There have been repeated reports in the past of Amazon Kindle stealing money from consumers. As well as Kindle being a proprietary and closed standard for content delivery. The underlying issue is not only restricted to Amazon Kindle, but any and all cloud-based streaming content providers.
Who controls the content that is saved on the cloud? Is it the owner of the content? Or is it the owner of the infrastructure?
If I buy a book, I do so with the understanding that I will be able to read that book anywhere I want and at any time I want, as well as be able to cite the contents without fear of having it altered without notice at some unspecified time. When I buy a book, I can be certain that I will be able to take that book home with me.
It is absolutely unacceptable for a bookstore tell me that the book I bought and payed for has to stay in the bookstore, all bight in a bookcase with my name on it that supposedly nobody else can access. And every time I want to read or consult a book that I bought and own, I will have to come to the bookstore to do so. And to add insult to injury, the bookstore reserves the right to remove or replace any book in my bookcase without so much as notifying me in advance.
But that is exactly what Amazon Kindle has done in the past, and is hell-bent on doing again in the near future. Take a look at this recent video Amazon are changing the way you own your Kindle books - you have 10 days to react. Well actually there are now less than 10 days to react.
I apologize to Erin and Doppler Press, as well as all the contributors who have [self-]published on Kindle, in the hopes of realizing some monetary compensation from their literary hobby. But to me this seems to be on par with the often mentioned plagiarism by unscrupulous individuals, only at the corporate level.
Comments
"closed standard"?
I'm not sure what you mean by a "closed standard." There are programs that turn text or html into E-books in Amazon's "closed standard" (as well as others); I was given a Kindle, and so convert my stories to that format and load them onto my Kindle.
But I don't connect it to any network, so, other than the vendor of the e-book reader, there's no connection with Amazon. (I won't buy from Amazon, because I consider them Evil.)
Closed Standard
Fifteen to ten years I tried to access Kindle books with several different open source e-book readers, only to fail spectacularly in over 90% of the cases. The only possibility to convert them to an open standard like ePub was to install the proprietary software from Amazon on a MS Windows PC, then download the books to that software. Only then could I use a “semi-legal” open source utility to convert from Kindle to ePub. But even with Amazon license codes the conversion failed for almost 20% of the books.
The Kindle app for Android was a huge memory hog, and would constantly delete downloaded books without freeing the used memory. If I had not accessed a book within the week, the app would need to establish a connection to the Internet and download the book again.
I have noticed that in the last five years e-books offered outside of Amazon Kindle are only offered in the ePub format, and that most e-book providers are dropping their support of the Kindle format.
Clarification from Louis
Clarification from Louis Rossman:
https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/index.php?title=Amazon_Kindle...
Archiving Kindle books
Nope, currently you cannot convert Kindle books bought from Amazon to open standards such as epub as far as I know.
There used to be a procedure but that depended on an old revision of Kindle and that loophole is probably closed.
So yes, techically you can archive by screensnaps, a really good OCR program, hand transcription.
I think there is a market for an AI powered app to automate this whole process but I don't know of one yet.
new Kindle format
Yes, as of 2023-01-01 Amazon enforces a newer format for Kindle ebooks that can only be downloaded with current Kindle for PC clients. Older Kindle ebooks could (I haven't tried for some months) still be download with the old version and then converted with the well known tools.
With the newer format I couldn't get that to work for me. But you can still download the ebook files that can only be used with Kindle software, so in theory you can have a backup copy - even if it is hardly of any use. :-(
You highlight one of my many complaints about Amazon
Years ago, before BC added a Top Shelf, I became interested in purchasing an eReader. At that time there were basically two eReaders that were available; Kindle and Nook. Being a savvy buyer, I researched the two. With the then technology, Nook would open and read more kinds of files than Kindle would. I deemed it a more versatile eReader and went with it.
At the time, Kindle eBooks were straight MOBI files. I could get a Kindle app for my computer, download the file, then using Calibre I only needed to search out the folder it was stored in, pick it up and then it was mine to convert to any format I wanted. With a Nook, that meant ePub. Then it was a matter of side loading it onto the Nook.
Since then Kindle (Amazon) has gone to a proprietary file type and Calibre hasn't cracked it yet.
I have a laundry list of things I don't like about Amazon. One of the first ones that cropped up was when I started to indi publish. In order to get the best deal for my work, I had to give Amazon exclusive rights to my stories. They required that I remove them from any and all other sites. In essence, they took my copyright away. I searched out other eBook publishers and settled on Smashwords.
Smashwords (now Draft to Digital) distributes world wide and offers a number of tools that will assist the author in promoting their work. The author's cut of the sale price is as good or better than Kindle and they don't care where else it's published. I retain my copyright.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Amazon stealing copy from authors
The policy of Amazon that deprives the authors of their copyright has unfortunately deprived us here of many good and even therapeutic stories over years. As you stated, Amazon is depriving creators of their right to manage the distribution of their intellectual property according to their own criteria.
And since to date I have been unable to acquire a credit card, I am unable buy any of the currently books on Amazon.
Work-around
As Emma, I have no bank accounts, credit cards, or other indicia of personhood. But I can buy an Amazon gift card at a grocery story with cash, so there is no record of the purchaser, and I can use that gift card to “purchase” books on Amazon. What I can’t do, unfortunately, is leave reviews. For that, Amazon does require credit cards information.
— Emma
Get your purchased books!
We have to move quickly to obtain the books we’ve paid for. This is the method I’m using, and can vouch for with a PC; I would assume things work similarly with Macs. I’ve made it step-by-step but you may already know the process:
Sign in to Amazon
The top right of the page shows your name and Account & Lists
Go to Your Account
Select Content and Devices
Select Books
Choose the title you want to save; on the right will be three buttons: Deliver or Remove from Device, Delete, and More Actions
Select More Actions pulldown menu.
Select Download & Transfer via USB
The book will appear as an AZW3 file in your Downloads folder.
The major downside of this method is that each book must be downloaded separately; there is no way to download several books.
You may want to transfer from your Downloads folder to an external hard drive to free up space on your computer.
There are several eBook conversion apps and methods; I prefer using Calibre. You can then open the AZW3 file and convert to EPUB, MOBI, DOCX, and others. (I noticed that Patricia Marie Allen mentioned Amazon's proprietary file type that Calibre 'hasn't cracked yet' but this process works for me so it must be due to a recent Calibre update)
Your book is now safely in your possession.
A paranoid final note to encourage your immediate action (with no names for bots to find): With the owner of Amazon cozying up to a certain authoritarian, the banning and purging of our physical libraries by overzealous right-wingers may enter the digital realm. Imagine if the guy with electric vehicles unleashes his minions on Amazon books—with the bald fellow’s acquiescence—and purges books with LGBT content …
Thank you
Thank you for outlining this procedure.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Apparently I'm in error
It's probably been two years since I've attempted any file conversion so my copy of Calibre hasn't been updated in that time. If they have the ability to read AZW3 files then the procedure outline is exactly what I used to do.
Thanks for calling my attention to that.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Kindle reading app
So I don't have an actual Kindle, I just use the Kindle app on my PC. However when I try to do the Download and Transfer it just complains that I don't have a Kindle reading app, even though I do and have it open.
Edit: I tried to run it from the app but Amazon still claims the content is not on a valid device. I bet it will work from a physical Kindle but OMG it is like 200 dollars now!
Thanks in advance !
Unable to download
When I select a book that I bought (not Kindle Unlimited), I still get the error message that I have no compatible device registered for this content and that I should buy a Kindle or download the Kindle app for PC.
Same Here...
..except that this is a 2012 MacBook, it's telling me to get the free app from their App Store, and the app store is telling me the app requires Mac Version 13 or higher, while I'm at 10.13.6. (I don't think I can go past 12, and was advised by the local Apple store when I brought it in some years ago to move back from 11 to 10.)
Eric
I refuse
to put books on Kindle KDP, the system which locks copyright to Amazon. Its optional, but once you tick the box there is no going back for 3 years. If its not in the KDP system it can be published elsewhere eg Lulu and even for free here on BC.
The issue of buyers 'owning' their copy is another thing altogether, for Amazonaphobes, most of my books can be bought from Lulu in digital format which you download locally - its not kept on a 'cloud'.
But clearly the only sure way to get around the digital issue is to buy on paper, all of my books can be bought on paper either through Amazon or Lulu.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
By the way -- you have until the 26th to get your books!
If Amazon follows through on the original announcement, the availability to download via USB will end on Feb 26th.