this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2025
713 points (99.2% liked)

Technology

63009 readers
6236 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

On February 26th, Kindle customers will lose the ability to download eBook purchases directly to their PC. If you want to switch to a rival eReader brand in the future, I suggest that you use the soon-to-be discontinued "Download and Transfer via USB" feature to archive your Kindle library.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 days ago (4 children)

It eludes me how people pay to 'buy' something that they cannot download in the first place. If I don't have it as a file on my computer, I don't own it. You wouldn't pay to 'buy' a physical item if that meant only being able to look at it at the store, without the ability to take it home and do whatever you want with it.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago

If buying is not owning…

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Just wait until they can figure out how to do this to physical items. How? Idfk bro what am I a rocket appliance?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'd love to see them put that on the big black dildo I purchase each year. Try me!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Lol

sorry vibrating/heating function locked until daily dues are paid.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Safety eject option locked until subscription is paid. "911. I have a dildo shoved in my ass and my safety eject subscription ran out. Please help!" you know, it sounds crazy and like this could never happen but I say it's just crazy enough it will happen. Look at who the American president is. That's all the proof you need.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I agree. However, some dishonest services allow to download, but downloaded file is DRM. It is even worse.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Most services are forced to carry DRM only versions of Ebooks by the book publishers. But there are ways of legally removing the DRM - it's a faff but doable. I buy epubs and don't use Kindle (haven't for a long time) as it's much harder to remove the DRM and actually own your books.

But way I look at it - if I bought the Kindle version of a book, I can just download a DRM free version by sailing the seas. Fuck Amazon.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

It is very easy to remove DRM from kindle Books, but since you will not be avle to download them it will not be possible anymore.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

i keep getting mixed msgs on this (then again, I could be misinterpreting) but it sounds like you can still download the ebook to your kindle (it will be in .kfx format), but if you plug the kindle into the computer and copy the .kfx file to it, that you should then be able to import it into calibre on your computer and the kfx plugin should strip the DRM.

i haven't tested this to be sure yet (my kindle library is already downloaded and i've just been buying ebooks from Kobo since the Amazon announcement)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That's where I'm getting conflicting info: I understand you won't be able to "download and transfer via USB" from the Amazon website but when you download a book from the Kindle over wifi it's still a file on your kindle that can be browsed to if you connect your Kindle to a computer via USB

Then you copy that downloaded ebook (.kfx) to your computer and import into Calibre and use the Kindle plugin that strips DRM from .kfx files.

I'm going to try that today and see if it actually works...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It is pretty obvious why they are doing this though, but it also means you don't own them, you are renting them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Convenience. Most people reads book once, if they finish it at all.