Kindle Is Making It Harder to Switch to Rival eReader Brands.
-
There's also calibre-web for a self-hosted option with a web interface.
IIRC it’s not as feature complete as the fat client
-
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.
I've been downloading my books but most of them are DRM so I can't read them on anything BUT a Kindle. I've been thinking about getting another e-reader but I fear I'm trapped.
-
I've been downloading my books but most of them are DRM so I can't read them on anything BUT a Kindle. I've been thinking about getting another e-reader but I fear I'm trapped.
Just look up Kindle DeDRM, it is easy enough to remove that stuff and then even convert them to epub
-
As it should be.
I don't mind a monopoly on a physical product as long as I can jailbreak it, install my own custom hardware, or modify it however I want.
You don't mind the harm to consumers and the anti-competitive results of Amazon establishing a monopoly on e-readers? Interesting take..
-
You don't mind the harm to consumers and the anti-competitive results of Amazon establishing a monopoly on e-readers? Interesting take..
Amazon even has a monopoly on e-readers?? I thought that was a more evenly-shared market, with Pocketbook being the most popular, while Boox and others have a sizeable part of the pie. Where I am, Kindles aren't even sold officially, so I don't see them much.
-
Libraries (and Libby, the app they use) are also making it difficult to do anything but read in a browser or use Kindle.
Sadly too true. To be fair though I don't think ANY librarian want that.
Here in Belgium we have an online library ( lirtuel.be ) that isn't actually too bad. I looked it up and they say they provided ePub/PDF so I registered right away. Then... I discovered what they meant wasn't ePub/PDF but rather DRMed ePub/PDF (here is an example https://www.lirtuel.be/resources/67aaf2124e480409978b68fb with ePub logo on the top right). Anyway I contacted them explaining that my ebook reader (reMarkable) does not support DRM and thus I couldn't read the content. They pointed me to their documentation https://confluence.demarque.com/confluence/cantook-station/fr/faq/verrou-numerique-et-identifiant-adobe/qu-est-ce-qu-un-verrou-numerique-drm which implies it's all "normal" to use that. I insisted, they didn't reply.
Long story short, I'm either not using their service anymore or using DeGourou https://github.com/Bingwithyou/DeGourou to make the content legally loaned actually usable. Sad state of affairs but I'm convinced none of the actual librarians, namely people who care for making knowledge discoverable and accessible like that. I'm sure they've been coerced by same big publishers.
The librarians I've talked to simply don't know how any of this works. I've been told 3 times (the 3rd one today) that epub version of books are not available. Today it was a "trained computer aid that offers technology assistance" saying the epub format I download just last week is not available from the library.
-
Try explaining how to do that to your non-techie relatives, especially the older ones who like reading. Yes, this makes is more difficult to switch.
At least my non-techy relatives don't even know that what they're doing is called "pirating", lol. For them, it is just "getting media".
I only learned that some people paid for digital media when I became fluent in English and got exposed to American social media.
-
You don't mind the harm to consumers and the anti-competitive results of Amazon establishing a monopoly on e-readers? Interesting take..
-
Libby is able to sync with your kindle, and then you just choose "send to Kindle" on your phone when checking a book out and the book will appear in your Kindle library.
https://help.libbyapp.com/en-us/6017.htm
If you have a Kindle, this is 100% the best way to read books.
pretty sure that is us only
-
The Nova 3 released in late 2020, it hasn’t existed for 8 years.
Ah shit I think you are right. Feels like I have had it forever but seems that was a false memory of some sort.
I bought it while I lived in my previous apartment which I feel was longer ago and so I got a bit confused with the dates I think lol. Thanks for pointing it out.
-
IIRC it’s not as feature complete as the fat client
This. I've personally found it easiest to use Calibre to strip DRM & get things tidy, then use Audiobookshelf to manage both my ebooks and audiobooks
-
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.
I wonder if this is at all related to the EU changes to eBook DRM standards, where the standard Kindle Adobe DRM isn't compliant
-
No, the files are mostly owned by the publisher. That's why you sometimes have stories where books disappear from Kindles because the rights holders revoke Amazon's license to sell their books. It's what happened with one version of Orwell's 1984, ironically.
It's ridiculous, if you ask me, but that's the reality with Broken By Design DRM ebooks.
That's why it's prudent for any buyers of ebooks to download them as soon as you can, and put them in a library like "Calibre", that way, even if Amazon loses their license to sell those publishers books, you still have access to the ebooks you bought with your money.
And that's why it's bad that Amazon is removing the option to download the files yourself. And why I recommend people to take their business and wallets elsewhere! Stop giving Bezos your money.And Amazaon doesn't have to reimburse you then, since they revoked your permission to read them, which is what you paid for?
-
And Amazaon doesn't have to reimburse you then, since they revoked your permission to read them, which is what you paid for?
It's not what happened when they removed 1984 off of people's Kindles. I think somewhere in the fine print, they'll probably have a clause that says they're allowed to do that.
-
I thought you could load bookshop.org eBookd onto a Kindle, but it seems they have their own DRM and you need to use their own app...
Some of their books are DRM free, but not all. I thought they all were, but it turns out I was wrong.
So... maybe even bookshop.org isn't the best option for Kindles.
I guess there really is only one option left...
I went researched a few years ago and concluded that there is no option for writers to be guaranteed "no piracy" and that's why they prefer having paperbooks. (That is also after brainstorming with a few people to publish my own book if it were...) and those days i was trying to find an important book in electronic format and could not find it anywhere, the paper 10th edition version (which i eventually bought) is like 1000 pages and the e version i found was 200 ish pages summary. So my sad conclusion was that i just need a big'ol scanner at home, just so that i can scan everything that i buy in paper just because i could then keep it personally on my e-reader (and having destroyedbinding of each book i buy lmao).... is that too much to ask... my wife says no.... lol
-
Oddly enough, pirated ebooks are a malware minefield. And hard to find.
That said, I have about 8000.
Where are you going to that they are a malware issue?
-
This. I've personally found it easiest to use Calibre to strip DRM & get things tidy, then use Audiobookshelf to manage both my ebooks and audiobooks
It does ebooks too?
-
That was amusingly well timed:
I've jailbroken every Kindle fire I've ever owned, is this something new?
-
Undernet and #bookz for me somehow turned out to be easier than more popular styles of piracy.
Is bookz a channel in undernet?
-
It does ebooks too?
Yep! Here's an ebook I have hosted through Audiobookshelf, reading it over the Internet using my domain & reverse proxy.
(The top bar is shown/hidden when you tap the screen, so it's not always in the way like this)
