Amazon Is Closing a Kindle Loophole That Makes It Easy To Remove DRM (androidpolice.com) 73
Amazon is removing the "Download & Transfer via USB" feature for Kindle e-books starting February 26th, closing a loophole that allowed users to download older, easily crackable DRM formats.
"At the very least, you'll still be able to transfer your e-books over Wi-Fi, and of course, transferring your e-books through Calibre will still work, too," notes Android Police. "[S]o it's not like we are losing access to dragging and dropping files onto a Kindle, we are simply losing access to a tool that facilitated easy piracy by pushing older formats of retail books from the website to your Kindle over USB."
"At the very least, you'll still be able to transfer your e-books over Wi-Fi, and of course, transferring your e-books through Calibre will still work, too," notes Android Police. "[S]o it's not like we are losing access to dragging and dropping files onto a Kindle, we are simply losing access to a tool that facilitated easy piracy by pushing older formats of retail books from the website to your Kindle over USB."
This will just encourage more hacking (Score:4, Funny)
And then the new formats will get cracked. Good luck maintaining DRM when consumers control the devices. Perhaps we'll be forced to read at terminals in libraries owned by Amazon?
Re:This will just encourage more hacking (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps we'll be forced to read at terminals in libraries owned by Amazon?
Then I will go back to physical books. But I guess that will not be necessary. Some good authors are already showing up on Patreon. If Amazon puts too effective restrictions on books, they will not have many left to sell at some point.
Re:This will just encourage more hacking (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, I've bought a lot of Kindle books... and the first thing I typically do is strip the DRM and save a copy to my media backups.
Re:This will just encourage more hacking (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: This will just encourage more hacking (Score:5, Insightful)
Because as is often the case, companies that push drm also have a habit of turning off their servers so they can sell the same media again in a marginally different format.
Re:This will just encourage more hacking (Score:5, Informative)
You obviously trust companies to perpetually honor their commitments far more than I do.
The corporate backers of UltraViolet [wikipedia.org] also promised the ability to freely access "my" content whenever and wherever I wanted. Until they decided they didn't want to do that anymore.
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I never lost access to my UV titles. They still appear on Vudu/Apple/Amazon/MoviesAnywhere.
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Without repurchasing or renting them? The ancient UV license itself is enough to let Apple give you the movies on demand without even a penny going to an Apple account?
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yea i watch them all the time. You did link all your streaming platforms to UV before they shut down right? Vudu, Movies Anywhere, Apple, and Amazon. I dont use Apple very much so I just launched my appleTV device and went into Movies iTunes icon which then launched the AppleTV app (no confusion there right) and then went to Library -> Movies and all my shit is there. The only thing not there is the stuff that is only in Fandango/Vudu (where I used disc2digital to turn some movies into digital versions
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You have access to downloads until you don't. Look at the gaming industry.
Re:This will just encourage more hacking (Score:5, Insightful)
You can only download, put it on the device and read it as long as they decide that they and by extension you have the right to read the book.
You're just renting an access to the book with the drm. Under terms that aren't clear to you since you don't know these dates and contracts that they have with the creator and publisher.
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Author is embarrassed by the sex scenes and withdraws the book, now it's lost. A country decides to ban the book, and now it no longer works for you until you go to a different country. The 4th edition of the book is available, so you can't read your 3rd edition anymore. The problem with DRM is that it allows all of those scenarios, you can only view if you have permission from a third party, regardless of legal permission. And some of those scenarios aren't far fetched, Amazon has actually canceled some
Re:This will just encourage more hacking (Score:5, Informative)
Because Amazon has already demonstrated that they can, and will, simply delete a book from your account if/when they want to?
Ironically, they did it for the book "1984."
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I like to think that the remote destruction of "1984" from all Kindles was a "proof of concept" test to see if they could do it. Sure, there may be other reasons, but I'm sure that proving it was possible gave Bezos a warm feeling in his heart (and a warm feeling in our collective esophagus).
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Ironically, they did it for the book "1984."
And yet, somehow, the tactic is still succeeding. There are no adults in the playground.
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Amazon already has a history of removing titles from paying customers' libraries. That was 15 years ago.
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Because then you cede control of your property to a third party. Why buy a book when you can visit the library at any time? It's your book, you purchased it, you should have ALL the rights that you get with a physical book as granted under your local copyright laws. Except for the stupid DMCA in a stupid country.
Someday Amazon won't exist. Maybe it will be at the heat death of the universe but I suspect it is sooner than that. It's possible the internet stop working sooner than that, heck it wasn't work
Re:This will just encourage more hacking (Score:4, Interesting)
I really dont see book piracy as a major financial impact that warrants a lot of DRM development. Our generation is dying off and GenZ cant read. Well they CAN read, they just refuse to. If it cant be summarized into a 3min TikTok video, GenZ wants no part of it.
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DRM has never been about piracy. This is more misdirection. There are plenty of ways to reduce piracy without DRM. DRM is about making sure that they can claw back the book from you when they want, that they can forbid you from using it in some countries or before certain times, etc. DRM makes sure that you cannot lend the book your your sibling when they go on vacation. DRM stops you from reading the book on a device made by a competitor. DRM is about when, where, why, and how you can use the media.
Thi
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Steam lets you share gsmes so long as only 1 person is playing it at a time. Showing my age here but back in the days of StarCraft, if you had a copied version (cracked) you still could not connect to battle.net. You had to use a program called Kali and run IPX/SPX gaming against opponents. Fun times.
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Indeed. Digital Restriction Management is about control and the ability to screw over the customer, nothing else.
Re:This will just encourage more hacking (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps we'll be forced to read at terminals in libraries owned by Amazon?
Then I will go back to physical books. But I guess that will not be necessary. Some good authors are already showing up on Patreon. If Amazon puts too effective restrictions on books, they will not have many left to sell at some point.
Some people are pirating books they'd pay for if they had to. Some people are paying for books they won't pay for if they can't strip the DRM.
Over the decades, a bunch of content providers have figured the first group is more important than the second. And maybe they're right. But I know - as a member of the second group - I won't be buying more Kindle media.
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I don't pay for ebooks unless they're DRM free or there's a special reason for me to buy it, like I know the author. Physical books? I have several thousand and don't want more. I support several authors on Patreon.
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Some people are pirating books they'd pay for if they had to.
That is the exception, not the rule. Many studies, including a rather large and well done on by the Swiss government, show the opposite: Most people have an entertainment budget and spend it on the things they want to have. If they download additional stuff (legally tolerated in Switzerland), they do that outside of their budget and if they find they cannot, they do without instead of paying for it. The study also finds that for less well-known artists and writers, the exposure is more advantageous than pre
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Some people are pirating books they'd pay for if they had to.
That is the exception, not the rule. Many studies, including a rather large and well done on by the Swiss government, show the opposite: Most people have an entertainment budget and spend it on the things they want to have. If they download additional stuff (legally tolerated in Switzerland), they do that outside of their budget and if they find they cannot, they do without instead of paying for it. The study also finds that for less well-known artists and writers, the exposure is more advantageous than preventing the downloads, because people may find things they like and then shift the application of their entertainment budget in the future. But this only works when they have seen the quality a creator produces themselves. It does not work for hypes or ad-pushed things.
Hence the idea you are pushing is one of those "clear, simple, obvious and wrong" ones. Assuming most people are thieves is something especially authoritarian assholes like to do, but as it turns out, it is mostly a lie.
You're misunderstanding my position. I am not pro-DRM. I am not convinced or advocating that there will be a net increase in sales if DRM is mandatory.
But to pretend that there aren't people who will make purchases they are currently avoiding via piracy is odd. I never said anything about "most people" how the breakdown exists. Just that both categories exist, and Amazon is making a decision. A decision that denies them my money.
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But to pretend that there aren't people who will make purchases they are currently avoiding via piracy is odd. I never said anything about "most people" how the breakdown exists. Just that both categories exist, and Amazon is making a decision. A decision that denies them my money.
And if you read what I _actually_ wrote then you would see that is not the claim I made or the Science here. The Science says people making purchases because they could not pirate are rare enough to not matter much and are more than compensated by the positive exposure effects. The only exception are creators that are already filthy rich and hence this is also good for market diversity.
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But to pretend that there aren't people who will make purchases they are currently avoiding via piracy is odd. I never said anything about "most people" how the breakdown exists. Just that both categories exist, and Amazon is making a decision. A decision that denies them my money.
And if you read what I _actually_ wrote then you would see that is not the claim I made or the Science here. The Science says people making purchases because they could not pirate are rare enough to not matter much and are more than compensated by the positive exposure effects. The only exception are creators that are already filthy rich and hence this is also good for market diversity.
Whatever.
I've tried to gently explain what I've said and you're doubling down. "That is the exception, not the rule." I didn't say it was the rule. Or the exception. Just a statement. "The idea you are pushing..." is not the idea you are saying it is, but rather the idea that business has made a decision which will cost them my commerce. Simple, obvious, correct? Damned straight it is, because it's me. "Assuming most people"... isn't a thing I have done anywhere in my post. Yes, Amazon has done s
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Do you have reading dysfunctionality? You are claiming I wrote things that I did not write.
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Do you have reading dysfunctionality? You are claiming I wrote things that I did not write.
Yes. I mean... the things you wrote still look to be there, and even appear to be quoted back to you for illustration, so... yes.
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Used to be I was an avid buyer of dead tree books, hoping it
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Over the decades, a bunch of content providers have figured the first group is more important than the second. And maybe they're right. But I know - as a member of the second group - I won't be buying more Kindle media.
While I'm no fan of DRM at all, I think they had a nice balance between those groups when they first had DRM. It was so easily breakable that anyone that wanted to make a backup of their own purchased books could easily do so - scripts to do so were easy to find and straight forward. And it was *just* enough to keep the masses from freely flinging around dedrm'd books too much (though that still happened some). I haven't tried stripping DRM from a Kindle book in years; Probably cause I haven't bought from t
Re:This will just encourage more hacking (Score:4, Insightful)
Amazon isn't the sole manufacturer of eBook readers, there are more user-friendly alternatives
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It is not really about the reader, it is about the books. Amazon content does usually not work on other readers.
To be fair, most of the authors I read publish DRM-free even on amazon.
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It's just Amazon's way to provide an ecosystem which provides a selective advantage to having 1337 skillz - so they should be applauded.
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The point is getting average people to buy new Kindles even though the old ones work just fine.
Just screenshot the book (Score:3, Interesting)
I have more than 1000 books in my Kindle library, I downloaded them and reading them on a non-Kindle device. If they make it too hard, I'll just move to Barnes&Noble for my new books.
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It's a freaking book. Just screenshot the pages and OCR them.
It's easier, and more reliable, to just select the text and copy and paste into a word processor.
Glad I'm mostly out of the amazon ecosystem (Score:3)
Yeah, so I occasionally reluctantly purchase a physical item from them if I don't care that it's a bootleg knock off of a clone of a complete rip-off of a piece of junk, but other than that I've been Amazon-free for a couple of years and haven't missed out on anything.
Why not to change format? (Score:2)
Why take away the means to transfer the files? It's the file format that is the problem, no?
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They want users to be constantly subjected to device firmware updates without notification or consent, and they can't do that without requiring them to be connected to the internet. This is to rob the software fixers of hackable firmwares by making sure everything is constantly on the latest version.
Because that's what really matters (Score:2)
Not the fact the management tools for Kindle owners looks like something from the 90's.
Not the fact that the various things you need to do with a Kindle are spread over 2~3 different systems/sites.
No. None of those horrible things matter. Only the money matters. Good job Amazon. Not surprised at all.
That entire Kindle thing deserves to die. Shame on Amazon.
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Do you have any idea how expensive it is to send something to orbit? And be second?
They need money!
After 15 years I'll not be buying Kindle books (Score:3)
Making it easy to download the books and back them up to Calibre was the main reason I've bought so may books from Amazon over the years. Hundreds. Fortunately nearly all of them are backed up safely in my Calibre library. While it's still possible to back the books up for now, I'm much less inclined now to pick up a book on Amazon.
Besides being easy to back up, another reason I've bought so many books on Amazon was because so many came with low-cost Audible versions. Where an audible book normally costs nearly $30, when you buy the kindle version, often less than $8, you can pick up audible version for another $7 or 8. Way cheaper than paying the stupid membership for Audible. I've had my audible account on "Inactive Light" mode for nearly 10 years, which preserves any points you had previously.
Once it becomes impossible to back my books (and audio books) up, I'll be completely done with buying Kindle books. My old Kindle 3 doesn't automatically download books anymore, the friction has become quite high without the download button.
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Some unsolicited advice... Boox devices make for a very nice and easy migration away from Kindle's. They're still eink, you can get color ones, they run android and can run other android apps. The Kindle app for Android works on the boox, so all your existing stuff can just keep working, and you can still get stuff from them if wanted/needed. They also support all the open book formats, have their own ebook store, and you can add B&N app as well (I think... I haven't tried that one).
i have an old kindle (Score:3)
i just hate amazon too much to allow them access to any of my devices
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IRC is still a thing...
If you know, you know.
Re: i have an old kindle (Score:2)
Rare books are hard to find there. Right now, the shadow libraries offer the widest choice.
I need to add that I don't support piracy. But neither do I support DRM.
I'm Done (Score:1)
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Nothing changes. (Score:5, Interesting)
If you make it harder/impossible for person A to transfer media to person B you're doing the same for person A to person A.
I will not buy into platforms that try to stop me from making backups.
That's not even in my top 10 favorite loopholes. (Score:1)
I'm sticking with Kindle until they take that shit seriously.
Kindle is the worst (Score:4, Interesting)
This removes literally the only useful features Kindle has. Every Kindle is now a brick.
Kindles are the worst ebook readers because they are the only reader that does not support any standard ebook formats. When libraries and school systems don't support them, you know they suck!
We got one as a gift. It has been collecting dust since day 3 because it supports only one thing: buying books on Amazon, which I do not understand why anyone would ever do.
I went through the nonsense required to convert a single book to a format it can use and gave up after that.
My Kindle can only use unencrypted WiFi (Score:3)
Why don't they just use the Rented encryption mode (Score:2)
Why don't they just use the Rented Books encryption mode? The DRM for rented items, like textbooks, has apparently never been cracked.
One more loophole (Score:2)
I just wait until the book becomes public domain!
Can't wifi to the Kindles that don't have wifi (Score:2)
The thing that is a
New fangled method of reading and retyping (Score:1)
I hear there is a patch for it tho. The reader suppresses the text presenting either an all black, grey, or white screen to the owner of the material.
If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing (Score:2)