Amazon removing download facility for Kindle books on 26 February

[rogerzilla]

Currently owners of most Kindles can use a "download and transfer via USB" facility in My Account to keep purchased books safe from deletion by Amazon - as famously happened with 1984 - or editing of content. The .azw DRM is also breakable if you want to use an alternative device.

This facility is being removed next week, so you may wish to avail yourself of it now. It is not being communicated by Amazon except for a warning of the upcoming 26 February date when you download content.

Apologies for Daily Express link but the other news sources don't seem to have picked this up.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-styl...f-very-useful-kindle-feature-are-you-affected


View: https://youtu.be/KMoCzeGnIss?si=EPQUjWeQbF6cJUAN

 

[Drago]

You better download my book quickly then.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Landfall-A...Shaw&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=Augustus+Shaw

The sequel, Blunt Force Trauma, will be available when I get round to finishing it.

 

[rualexander]

This will stop people from buying the Kindle version of a book, downloading it to PC then using Calibre etc to remove the DRM and convert it to e-pub format and load it into a Kobo reader.
Many books are cheaper in Kindle format from Amazon than they are in epub format from Kobo, also some books available on Kindle are not available on Kobo.

 

[si_c]

Never bothered with ebooks, it's why I have a lot of shelves full of dead trees. But I'm waiting for Amazon to try and put DRM on those

 

[wafter]

Reason number 1,364,984 to boycott Bozo's grimey platform..

 

[icowden]

You better download my book quickly then.

Just had a read of the sample. For what it's worth, I thought the opening couple of pages seemed a bit clunky but you have successfully hooked me quite quickly and I now definitely need to read the rest of the book...

Happily it's on Kindle Unlimited so I've added it to my reading list

 

[Tail End Charlie]

Not sure exactly what this means, but if I can continue using my Kindle, them I'm a happy bunny. A couple of weeks ago I kept getting messages that it wouldn't reboot so after a few days I went all nuclear and reset to factory settings. Even this took a couple of goes but fortunately eventually all my books reappeared (well I think a couple may be missing, but I'm not too concerned by that, I had read them after all).

 

[icowden]

Not sure exactly what this means, but if I can continue using my Kindle, them I'm a happy bunny. A couple of weeks ago I kept getting messages that it wouldn't reboot so after a few days I went all nuclear and reset to factory settings. Even this took a couple of goes but fortunately eventually all my books reappeared (well I think a couple may be missing, but I'm not too concerned by that, I had read them after all).

What it essentially means is this.

Once upon a time in the olden days, it used to be possible to buy a book, then lend it to your wife / son / daughter / mother in law etc or give it to a second hand shop / charity shop. Then one day, the e-book was invented.

This amazing invention was easier for consumers to take on holiday and was much cheaper for digital bookshops to make and sell as printing costs were eradicated. However, soon the bookshops noticed that sales of hardbacks and paperbacks were falling and their profit margins were declining despite the profits they had made selling books with no actual paper or ink. They hatched a clever plan. They would make the ebook cost the same as the hardback until the paperback came out!

People buying books went "stuff this for a lark" and started looking up ways to stop the book barons from robbing them blind. They discovered that they could download the books from amazon as digital files and send them to granny / daughter / etc via the mechanism that Amazon had built into kindle to allow uploading of books people already owned. All they had to do was strip off the digital media rights protection using a free app called Caliber.

Soon, the greedy Baron Bezos spotted this loophole and quoth "these scum are costing me profits. how am I going to beat my enemy MuskMan into space if these people keep stealing books that they used to be able to lend to their family for free?" And verily he did terminate the ability to download a book as a file and chucked another few quid on the cost of an e-book.

 

[mustang1]

What it essentially means is this.

Once upon a time in the olden days, it used to be possible to buy a book, then lend it to your wife / son / daughter / mother in law etc or give it to a second hand shop / charity shop. Then one day, the e-book was invented.

This amazing invention was easier for consumers to take on holiday and was much cheaper for digital bookshops to make and sell as printing costs were eradicated. However, soon the bookshops noticed that sales of hardbacks and paperbacks were falling and their profit margins were declining despite the profits they had made selling books with no actual paper or ink. They hatched a clever plan. They would make the ebook cost the same as the hardback until the paperback came out!

People buying books went "stuff this for a lark" and started looking up ways to stop the book barons from robbing them blind. They discovered that they could download the books from amazon as digital files and send them to granny / daughter / etc via the mechanism that Amazon had built into kindle to allow uploading of books people already owned. All they had to do was strip off the digital media rights protection using a free app called Caliber.

Soon, the greedy Baron Bezos spotted this loophole and quoth "these scum are costing me profits. how am I going to beat my enemy MuskMan into space if these people keep stealing books that they used to be able to lend to their family for free?" And verily he did terminate the ability to download a book as a file and chucked another few quid on the cost of an e-book.

I started thinking of DRM on movies.

If you want to led your book to a family member of the same household, then fair enough. But what if the family member is of a different household, or an extended family member, or a friend, a stranger and so on.

Then it got.me thinking about movies. Download a movie and watch with your family. Or extended family, friends etc.

I would like go with he old ways: book book or movie, and it's mine to do what I want with it. Unless, I'm an author or movie producer then I might not like it so much. Maybe in front of everyone I will say "yeah go ahead, sharing is caring" but behind the scenes, cunning plan will develop to limit the downloads,usage of books and movies.

Idk what the right answer is, but since I'm not an author, then I prefer the "I bought the book, it's MY damn book to do what I want."

 

[oldandslow]

Unfortunately you only ever buy a licence. Copyright remains with the owner thereof (author or publisher, depending on their contract. In spite of Disney's untrue advertising a few years ago, you are not buying "yours to own" even on DVD - it's a limited licence to watch at home with small numbers of people. I think some DVD publishers may even have tried to argue that the licence doesn't extend to resale, but I'm not sure that got anywhere.

There's no doubt though that it's a lot easier to pass on a paper book than a digital one.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

What it essentially means is this.

Once upon a time in the olden days, it used to be possible to buy a book, then lend it to your wife / son / daughter / mother in law etc or give it to a second hand shop / charity shop. Then one day, the e-book was invented.

This amazing invention was easier for consumers to take on holiday and was much cheaper for digital bookshops to make and sell as printing costs were eradicated. However, soon the bookshops noticed that sales of hardbacks and paperbacks were falling and their profit margins were declining despite the profits they had made selling books with no actual paper or ink. They hatched a clever plan. They would make the ebook cost the same as the hardback until the paperback came out!

People buying books went "stuff this for a lark" and started looking up ways to stop the book barons from robbing them blind. They discovered that they could download the books from amazon as digital files and send them to granny / daughter / etc via the mechanism that Amazon had built into kindle to allow uploading of books people already owned. All they had to do was strip off the digital media rights protection using a free app called Caliber.

Soon, the greedy Baron Bezos spotted this loophole and quoth "these scum are costing me profits. how am I going to beat my enemy MuskMan into space if these people keep stealing books that they used to be able to lend to their family for free?" And verily he did terminate the ability to download a book as a file and chucked another few quid on the cost of an e-book.

I thought it was something like that, but it doesn't bother me as I don't think I've ever paid more than £1.99 for a book and usually only pay 99p.
You just have to be cute. I often buy a 99p book, the first in a series, then eventually the price of the second drops to that and so on.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

And to be honest, for those decrying Amazon, I suspect that most authors would be happy with this change as presumably they'll sell more and hence get more revenue. I know amazon will take a cut, but if extra is going to the author, then it's no bad thing in my book. (ha geddit?)

 

[Drago]

Compared to, say, the music industry the return to authors (or their managing agent) on Amazon as a percentage of the price the punter pays for the product is significant, in the order of 1/2ish to 2/3ish for a download. I've made a mighty coupla hundred quid from 400 odd sales

I can only hope Martin Scorcese bids for the film rights soon.

 

[icowden]

Compared to, say, the music industry the return to authors (or their managing agent) on Amazon as a percentage of the price the punter pays for the product is significant, in the order of 1/2ish to 2/3ish for a download. I've made a mighty coupla hundred quid from 400 odd sales

Do you know if you get the same amount if it's downloaded on kindle unlimited?

 

[Drago]

No, it's less - recently moved mine to UL - but turnover seems higher.