If you paid feel free to pirate it.
In Response to Amazon preventing to download books you bought: Some DRM free bookstores and publishers
Submitted 13 hours ago by juergen@feddit.org to technology@lemmy.world
https://buttondown.com/weirdwriter/archive/some-drm-free-bookstores-and-publishers/
Comments
Camzing@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
NutWrench@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Once again, “if buying isn’t owning, then piracy isn’t stealing.”
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Guess we should also pirate all steam games too.
iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com 4 hours ago
I always look on itch.io and GoG first!
orclev@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
I recently switched to Kobo as a Kindle alternative, but that also highlighted a problem. Kindle Unlimited includes a TOS for publishers that prevents them from selling their books on any other platform. A significant chunk of the Kindle catalogue is also included in Kindle Unlimited, which means a significant chunk of authors works are locked into the Amazon ecosystem.
It’s been very annoying to discover how many book series I’ve been reading that are simply unavailable elsewhere because they opted to take part in Kindle Unlimited.
bassomitron@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
There’s a reason tons of major authors have come out against Amazon. I think Brandon Sanderson even went so far as to write books in secret and shadow drop them onto other book platforms, purposefully avoiding Amazon entirely.
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 12 hours ago
To my knowledge, Sanderson has not spoken out against Kindle*. His kickstarter was mostly to advertise Dragonsteel which is likely going to become his own publishing house at some point.
And while… fuck amazon, Kindle is a ridiculously author friendly platform to publish on and is the only reason we have so many amazing self published authors these days. And while KU is not great per book, it is an excellent way to get people interested in an author and buy their latest books. I strongly encourage actually reading what authors say instead of what users and armchair financial analysts do.
*: I would be incredibly shocked if he did. I think he is definitely becoming more “woke” than “mormon” these days based off his writing and character details but he is still very much a business person
Bieren@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
This has been my issue as well.
And when you sail the high seas to liberate books. You might get the actually book, without issues. You might get a file named your book, that has 17 pages of that book and then the rest is a manual to fix a car.
bob_lemon@feddit.org 10 hours ago
There’s an archive of books belonging to a certain anna, which has not failed me yet.
orclev@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Plus I actually want to support the authors. My issue is with Amazon not the authors, so I want to pay for the books I’m reading so they can keep making more of them. If I could buy the books directly from the authors in some cases I would, and in all cases if it was available from the Kobo store I’d be willing to buy it there. Unfortunately that damn exclusivity clause on Kindle Unlimited means my options for them are Amazon, Amazon, or Amazon (or roll the dice on piracy and not support the author, not to mention even when it is the book in question the quality is often poor).
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 12 hours ago
I strongly encourage POLITELY reaching out to your favorite authors on social media to talk to them about this.
One of my favorite guilty pleasure reads is very open that this is why his ebooks are only on kindle. But he is also looking into alternatives (especially since he is now big enough to have at least a small publisher) because the readers he is trying to help with KU are the ones asking him to get away from it.
Not going to tear down my de-drm setup any time soon. But optimistic I might be able to before amazon does it for me.
orclev@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Not going to tear down my de-drm setup any time soon. But optimistic I might be able to before amazon does it for me.
As far as I’m aware it’s now too late for that. Amazon has removed the ability to download ebooks to your computer meaning the only way to access azw files now is if you’ve found a way to rip them out of the Kindle memory (not possible using normal means, but maybe if you’ve cracked one open and probed the flash memory directly).
I used to de-drm all my kindle purchases using the manual download links Amazon had, but those have now been removed. That’s actually what prompted me to switch to Kobo. I’m not going to “purchase” a book I can’t create a backup of.
sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz 11 hours ago
Related question: are Kindle Unlimited books digital only? Can you not buy physical copies of it?
Ngl I still buy physical books, and I use my ereader to check out ebooks from the library and/or sail the high seas.
orclev@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Sort of? Kindle Unlimited itself is digital only, but the exclusivity clause only applies to ebooks I think, so in theory you could purchase a physical copy elsewhere.
I’ve pretty much entirely abandoned physical books. It’s just far more convenient using an e-reader which has a backlight for reading in the dark, fits thousands of books in a device that’s pocket sized, and let’s me instantly purchase, download, and start reading the next book in a series as soon as I finish the last one.
I do have physical books still, but I haven’t bought new ones in about a decade now.
whostosay@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
If the company won’t allow the books to be easily accessible, make them easily accessible.
oce@jlai.lu 12 hours ago
Kobo was bought by Rakuten in 2012, Rakuten is the Japanese Amazon, except it failed to fully scale internationally.
sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz 11 hours ago
As long as Kobo supports epub, I think it’s fine. They still support my H20 Aura from 2015, I’m not complaining.
orclev@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
While that may be true, so far at least they seem to be doing an OK job. Their ebooks are often sold sans-DRM, and in the cases they aren’t every one I’ve gotten has used Adobe Digital Editions which are easy to strip the DRM from (and is a wildly supported standard unlike Amazon’s proprietary DRM scheme). Additionally their e-reader devices, while not open hardware are repairable with disassembly guides provided by them and they even sell replacement components like screens. I have not verified this claim, but they also claim to use recycled plastic for manufacturing them and recycled cardboard for their packaging (should you care about such things).
For better or worse, if you want a Kindle like experience, you’re likely going to be forced into working with a large-ish corporation, but despite the average experience when doing so that doesn’t mean that corporation must be an evil anti-consumer hellscape of rapaciousness and greed. So far at least, Rakuten/Kobo seem to be doing OK by their customers.
leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 hours ago
Rolder@reddthat.com 8 hours ago
I use a kobo e-reader and it works a treat. Looks and feels good, and can load any ol downloaded epub book without issue with Calibre.
kn0wmad1c@programming.dev 9 hours ago
You certainly don’t want to use shodan to search
server: “calibre”kn0wmad1c@programming.dev 9 hours ago
And you definitely don’t want to find an open ebook library to get kindle-only books.
DeadNinja@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I’m so in love with Anna.
laz_28@sopuli.xyz 9 hours ago
Might be south indian Anna(brother)
steal_your_face@lemmy.ml 11 hours ago
🏴☠️
doodledup@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
This is the answer to everything ain’t it? You probably neve purchased a book in your life and just came here proudly to say this.
NotLemming@lemm.ee 3 hours ago
I hereby swear that I see them at the library every week officer.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 hours ago
I purchase physical books, but I’d be fucking daft to purchase a REVOKABLE LICENSE to a book. That said, I have SO MANY digital books that I obtained for free.
steal_your_face@lemmy.ml 9 hours ago
🏴☠️
bpev@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Anyone got store recs for non-english books?
horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
www.akpress.org/downloads.html
Is another great DRM free bookstore.
sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today 12 hours ago
Libro.FM is fantastic
RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works 9 hours ago
Is there any way to liberate existing ebooks now that Amazon has pulled the plug on downloading? An unfortunate friend of mine has “bought" Books from Amazon for thousands of euros and he just now finds out that he doesn’t seem to own them. I’d help him free his books if there is a possibility.
zarenki@lemmy.ml 8 hours ago
If you have a rooted Android device or a jailbroken Kindle device, yes, you can still use Calibre DeDRM and KFX Input plugins on the kindle ebooks downloaded on them. It just takes a bit more setup with getting the key you need.
YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Enter “[book name] [desired file format such as PDF or epub]” into search engine of choice
fargeol@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Relevant XKCD : xkcd.com/488/
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