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Comments (291)

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  icqFDR
  I’d advise anyone buying e-books on Amazon to think it through carefully. My account was banned recently because, years ago, I ordered two paper books that Amazon said would be split into two shipments. Both books arrived without any issues, but later Amazon refunded me for one of them, claiming that one package never arrived. This happened 4–5 years ago.Apparently, during a recent review, they decided this counted as fraud and banned my account. As a result, I can no longer log in and lost access to all my Kindle e-books. They also remotely wiped my Kindle, so my entire library is gone. I appealed the decision, but I’ve been waiting for over six months with no resolution.
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  embedding-shape
  Hah, they actually did a slight rollback! When I first heard about them stopping the downloads, I immediately downloaded all the books I purchased from Amazon and went from buying ~1 book per week to 0. Seems a lot of us doing so had some sort of effect.Unfortunately, it seems like this will be chosen by the publisher, so of course probably most of the books won't be downloadable at all, and Amazon can now point their finger at the publisher instead of taking the blame themselves. Publishers was probably always the reason behind the move, but at least now Amazon have someone else to blame, which I guess is great for them.
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  cwillu
  But only if the author/publisher explicitly go in and permit it.This isn't announcing that pdf's and epub's are now available for everything that was drm-free, this is announcing that they will _permit_ pdf's and epub's to be available.
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  wrxd
  This was unexpected. They lost me as a customer when they stopped allowing me to download books I bought and I'm in the Kobo (+ BookLore) side now and I am not coming back.I wonder how many books are actually DRM-free and are going to be affected by this change. I suspect relatively few, but I would be happy to be wrong
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  tgsovlerkhgsel
  How many books are actually available DRM-free? This reads a bit like "Amazon will provide free land, construct a paddock and provide feed for life if you order a unicorn, except unicorns don't exist".
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  TheSilva
  Too little too late, already ditched the whole ecosystem after so many years and devices.
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  syntaxing
  Just get a kobo instead. The price difference between with ads and a new kobo is minimal. Not worth the Amazon headache with a locked down device.
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  strawhatdev
  I wonder if this is in response to Bookshop.org's DRM free e-book shop. I buy a lot of e-books and have completely switched over because of that feature.
• wosined
  Amazon is hostile to your property rights. Don't buy from them.
• drnick1
  I'll never use Amazon for anything that isn't physically delivered to my door. They can keep their Fire tablets, TVs, and other spyware.
• ggm
  So Gutenberg and the internet archive could monetise click through links or an affiliate program? No disrespect intended, if this meant we could fund them with Amazon pitching in some vig I'd think about it. Mind you, they'd probably make more with direct donation per person, but Amazon could drive many multiples more via the store.
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  jrm4
  Haha, what a headline.The internet "allows" ePub and PDF downloads for ALL books. Adjust yourselves accordingly.
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  monomial
  Do yourself a favor and go get a Kobo reader, install KO Reader on it and never look back.
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  asplake
  As the author of five books (and my most recent one entirely self-published), I haven't yet worked out how I feel about this or how to respond. My current compromise is to charge more on the DRM-free LeanPub.
• caseysoftware
  I've "collected" 500+ Kindle titles over the years and stopped buying from them completely when they blocked downloads earlier this year. When they enable these downloads, I'm going to export the ones I didn't get last time and continue NOT buying from them.Fool me once..
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  nottorp
  For all three DRM-free titles?
• zenethian
  Too little too late. I’ve already ditched Amazon for ebooks in favor of Kobo’s ecosystem. It’s not flawless but it’s not soul sucking either.
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  1970-01-01
  This is all very interesting news. From a sales standpoint, they're nearly admitting they cannot manage DRM properly and at Amazon scale. From a copyright standpoint, antipiracy will be extremely hard to enforce. The only middle ground is targeting honest buyers, and we all know how well that works. We should not expect this to be a permanent change. Perhaps it will be more of a very short, DRM-free golden age until another Amazon executive comes down and ends this experiment.
• mrlonglong
  How do I know if any of the books I already have are DRM free? And how to get the epub or PDF?
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  Flimm
  Can anyone find even one DRM-free ebook on Amazon Kindle?
• beej71
  Well, it's a step in the right direction. I will never pay for an ebook that I cannot permanently possess. And DRM is pointless. At some point the words become visible and therefore are copyable.
• nullorempty
  I could see them buying the rights to popular free or DRM-free books and bringing them into their store, along with all the consequences that would entail.Not to mention the spying they'll do - Whatcha reading?
• SoKamil
  I hope they will allow me to download e-books that I uploaded through their upload site.I do backups but better be safe than sorry.
• epage
  Is there a way to check the DRM status before purchase?
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  barbazoo
  First think I do and have ever done after having had to buy a book from Amazon: Pull it into Calibre and remove DRM.These days I don’t buy from them but the same with Kobo which is a better company to begin with.
• poemxo
  I thought they already allowed this. Is this a reversal on a recent restriction?
• sometimez
  Recently signed up for Littler Books for the sole reason they offered everything in epub, pdf and Word doc. Sad this is not the standard for paid content.
• daft_pink
  So weird. They lock it down so you can’t put stuff on their device, but now you can buy drm free on some other device?
• shevy-java
  I think we should not allow Amazon to control our digital life.Same with Google etc... just look how bad youtube has gotten. I try to find a video xyz, using the search term xyz, and after like 5 results, random videos show up. That is not a "search", that is propaganda and an attempt to retain people on the platform - but I am already on the platform playing BACKGROUND MUSIC of some DJs. Why is Google wasting my time when I want to FIND something? And what is even worse - that leaked onto the search engine too. The search engine has been ruined by Google deliberately so in the last some years.
• internet_points
  At least better than completely disallowing it I guess.
• motbus3
  Well... Lots of companies are snitching their customers now
• hereme888
  I have zero qualms removing DRM or downloading pirated version of media I have previously purchased.I don't let those laws (corporate opinions) degrade my quality of life.
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  butlike
  Wow it took this long to adopt epub?
• drpixie
  What's amazon's angle on this? Because it's not believable that they wouldn't have an angle.So the real question is - how is amazon going to enshitify drm-free books? Are they trying to wipe out gutenburg, standard-ebooks, etc?Are they trying to be the youtube of drm-free? The place where everyone goes, and that becomes crap due updating Ts&Cs - inserting ads or charges?
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• kgwxd
  Thank you great exalted one! We don't deserve your endless generosity.
• p0w3n3d
  So much for your master’s mercy
• cft
  All ePub and PDF downloads are here: https://open-slum.org/
• alexnewman
  I believe every book I buy I’m allowed to backup in any format I want. Come and get me
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  IlikeKitties
  The current experience of using a Kobo Libre Color, Koreader, any webdav mounted in koreader and pirating everything on annas archive et. al. cannot be beat by any commercial offering. Unsuprisingly my copy of 1984 has never been deleted from my NAS
• yanhangyhy
  time to pick up my e-book reader again..
• misterbishop
  This is a step in the right direction. Now publishers need to take it up.DRM-free is a precondition for me buying digital books personally. Practically no major digital bookstore offers it.
• anon
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• partomniscient
  They're still going to take note of what you're reading and possibly brand you as a non-ultra-capitalist disruptor. Amazon can get fucked.I still buy physical media from them once a year (November) when availabilty and rest of the world can't compete price-wise. Yes I recognise the hypocrisy of said actions and minimise it as much as possible. Non-US based. Many physical media producers (e.g. Disney) no longer produce stuff for our 'region'.
• anon
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• sapphirebreeze
  [dead]
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  foormanek
  Nobody with sane mind cares. You may buy Kindle, but then you jailbreak it right away. You can "buy" Kindle e-books, but then you exfiltrate these right away. When you stand your ground, what can Amazon allow you or not allow?