Amazon Changes How Copyright Protection is Applied To Kindle Direct's Self-Published Ebooks (techcrunch.com) 15
Amazon says it will allow authors to offer their DRM-free ebooks in the EPUB and PDF formats through its self-publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing. Starting on January 20, 2026, authors who set their titles as DRM-free will see their books made available in these more open formats. From a report: The decision to use Digital Rights Management (DRM), a copyright protection mechanism, is set by the authors when they publish their ebooks on Amazon's platform. The company notes these changes won't impact previously published titles. If authors want to change the status of older titles, they'll have to log into the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) author portal and change an option in the settings. (Instructions on how to make that change are on Amazon's KDP support site here.) This move may actually incentivize authors to apply DRM to their ebooks.
A mildly encouraging sign? (Score:4, Insightful)
Something coming from a big corporation that appears to be pro-consumer and not flagrant enshittification? What's the catch...
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What's the catch...
"This move may actually incentivize authors to apply DRM to their ebooks."
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That statement seems to be based on what one (apparently ill-informed) author stated. From TFA:
For some reason, she apparently objects s
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I will note that other parts of TFA indicate this may actually be a rather ham-handed attempt on the part of Amazon to discourage authors from choosing to self-publish without DRM. That would not surprise me in the least.
Yeah, wasn't sure what to make of that. I don't "own" any Kindle devices, but from what I've read it's moderately difficult for the non-technical user to pull even unprotected content off the newer ones and transfer it elsewhere. So even if more authors are incentivized to use DRM, it won't make a huge difference to the end-user, but authors who opt out of DRM get more flexibility to deliver their content to their readers in the ways they and their readers prefer...? I'd like to see this as a small win,
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It's easy to get a copy of a Kindle book with the desktop app. Currently, there's no way I know of to strip out the DRM, though, so it's of limited use.
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https://dedrm.com/ [dedrm.com]
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Amazon have been changing lots behind the scenes lately. Last model or two paperwhites are harder to get DRM-free versions of files out of (no personal backup). The Colorsoft doesn't play as nice with products such as Kindle.
And they've been adding restrictions on how you can sideload books over the years too.
So no, it's not a consumer friendly move. It is only (and would only ever be) a move that helps Amazon.
Re:A mildly encouraging sign? (Score:4, Interesting)
Kindle, I mean Calibre, of course for managing and sideloading my own documents onto my Kindle.
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Not very. How 'bout Baen and Tor, who sell their books DRM-free, but Amazon *adds* it?
I offer my books DRM free and I don't get it (Score:2)
How?
Why??
I offer my books DRM-free so that customers have more freedom, more ease viewing them on various devices, and more ease using them with assistive technology. All of which the option of downloading a PDF increases. Why are other authors offering DRM free? What is the downside of customers being able
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Just guessing here, but perhaps the author was OK with having the books be free on Kindle readers but not OK with less proprietary formats that would easily allow them to be placed in open on-line libraries that are frequently gobbled up by AI bots as training data? Of course, there's nothing stopping someone from converting DRM-free AZW3 files to EPUB or PDF themselves but security by obscurity works surprisingly well for lazy people.
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Free and DRM-free are not the same. You can make your books free on Kindle readers and still have DRM. You can make your books DRM-free and still charge for them. My books are not free on Amazon, but they are DRM-free.
DRM-free AZW3 files are uploaded exactly the same as EPUBs and PDFs. Someone else converts t
Incentivize? (Score:2)
Surely an author would want to actually allow a user to read the book they purchased on whatever device they want? It's convenient to be able to download it as a PDF, and might make it an easier sale if the user doesn't have to own a kindle or install the janky Kindle app.
But I suppose there's still the lingering fear of losing potential sales because a reader can just copy and share that PDF with his friends. It might keep some authors awake at night. The DRM does present a (not insurmountable) barrier to
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"No DRM" isn't about the legal purchaser.
It means that your book will end up on a thousand torrent / ebook sites by that afternoon.
And, yes, "This move may actually incentivize authors to apply DRM to their ebooks." is nonsense. They're introducing an option to turn it off... by default it's already on.