Technology

"your" ebooks. – You never owned them in the first place. And if buying isn't owning, questionably acquired ebooks aren't stolen.

I wonder if this is a response to someone jailbreaking all kindles ever the other day

Fuck kindles, get a different brand of ereader that just runs stripped android

One more reason not to buy ebooks from Amazon.

Here's my purely capitalistic problem with Amazon:

A decade+ ago, I realized that major brands were using the site as their outlet store. I'd buy a pack of socks, and they'd be hideously deformed. I'd buy a few pants for work, one pair would be too small, one too large, and one would fit just right. I'm not fucking Goldilocks.

The final straw for me was when my coffee maker broke. I ordered a new one via same day shipping, which at the time had a minimum order of something like $50. The coffee maker did not cost quite enough, so I added something random to the order so that my same day shipping would be free. Ultimately, the coffee maker arrived late (i.e. not the same day) and the decanter was broken.

When I contacted Amazon about the issue, the agent said they could reship, but they wouldn't send it same day so for that specific item it was going to take 3 - 5 days to arrive. They also tried to hassle me with a straight up return, telling me I had to take it to a UPS store, which at the time was 30+ minutes away.

Ultimately, I pulled a Karen and told them to cancel my Amazon Prime, which they did. Only problem is, I was 2 or 3 months into the year long subscription and assumed I'd get a pro-rated refund. I did not. When I got back in touch with customer service, they told me that Amazon adds up the value of the "free" shipping I received, the rental value of the movies and shows I watched on Prime, and the value of all the other services included with Prime and if that total exceeds the remaining value of the Prime subscription, then no refund.

They basically stole almost a year of Prime from me with no recourse.

Scum company. I got a lot of hate for saying this back in those days. But at least now, a decade+ later, people are finally starting to wake up. Not everyone, obviously. But at least I don't get hateful responses and DMs quite as much as I used to.

I was able to export (you'll have to remove DRM via plugin) all of my Kindle ebooks into epub using "Method 2a" of this guide:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=361503

It's can be a massive pain with some metadata issues, but at least it works.

I've been meaning to do this for years, but have always been too lazy.

I think with applications, like Calibre its relatively painless to save the whole library, if someone is ready to jump ship. Now its the perfect time.

I personally use a Kobo without the online features, which is fantastic, but there are many great Kindle alternatives without the corporate spyware bullshit.

🤣🤣🤣🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

I borrow them from my library through the Libby and Hoopla apps. If I want to support the author, I’ll buy a copy through some other means. Directly from them, if possible.

Very happy I got a PocketBook instead of the store locked alternatives

No it isn't 🐭

As someone who likes to have a fallback way of purchasing digital content that I can remove DRM from, this annoys me.

I can still purchase mp3 and flac files from various online retailers, and I can rip bluray for my movies and tv shows, but now I need a new place to purchase ebooks that are downloadable. Anyone have any recommendations? The first few independent retailers i've found seem to require their own apps.

Good luck accessing my ebooks.

How is that legal?

Sounds to me like Amazon is reducing the value proposition of their product. For me, additional roadblocks to being able to enjoy something they way I want when I have paid for it reduces the value of the product itself.

For example, if a DRM free book in an standards compatible format costs $20, then the DRM version I can still download for offline viewing is worth $10. The DRM version I can't download is now worth more like $1-$5 depending on how badly I would want to read it while still supporting the author.

And yes, ebooks from the major sellers aren't worth much to me and I rarely rent (because you're not really buying) them.

Buy elsewhere, or simple look up epubs and mail them to kindle

I pulled down the eight Kindle books I actually bought, about half of the books in my Kindle library are public domain, stuff like old Sherlock Holmes novels, some FAA handbooks, etc.

Next I guess is Audible. Over the years Audible has offered a lot of free trials with a complimentary audiobook several times, and I've amassed a bit of a collection. Including the edition of The Martian narrated by R.C. Bray you can't get anymore. Those I'd like in mp3 format if I can get it.