disable discover / suggestions on the PocketBook?

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        101·
        23 hours ago

        The UI is super simple, it’s based on Linux so it’s much closer to using a tablet computer, you access your books via folders

        Default UI

        Library is a file Explorer

        UI without recommendations (I never bothered turning it off because I’m never on the front page)

  • Kyrgizion@lemmy.worldEnglish
    233·
    1 day ago

    Good thing then that I never, ever in my entire life have given Amazon a single cent, nor will I.