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

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.

I've used Calibre and stripped DRM off eBooks, definitely recommend.

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.

You don't own your Kindle books because you bought them from Amazon

I don't own mine because I pirated them

We are not the same

edit: I actually try to circle back around and buy physical copies of any book I really enjoy. But I'm much better about paying for video games, tabletop games, and even journalism than I am fiction... I think my bezos resentment gets in the way a bit there.

Like hell I don't. Calibre plus NoDRM says otherwise.

You can strip the DRM if needed

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

🏴‍☠️

Yaar, matey.

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.

I can't wait until a Senator or comparable "it's not a problem until it happens to me" lawmaker loses access to their digital library and goes on the warpath. That's the only way out of this "you will own nothing" hellhole we're in and moving deeper into.

Jokes on you I pirates mine!

yo ho yo ho...a pirate's life for me...

Sorry, what are we talking about?

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

I'll just keep using my local public library.

Most of them lend eBooks these days so I know I won't get to keep them regardless, but I also don't have to pay for them.

Kobo and epub only. Anything else, you don't own and you shouldn't pay for it.

Duh. Same goes for Steam games and most of digital content.

If you want to keep it, there's usually always an option to sail the high seas.

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

Any Kindle owner should go find out how easy it is to get library books on their Kindle. It’s totally the way to go. You don’t have to buy their shit and deal with their rules.

This is why I pirate my media, and you should too!

You are right I get my books for my kindle from torrents. I do not own them. I also don't pay for them.

(Also library has epubs, librarys are great)

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

That's why you shouldn't buy books from Amazon or other online ebook stores instead just download the ePubs elsewhere.

I'd also highly recommend KOreader if you have a Kindle or Ereader which supports it, as it supports many more formats and has a nice interface.

Also to add that amazon has been caught encouraging users to "refund" e-books and purchase a different one, without telling users that these refunds are clawed back from the Authors.

Then to double fuck the Authors they didnt give authors detailed statements - only payments of the monthly total, so any "refunds" were deducted from the total sales from that month and author paid the difference. This was only noticed when an author with an accounting/finance background noticed a negative payment statement one month and looked into this and found amazon routinely charging back authors, sometimes for multiple copies of 'refunds' that didnt actually get refunded, straight up stealing from the Authors.

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

Amazon is on my shit list and will not buy any products from them ever again. They are one of the worst monopolist mega corporations. They treat their employees like slaves, are anti-repair, anti-consumer.

I gifted an older Kindle to my sister, and the screen broke (out of warranty). I contacted Amazon about it, and they basically said they don't make replacement parts and don't service the kindles, they can only give me a small discount for buying a new one.

I looked up a guide on doing it myself, and even if I find a replacement screen, it's really difficult. The screen is glued with a strong adhesive. The entire device looks very cheaply built and deliberately made really difficult to repair.

it's the same with Google Books. you can't copy text from the book you bought into your notes. you're not allowed to copy text. i want to buy books legitimately for my research, but i cant use any of this shit.

I do, I get them directly from IRC

Damn right I don't.

Yarrrrrrr

YSK, finding and installing mobi files are easy. Also, keeping your Kindle in airplane mode prevents ads. Fuck Amazon. Calibre is a great open source piece of software.

I came to the same realization about my audiobooks through audible, so I've archived my audible account and now they can't take my books :D

same goes for steam, epic launcher, etc. with the exception of gog (though generally if steam removes a game, they at least let you keep your copy if you already own it)

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.

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

There have also been cases where a customer violated Amazon's terms of service and lost access to all of their Kindle e-books

Imagine where corpo can take your property because you did something they did not like....

Now open your eyes, peasants.

This is why I only read books from the library

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.

I looked in to the whole DRM removal thing. From what I could tell, everything was majorly out of date, required a really old version of Calibre, and didn't work with newer books.

Edit: So, this is out of date info. There's a fork and it works with a fairly recent version of the PC app. Basically no fuss.

I have a few kindles, have upgraded over the years and have been able to use them all in the same manner:

With a new device I connect it to the internet and update the firmware to the latest version (the factory installed version has had a lot of missing functionality in my experience). Then I block it from my network, delete the AP entry and put it permanently into airplane mode.

When purchasing an ebook from Amazon you can download it for usb transfer and I organize it on my laptop with Calibre.

Calibre can also strip drm, but if you’re transferring it to the device you downloaded it for it isn’t necessary.

Amazon may at some point in the future change all of this, but the content I have already downloaded can not be revoked and is usable outside the Amazon ecosystem if the drm is removed.

If someone want an alternative there is ebooks.com. The two titles I got from there were way cheeper than on the store linked to my device. No nonsense app or anything, just download the file from the store and do what you want with it.

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

I do.

Not an American, but I did buy digital books on Amazon and Kindle.

Have you seen the new ruling about games from California? Doest that apply to ebooks (since its digital goods?) Or not?

Finally got around to backing up my over 200 audiobooks in a DRM-free format after this post reminded me it was on my to-do list. Libation is pretty damn good.

So Kobo is the way to go then?

I'm really asking, my daughter is becoming a big book worm and we have missed out on some great sales because she only reads physical books ATM. I want her to give it a try with an e-ready and did not like Amazon for it.

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.

Ugh. I was looking for a Book and found it on Barnes and Noble. according to the blurb I was supposed to be able to download it after purchase. But after purchasing it I quickly found out that you can only download it if you have the Nook app. Which isn't available in Canada. Where I'm from.

I was able to find the .apk and install it on my phone but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.

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

Is there an ebook service like GOG is for games? DRM free so you can keep the books regardless of what happens to the service?

(I know it's easy enough to remove it, but I'd rather support a service like that if I can)

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.