In Response to Amazon preventing to download books you bought: Some DRM free bookstores and publishers (buttondown.com)
from juergen@feddit.org to technology@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 14:26
https://feddit.org/post/8767781

#technology

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sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today on 05 Mar 2025 15:22 next collapse

Libro.FM is fantastic

orclev@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 15:27 next collapse

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.

NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip on 05 Mar 2025 15:29 next collapse

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 on 05 Mar 2025 15:49 collapse

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.

NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip on 05 Mar 2025 15:52 next collapse

I haven’t checked this week (yay, might already be too late) but my understanding is that amazon only disabled the web interface to download ebooks to a computer.

Using the (Windows) Kindle for PC App at a sufficiently old version was still working last week even after people had claimed the web interface was disabled.

It is only a matter of time but it is also something that the vast majority of people are too computer illiterate to do so it is probably going to be a decent amount of time. Cost amazon more to disable it than to let people do it.

uzay@infosec.pub on 05 Mar 2025 19:34 collapse

If you own a kindle reader you can just connect it via usb and dedrm the kfx files.

orclev@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 20:40 collapse

No you can’t. They changed the firmware so eBook downloads now go into a partition that’s not accessible when mounting the kindle over USB.

bassomitron@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 15:31 next collapse

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. Also, Kindle Unlimited is an awful deal for authors, they get literal pennies for every reader.

NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip on 05 Mar 2025 15:36 collapse

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

tux@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 16:09 next collapse

It was audible he spoke up about and released his secret books on other audiobooks platforms like Spotify and some others.

youtu.be/-ihr7hMl7JY?feature=shared

kerf@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 16:11 next collapse

He did speak out against Audible though, but mentioned he was afraid of making him an enemy of Amazon.

brandonsanderson.com/…/state-of-the-sanderson-202…

orclev@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 16:15 collapse

Unfortunately Kindle Unlimited is a Faustian bargain due to the exclusivity clause. We’re now stuck in a catch 22. There are excellent (for consumers) alternatives out there to Kindle/Amazon, the most prominent of which is Kobo which has a variety of very competitive e-readers. Additionally Kobo Plus is essentially Kindle Unlimited, although I don’t know for sure whether it has an exclusivity clause (I hope it doesn’t, and the policies of Kobo make me suspect not, but I haven’t confirmed that). The biggest problem from a consumers perspective is simply that many authors works are just not available from the Kobo (or other) store.

However the consumer perspective is only half the picture. From the perspective of an author/publisher Kindle is undeniably the largest platform out there with Kobo being one of their largest competitors (in terms of e-readers, I suspect in just ebooks Apple is bigger) and it’s minuscule compared to Kindle. While functionally the Kobo store and Kobo Plus give everything that the Kindle store and Kindle Unlimited do, what they are severely lacking in is customers. An author could choose to publish on Kindle and Kobo as well as make their books available on Kobo Plus, but doing so means foregoing the option of Kindle Unlimited which will result in fewer consumers having access to that authors works at least in the short term.

So we arrive at the catch 22. Consumers get a much better deal with Kobo, but lose access to many of the authors works they may want to read. Authors need to stick with Kindle and Kindle Unlimited if they want to reach as many consumers as they can, but doing so discourages consumers from switching to Kindle/Kindle Unlimited alternatives like Kobo/Kobo Plus. Until enough consumers move off Kindle Unlimited authors won’t want to abandon it, but until enough authors abandon it consumers will struggle to move off of Kindle Unlimited.

oce@jlai.lu on 05 Mar 2025 15:56 next collapse

Kobo was bought by Rakuten in 2012, Rakuten is the Japanese Amazon, except it failed to fully scale internationally.

orclev@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 16:33 next collapse

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 widely 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.

oce@jlai.lu on 06 Mar 2025 00:20 collapse

Rakuten is a big mess of data tracking and advertisment but I’m glad to hear Kobo remains a good product.

sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz on 05 Mar 2025 16:48 collapse

As long as Kobo supports epub, I think it’s fine. They still support my H20 Aura from 2015, I’m not complaining.

whostosay@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 16:20 next collapse

If the company won’t allow the books to be easily accessible, make them easily accessible.

sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz on 05 Mar 2025 16:50 next collapse

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, so I have no idea what’s going on in the ebook ecosystems.

orclev@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 16:59 collapse

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.

sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz on 05 Mar 2025 17:22 collapse

I see, thanks for the explanation!

Bieren@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 17:35 collapse

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 on 05 Mar 2025 17:39 next collapse

There’s an archive of books belonging to a certain anna, which has not failed me yet.

Zirconium@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 17:54 collapse

Me too brother. For some reason There’s a lot of american classics that don’t have a good scan on archive (totally forgot about project gutenberg) but Anna has served so well

Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 22:10 collapse

…can I get clued into whats being discussed? What is Anna?

nokturne213@sopuli.xyz on 05 Mar 2025 23:47 next collapse

An archive.

[deleted] on 06 Mar 2025 00:16 collapse

.

orclev@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 17:44 collapse

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).

Rolder@reddthat.com on 05 Mar 2025 20:00 collapse

I wonder how feasible it would be to just donate to your favorite authors

orclev@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 20:44 collapse

In some cases very, but in others not so much. Some of them have Patreon accounts or other ways to accept payment, but in many cases you’ll be doing good just to find a working email address for them. Ideally though I’d prefer to just pay for the books outright rather than trying to do some kind of grey area thing where I’d pirate the book and then donate the cost to them (if for no other reason than it causes tax headaches for everyone involved).

horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 15:45 next collapse

www.akpress.org/downloads.html

Is another great DRM free bookstore.

NutWrench@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 16:30 next collapse

Once again, “if buying isn’t owning, then piracy isn’t stealing.”

Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 22:08 collapse

Guess we should also pirate all steam games too.

iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com on 05 Mar 2025 23:39 next collapse

I always look on itch.io and GoG first!

EngineerGaming@feddit.nl on 06 Mar 2025 09:49 next collapse

I do that. Every game I buy on Steam corresponds to a DRMless copy.

dan@upvote.au on 06 Mar 2025 10:23 collapse

Several Steam games are DRM-free and don’t even need Steam to be installed to play them: pcgamingwiki.com/…/The_big_list_of_DRM-free_games…

For those games, you can just make a copy of the game directory.

Buddahriffic@lemmy.world on 06 Mar 2025 18:19 collapse

A surprising number of big names on there.

bpev@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 16:33 next collapse

Anyone got store recs for non-english books? Or that mostly just gonna vary a ton by language?

steal_your_face@lemmy.ml on 05 Mar 2025 16:51 next collapse

🏴‍☠️

doodledup@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 18:12 collapse

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.

steal_your_face@lemmy.ml on 05 Mar 2025 18:25 next collapse

🏴‍☠️

doodledup@lemmy.world on 06 Mar 2025 11:33 collapse

You people are delusional to not understand that intellectual property is the fundamental basis of our world economy, and also your job. Elliminate all IP you’ll get an iPhone that’s priced at $20. What is your recommendation for a communistic society where nobody will get rewarded for creativity and ingeneuity? How would that work exactly? I’m listening.

steal_your_face@lemmy.ml on 06 Mar 2025 19:25 collapse

🏴‍☠️

doodledup@lemmy.world on 06 Mar 2025 22:40 collapse

🏴‍☠️

Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 05 Mar 2025 19:42 next collapse

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.

doodledup@lemmy.world on 06 Mar 2025 11:26 collapse

You can buy the ebooks from Kobo or the like and strip out the DRM using Calibre.

Shitte practices by Amazon are no justification to let it all out on the authors. Amazon literally doesn’t care whatsoever if you don’t buy a book there. However, the author might need to feed their family dry bread today.

Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 06 Mar 2025 14:25 collapse

Fuck that

Why would I go through extra effort

I can just get them and not do all that shit

I’ll buy a book I can hold

[deleted] on 06 Mar 2025 00:22 collapse

.

fargeol@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 17:31 next collapse

Relevant XKCD : xkcd.com/488/

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/b5d343e6-6ad1-4ef3-b4a4-29be2659be1a.png">

DeadNinja@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 17:46 next collapse

I’m so in love with Anna.

laz_28@sopuli.xyz on 05 Mar 2025 18:54 collapse

Might be south indian Anna(brother)

kn0wmad1c@programming.dev on 05 Mar 2025 18:49 next collapse

You certainly don’t want to use shodan to search server: “calibre”

kn0wmad1c@programming.dev on 05 Mar 2025 18:51 collapse

And you definitely don’t want to find an open ebook library to get kindle-only books.

RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works on 05 Mar 2025 19:12 next collapse

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.

YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 19:22 next collapse

Enter “[book name] [desired file format such as PDF or epub]” into search engine of choice

dan@upvote.au on 06 Mar 2025 10:55 collapse

And ideally your search engine of choice would be z-library or libgen

zarenki@lemmy.ml on 05 Mar 2025 20:03 collapse

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.

Rolder@reddthat.com on 05 Mar 2025 19:53 next collapse

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.

Camzing@lemmy.world on 05 Mar 2025 20:46 next collapse

If you paid feel free to pirate it.

MisterFrog@lemmy.world on 07 Mar 2025 23:45 collapse

This is what I’m planning to do with some textbooks I want for my work.

$200-$300 and you want me to download an app that may or may not even work in 10 years?

Nah, I’m gonna future proof my access no remorse 🏴‍☠️

I will pay though, because it’s tax deductible, and also because it I ever get questioned on it (since I use them around coworkers and management), I’m golden.

leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 05 Mar 2025 23:22 next collapse

Lots here too.

rageagainstmachines@lemmy.world on 06 Mar 2025 05:20 next collapse

Who is downvoting this?!

01189998819991197253@infosec.pub on 06 Mar 2025 15:20 collapse

Jeff bezos probably

jaark@infosec.pub on 06 Mar 2025 11:40 next collapse

There seems to be a few publishers missing here …

Baen typically sells their wares directly but TOR are through the usual sellers but have no DRM. I’m not sure how this works in practise with Amazon’s new “you can’t get the files” policy, but they are probably in cleartext somewhere.

trolololol@lemmy.world on 06 Mar 2025 23:12 collapse

Many star trek novels don’t do DRM. I buy them at Kobo, so I’m also skipping American middle man.

the16bitgamer@programming.dev on 06 Mar 2025 11:44 next collapse

If you are into light novels the publisher JNovel Club sells their books DRM free from their website

CabbageRelish@midwest.social on 06 Mar 2025 14:51 next collapse

https://www.versobooks.com/

Explicitly lefty publisher, but the ebooks are DRM free and they include them for free alongside any physical purchases. (They do tag the ebooks with your name and email though.)

Zink@programming.dev on 06 Mar 2025 18:28 next collapse

My wife likes her kindle hardware.

I love stumbling upon EPUBs and using Amazon’s website to send them to her kindle.

shneancy@lemmy.world on 06 Mar 2025 19:21 collapse

humble bundle at one point sold a bundle with the works of U K Le Guin, and since i’ve been meaning to read those, i bought it

all were under amazon DRM

i’m a big fan of being able to do whatever the hell i want with the things i buy so naturally, i got mad and looked for a way to un-DRM them, and i’m happy to say there’s a calibre plugin for that. i’m currently enjoying Wizard of Earthsea on my reMarkable