From them perhaps. 
this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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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.
Straight up theft. In a more functional government, there would be an agency with real teeth that you could report them to for that kind of behavior, with something other than fines-as-the-cost-of-doing-business.
Sounds to me like Amazon is reducing the value proposition of their product. For me, additional roadblocks to being able to enjoy something they way I want when I have paid for it reduces the value of the product itself.
For example, if a DRM free book in an standards compatible format costs $20, then the DRM version I can still download for offline viewing is worth $10. The DRM version I can't download is now worth more like $1-$5 depending on how badly I would want to read it while still supporting the author.
And yes, ebooks from the major sellers aren't worth much to me and I rarely rent (because you're not really buying) them.
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.
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"your" ebooks. – You never owned them in the first place. And if buying isn't owning, questionably acquired ebooks aren't stolen.
Check if it’s available on your library website first, for the sake of the author.
I download books from my library to my kindle. It goes through Amazon though, so I assume I am also impacted by this BS.
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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.
Authors receive 25% of the ebook sale to a library in the US. Frequent lends will also influence future purchases made by the library.
https://janefriedman.com/what-do-authors-earn-from-digital-lending-at-libraries/
Libraries in Canada and the UK pay royalties for each lend.
https://societyofauthors.org/where-we-stand/public-lending-right-plr/
It's not a great deal for the libraries. They ebooks can come with a limited number of checkouts and cost far more.
I switched to Kobo and have been very happy so far. I was able to download my books from Amazon and mumble and then I was able to read them on my Kobo device and store them in my Calibre library.
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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.
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.
True, though such services are in the extreme minority at this point.
Bandcamp is great for music downloads
library genesis. anna's archive.
chances are, its there.
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
what is your p2p method, out of curiosity?
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
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.
Lol, my girlfriend just had all of her sideloaded books removed from her kindle today. She just opened her kindle and they were gone
Book burning
George Orwell's 1984 becomes more of a reality every day.
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
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.
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One more reason not to buy ebooks from Amazon.
I’m glad I started my Amazon boycott earlier. I could’ve lost a lot more e-books.
Fuck Amazon. Delete your account.
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.
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.
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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.
Calibre (Kindle) and Libation (Audible) are essential backup tools.
Y'know, in case their servers are down...
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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.
🤣🤣🤣🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
Good thing then that I never, ever in my entire life have given Amazon a single cent, nor will I.
Honestly? That’s pretty amazing.
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I was able to export (you'll have to remove DRM via plugin) all of my Kindle ebooks into epub using "Method 2a" of this guide:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=361503
It's can be a massive pain with some metadata issues, but at least it works.
I've been meaning to do this for years, but have always been too lazy.
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Very happy I got a PocketBook instead of the store locked alternatives
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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.
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