YSK: You don't own your Kindle e-books.

Comments

• helenslunch@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Is there a FOSS OS for Kindles?

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  • sopo@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    No but you can jailbreak them, and their OS is linux-based; unfortunately if it’s a new Kindle or newish with an up to date firmware, you might have to wait for someone to release a new jb method. With a jb you can install Koreader (which alone can do everything useful), but also people (mobileread forums) have compiled a working Python library and a terminal with bash…mostly useful to show off :) you can run neofetch

    If you’re like me and need Koreader (has impeccable pdf reflow and stardict support), a Kobo is way easier, and you don’t have to wait

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    • count_duckula@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I’ve been using KOReader on my phone now, ever since my Kindle one day decided to be unrecognisable on my computer. Couldn’t find a solution to fix it so it became a glorified paperweight.

      The screen real estate is slightly degraded, but fuck if I give Amazon any more of my money. Besides, I get to store epubs as epubs instead of converting to that god awful mobi format.

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    • helenslunch@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      With a jb you can install Koreader

      So yes?

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• Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I do.

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• lightnsfw@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I own the 1000s of ebooks I’ve downloaded to my personal media server.

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• circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  It is entirely possible to use a Kindle for epub only (that is, never “buy” a book from Amazon). There are lots of epub around, including from places like Gutenberg.

  Additionally, the Libby app allows you to use your Kindle in conjunction with your local library’s electronic collection, which (in my case) is quite sizable and allows you to “borrow” DRMd books for a finite amount of time.

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• IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I use Calibre to remove the DRM from all ebooks I buy. Not that I buy a lot of them, but hell if I’ll let Amazon be the keeper of the keys.

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  • Boozilla@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yup, making a DRM-free backup somewhere is the only way to protect the content you paid for from the whims of the overlords.

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• neidu2@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Damn right I don’t.

  Yarrrrrrr

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  • NateNate60@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Don’t do that. Authors make next to nothing from their books. You don’t have to support Amazon, but at least buy a paper copy or audiobook to support the author.

    Unless it’s J. K. Rowling. Fuck Rowling.

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    • _cnt0@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I don’t want to fuck Rowling.

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    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I buy DRM free books off humble bundle. Even if I already have previously downloaded them. I will not give money to anything with DRM on it if I don’t have to. These authors aren’t getting money from me because they don’t offer a product I want (DRM free books). Other sources do have this product so they can blame themselves or their publisher for losing sales.

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    • Localhorst86@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I remember an email I sent to Randall Munroe once, asking where I can buy his Book “What if” without DRM.

      He emailed me back that unfortunately there is no place to buy it without DRM, because of the publisher, but he also linked this comic in his email:

      xkcd.com/488/

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• BestBouclettes@jlai.lu ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  My Kindle never saw any WiFi connected to it. Everything goes through Calibre. I only read dead authors, so I don’t feel bad about pirating my books.
  Sometimes I go buy used books at my local bookshops just because you should support your local bookshop.

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• mctoasterson@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I am now of the opinion that you should just download books off indexing sites/IRC/ Usenet/torrents and if you like the book and want to support the author, buy a physical copy, or buy 2 and put one in a neighborhood free library. That maximizes the good you are doing and helps your community instead of just generating Bezos bux.

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  • Maggoty@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Some authors straight up tell you where they get the most money for your purchase. Hardcopy is almost never it. But also those mini share libraries are cool and I like dropping sci fi books in.

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• celsiustimeline@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  This should be like a PSA when signing up for internet service. Like, hello new internet user! Welcome to the glorious, uncensored world wide forum of information, of which there is a 30+ year established culture of lying and manipulation in order to get you to buy things and/or steal your information in order to advertise to you. By the by, should you sign up for one of the hundreds of content streaming services, YSK that none of the content is yours to own ever. If it’s not physically in your hands, it’s not yours.

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  • yonder@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Even if you can physically hold it, you better be damn sure it will work without internet.

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• FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Unless you download the pdf/epub off a very legal website. And only buy the books of small authors you want to support:

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• SplashJackson@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Throw the Kindle to the ground and get a Kobo, they let you pirate books a million times easier

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  • Boozilla@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Happy Prime Day to the GROUND!

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• ieatpwns@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Jokes on Amazon I can almost always find a copy of what ever book on libgen that I end up owning crazy how that works

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• Kusimulkku@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Can’t delete a title since I don’t have it ever connected to internet.

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• oxjox@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Everyone should generally assume that unless you have something tangibly in your hand, you either do not own it or you may very easily and/or suddenly lose access to it. You could test this by trying to access the content without having to sign in to something.

  All these streaming and subscription services should be considered ease of access conveniences. In other industries, you pay a premium for something to be prepared for you to consume. In the subscription industry, you’re paying less because you’re not paying for the content but for a license to temporarily consume the content (and probably because your info is being sold to advertisers).

  Fun Fact: If you were to rip a Bluray to your computer, you’re legally not permitted to watch that movie if you’re no longer in possession of the disc. This is because you’re not purchasing the content of the disc but the license to view the content. Decrypting DRM is illegal not based on whether you own the content but because the DRM encryption itself is separately copyright protected.

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  • hedgehog@ttrpg.network ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Fun Fact: If you were to rip a Bluray to your computer, you’re legally not permitted to watch that movie if you’re no longer in possession of the disc.

    Not sure why you think this.

    You can legally rip a Bluray for backup purposes. If you sell or give away the Bluray, you have to delete the backed up copy. If it’s lost, stolen, or unintentionally damaged, you do not.

    However, you cannot bypass the DRM to watch it or when you’re creating the backup. This is true regardless of whether you still possess the physical disc.

    Decrypting DRM is illegal not based on whether you own the content but because the DRM encryption itself is separately copyright protected.

    Bypassing DRM is illegal because the DMCA explicitly prohibits the circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works, and there isn’t an exemption for personal use, personal backups, or fair use in general.

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    • oxjox@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Not sure why you think this.

      You just reiterated what I said.

      If you were to rip a Bluray to your computer, you’re legally not permitted to watch that movie if you’re no longer in possession of the disc.

      =

      You can legally rip a Bluray for backup purposes. If you sell or give away the Bluray, you have to delete the backed up copy.

      Technically, if the FBI were to ask you to prove ownership of a digital copy and you had lost the disc, it would be illegal to retain that digital copy.

      Bypassing DRM is illegal because the DMCA explicitly prohibits the circumvention…

      Yes. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a law that covers copyright protections.

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• zephorah@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Steam, Kindle, Audible, what was that movies site?

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• NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Of course you don’t. Did anyone think otherwise?

  Kindles have always slotted in as somewhere between the mass market paperbacks and trade paperbacks. Cheap books you read once or twice and then likely never again. If you do get in the mood to read it again? mobi files hold up a lot better than pulp designed to decay in order months but MMPBs always had a tendency to be lost forever just like amazon has a tendency to fuck with your library.

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  • moody@lemmings.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    A knowledgeable user will be aware of these shortcomings of so-called “ownership” of digital goods, but the average person doesn’t read license agreements and does not understand that their purchase can be revoked at any time by the seller.

    The average person makes a purchase and expects to own the item in question.

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• Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Jokes on them, I have a Gen1 Kindle that won’t even connect to wifi.

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  • TrenchcoatFullofBats@belfry.rip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    My Gen 2 only had whispernet, which relied on the Sprint EVDO network, both of which no longer exist (the company and the network type).

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• sirico@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  You can strip the DRM if needed

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  • johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    That’s true for the older Kindle format but not the newer one.

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    • Anivia@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Not entirely correct. If you own a legitimate copy of the book on your Kindle you can strip the DRM even on the newest version.

      If you acquired the file through illegitimate means and it still has the DRM on it, then the newest DRM is indeed not possible to remove yet

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  • MeatsOfRage@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yea Audible too. I can’t remember the name of the tool but you can connect to your account and it pulls all your purchases locally DRM free. It was handy for setting up Audiobookshelf

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    • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Libation (add audible to your search to find it)

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    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Thanks for the reminder! I’ve gotten a bunch of free audible books and haven’t backed them up in a while.

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• ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I haven’t used Kindles personally ever, but I helped my neighbor export their kindle collection a few years ago.

  It dumped it into mobi files to use with calibre. Then from there, you can convert them into epubs.

  I recall it being straightforward. Probably something a kindle owner should do periodically to back up their collection.

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  • Anivia@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It’s better to keep them as mobi files than converting to epub. Mobi works on almost every device, and converting to epub can always result in messed up formatting or chapters.

    If you absolutely have to convert the files to epub for some reason, at least keep the original mobi files as well

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  • GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Another problem with DRM’d platforms is that you don’t really know how long this will be easy or even viable. I recall these tools breaking in the past as Amazon changed their encryption, and it took time for them to be updated.

    For anyone with a large library on Kindle, Audible, or any other DRM-infested platform, I recommend stripping that DRM sooner rather than later. You might think “I can always do it later” but there’s no guarantee that will be true.

    Also, shoutout to ebooks.com for having a dedicated DRM-free section and a simple checkbox to filter search results to only show DRM-free items. Not sure where to go for DRM-free audiobooks though. Anyone got suggestions? Personally I will simply not buy books with DRM, regardless of how easy it might be to crack it. If I’m going to have to break the law anyway (thanks, DMCA!), I might as well pirate it and find some other way to toss the author a few bucks.

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    • localme@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I use downpour.com for drm-free audiobooks. They let you straight up download the mb4 files haha it’s awesome.

      It’s such a win-win b/c I get to buy audiobooks drm-free and I get to avoid supporting audible which has terrible business practices such as locking authors in exclusive deals.

      Also thanks for the ebooks.com recommendation! I was reading this thread specifically to see if anyone knew of a good place online to buy drm-free ebooks :)

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    • boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You can get Audiobooks from Spotify using the app Soundbound. You need to insert a list of plugins, then it works.

      Apart from that, youtube? Or sailing the high seas?

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  • Cenotaph@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    My understanding is they arent mobi files anymore but a proprietary DRM format. That being said, there are many wonderful calibre plugins that break the drm.

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    • tomkatt@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      MOBI has been deprecated for a long time. Standard formats now are AZW3 (KF8) and KFX. They’re a bit more advanced than MOBI, and thank goodness, since it was a terrible format. AZW3 is essentially a MOBI/EPUB container, and I believe KFX is equivalent to EPUB2, possibly with some EPUB3 features.

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    • TrenchcoatFullofBats@belfry.rip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      FWIW, Amazon deprecated mobi files recently and epub is the new “sideload” standard. You still have to email the file to the kindle address to be able to read them, or convert to azw3.

      If you’re already using Calibre, check out Calibre-Web, which essentially uses a Calibre database as the back end. The interface is so much nicer than Calibre.

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• AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  There are also Kindle books sold without DRM at the request of the author.

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  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yup, mine are drm free.

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  • SatyrSack@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I know that would allow you to back up the ebook file elsewhere and use it however you please, but could Amazon still potentially delete the file from your Kindle device?

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    • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Doesn’t even really let you do that.

      A “DRM Free” kindle ebook still basically requires a physical kindle (or shenanigans with apps) to even access the raw file of. If you just go to your content library to try and download it to transfer via USB you get told to pound sand and buy a kindle. That might change if you have a physical kindle registered to your account (I currently read exclusively via my phone and my onyx boox) but… yeah.

      And yeah, as long as it is in The Cloud, amazon can do whatever they want. I am not aware of having any books removed from my account but I do recall having the option to “upgrade” an ebook to a newer version in the case of publisher screw ups.

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    • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I don’t know.

      You can put unmanaged files (in a readable format) onto a Kindle via USB, though, so if you’d backed up the file somewhere you could presumably put it back again.

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