Amazon is changing what is written in books
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Oh I didn't think I implied that at all. Certainly didn't mean to. I was just commenting that making cultural artifacts that can be revised into delta-based distributions instead of flat is useful for many reasons. But it's no benefit to the corps and most users don't care so of course it won't happen.
OK, tanks for clarifying that
Yes, it would be great.
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Yes, but you say it like the Author himself changed it.
In the specific Example, the book is from before 2000 and the author is long dead. That book is a piece of culture now, displaying the writing style from a place in time where it was normal to discriminate against people. By changing a book, regardless of if it was actually amazon or just some manager that bought up the rights for the book, it is manipulating the Past. Amazon should not allow to do such things
Flashlight replacing rifles in E.T. was shitty to. Imagine if huck fin was changed it to Skibiddi Jim lol. Amazon can fuck itself just as hard as "the author" in changing the story. I paid for it it's mine if you fuck with it that's vandalism.
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But lets see the Positive side: Now the Nazis wont have to burn thousands of books, saving tons of co2 in their Plan to take over the world with propaganda. So, yay for the envoirment I guess
I paid for (the license to view) the books already, so I’m getting epubs from z-library without the slightest bit of moral pain.
I could do the calibre decryption thing, but meh.
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A hosting provider always has the ability to change what's on their infrastructure. The Kindle store is no different.
As it happens, they've been doing this for years. For example, the price you set as an author is not fixed nor is how it turns up on the page or how and when it's promoted.
The standard ebook format is essentially a zipped up series of text files.
Source: I sell my "Foundations of Amateur Radio" ebooks on the Kindle store
Does Amazon have permission to change what's in your book though?
Copyright prevents them from making derivative works and if they change your text without your permission, that's a clear copyright violation.
I don't know how licensing deals work with Amazon but I'm guessing if they are doing this en mass, there is probably some provision in their contract.
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But lets see the Positive side: Now the Nazis wont have to burn thousands of books, saving tons of co2 in their Plan to take over the world with propaganda. So, yay for the envoirment I guess
1984 right here.
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I paid for (the license to view) the books already, so I’m getting epubs from z-library without the slightest bit of moral pain.
I could do the calibre decryption thing, but meh.
Same boat man. 'OK I'll throw a few schmeckles in because the author does need the compensation, but i'm getting the actual book elsewhere.'
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But lets see the Positive side: Now the Nazis wont have to burn thousands of books, saving tons of co2 in their Plan to take over the world with propaganda. So, yay for the envoirment I guess
If you're into audiobooks, I strongly recommend libro.fm instead - it's all DRM free downloads, so you never lose access.
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There are other ways to buy books, I don't understand why so many people have a boner for Amazon. It feels like Stockholm syndrome to me. I've never bought a single book from Amazon, not one.
I’m constantly on the lookout for European alternatives. Are there any EU alternatives to Amazon?
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A hosting provider always has the ability to change what's on their infrastructure. The Kindle store is no different.
As it happens, they've been doing this for years. For example, the price you set as an author is not fixed nor is how it turns up on the page or how and when it's promoted.
The standard ebook format is essentially a zipped up series of text files.
Source: I sell my "Foundations of Amateur Radio" ebooks on the Kindle store
Source: I sell my "Foundations of Amateur Radio" ebooks on the Kindle store
And thank you for the reminder that I should go get a license before the entire system is so messed up that it wouldn't be possible.
Well or it would be irrelevant because no one would care.
Either way!
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But lets see the Positive side: Now the Nazis wont have to burn thousands of books, saving tons of co2 in their Plan to take over the world with propaganda. So, yay for the envoirment I guess
They got caught doing this over a decade ago as well.
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It would be nice if that stuff worked more like git where yeah maybe the release version gets changed but you can always work back through the history to see earlier versions.
Not git specifically but just deltas from one version to the next instead of replacing the whole thing with a flattened text.
Like wiki articles.
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If you're into audiobooks, I strongly recommend libro.fm instead - it's all DRM free downloads, so you never lose access.
Thank you for this! I made an account and may get the membership!
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There are other ways to buy books, I don't understand why so many people have a boner for Amazon. It feels like Stockholm syndrome to me. I've never bought a single book from Amazon, not one.
You can even buy books directly from publishers. Recently I wanted a hardback copy of a book and it was out of stock, backordered, or absurdly high priced on all the big popular online places. Ended up ordering it for MSRP from Penguin Random House direct.
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There are other ways to buy books, I don't understand why so many people have a boner for Amazon. It feels like Stockholm syndrome to me. I've never bought a single book from Amazon, not one.
You're thinking like a techy, put yourself in the layman's shoes.
The Kindle was a pretty big deal as the first widespread e-reader. My tech-challenged mom got one and she loves how easy it is to get a book and have it there.
Given that this change won't really affect her, she probably doesn't care. There's a lot more people like my mom than you or I.
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There are other ways to buy books, I don't understand why so many people have a boner for Amazon. It feels like Stockholm syndrome to me. I've never bought a single book from Amazon, not one.
The reality is that Amazon is the most convenient way to buy a lot of things, and as a result, people will put up with a lot of bullshit.
I genuinely try to buy things locally before I start looking online. It's increasingly difficult even for common items. The big box stores are shifting to branded only retailers. Where I used to be able to go to any hardware store and find a similar spread of items available, Lowe's, home Depot and Menards all offer their own lines of tools to varrying degrees. Menards is the worst about it, but they're all doing it.
Less common items are being phased out in stores, going to online order only. Where in the past you'd have your choice of just about any brand of thing you could think of in any store in any major town, now you're lucky to find certain things at all. And if I'm going to have to order it online anyway, Amazon has the best return policy.
Hobby or specialty items are easily marked up 300% locally. And you have to go to that specific store, which may require a fucking membership just to get an only marginally hyper inflated price. It's fine if it's one thing I need right now but I'm not going to pay for the privilege of shopping at a hobby shop. I'm at Costco every week and I'm salty about that membership. Jack Tanner's Leather Emporium isn't even getting my email address.
And frequently on Amazon it's not just the same thing, it's the exact same fucking product. Likely shipped to the hobby shop from Amazon. I get that these guys need to make a living, but bro, have a little respect for modern consumers. I'll pay a premium, I'm not signing up for anything and I'm not paying triple the price.
And even if you are resolved to buy online, and you try to go to the branded website to buy the specialty thing, Amazon has it, they have free shipping, and they'll get it to you tomorrow. But if you go to Rockler's website they're going to charge you 10-20 dollars to ship a single item, unless you spend more money, and it'll take two to three weeks to get to you.
I'm sorry, Amazon fucking won. Even if I say I'm willing to eat the cost, pay the shipping, pay a premium, and I'm willing to wait for the stuff I order, I'll even make an account at every shady ass website I want to order from and give all of them my payment information, regardless of how much I trust their security, because I know Amazon is a horrifically evil company, I'm a drop in the fucking bucket. So are you and anyone reading this.
It's just too fucking convenient. Too many competitors are cutting off the tail to try to keep up. They've won
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But lets see the Positive side: Now the Nazis wont have to burn thousands of books, saving tons of co2 in their Plan to take over the world with propaganda. So, yay for the envoirment I guess
I've heard a jailbreak was recently released for all kindle models:
https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/WinterBreak/I'll be trying it out soon!
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If you're into audiobooks, I strongly recommend libro.fm instead - it's all DRM free downloads, so you never lose access.
Also downpour.com! I ditched Audible a long time back in favor of sites like these that don’t lock authors into crappy exclusives, provide DRM-free audiobooks for sale, and have actually decent deals with authors.
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If you're into audiobooks, I strongly recommend libro.fm instead - it's all DRM free downloads, so you never lose access.
Anything similar for ebooks?
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If you're into audiobooks, I strongly recommend libro.fm instead - it's all DRM free downloads, so you never lose access.
At the very least back up your Audible library in a DRM free format with something like Libation.
I am still using Audible because their web player works in my restricted office, and the authors get a couple of pennies from dragon, but have my library safely exported to ensure continued access and prevent fuckery like this.
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I’m constantly on the lookout for European alternatives. Are there any EU alternatives to Amazon?
Last time I looked (granted this was 7 or so years ago), it was pretty hard to find much, especially in English. Though German was worse, there were a few on-line retailers but because of (I’m guessing) copyright, they wouldn’t sell outside of Germany.
I’d love to find a good alternative to Amazon…
