09-22-2012, 04:25 AM | #136 |
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PS - for me the above issues make me feel that I don't really "own" any of the amazon books that I've bought; I am being allowed to read them only on days when their software works & they can screw that up at any time via forced updates / general incompetence.
They feel "owned" only after I de-drm them, move them to a folder that amazon can't touch, & create a backup on a separate drive. Oh, and convert to epub so I can read them in other software. |
09-23-2012, 03:39 AM | #137 |
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You don't own them. This is clearly stated in the Kindle Licence Agreement, so your feelings are absolutely correct.
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09-23-2012, 04:27 AM | #138 | |
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Does it obligate Amzon to keep the service going & not to arbitrarily discontinue K 4 PC i.e. does it guarantee me lifetime access via my PC ? I bet it doesn't. slightly off-topic but how does that compare with epub format books bought from other stores (which use the ADE DRM ) e.g. Sony, Kobo , Nook bookstores.... do I "own" those can they also be remotely zapped by vendors? I am not an ADE expert but I think that books open in ADE without going back on-line for permission, once they have been successfully installed. |
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09-23-2012, 05:16 AM | #139 |
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All e-book stores grant you a licence to use the content; they don't sell you the book. What you're buying is the licence.
This is really no different to a paper book. When you buy a paper book you're buying the ink and paper; copyright law grants you limited rights to read the contents of the book, but you don't "own" those contents in any way. |
09-23-2012, 06:14 AM | #140 |
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yes, but with reasonable care the "ink & paper" will never stop working & my access to it cannot be revoked.
when Kindle was first launched I "trusted " Amazon enough to discount the paranoia about bought books being removed form devices unexpectedly, but with recent K4PC bugs I am changing my view on that. What's to stop Amazon from one day deciding that maintaining K4PC, K4Mac etc is not worth the hassle, and decreeing that book "owners" must either go buy a "proper" kindle handheld ( on which they can be advertised to ) or lose their book access. After all, they have already either deliberately or incompetently made many earlier versions of K4PC stop working - permanently. I don't recall any apology for that, or any admission that they'd done anything wrong/ anything in breach of licence. |
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09-23-2012, 06:58 AM | #141 | ||
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Amazon could simply stop offering Kindle as a service. The same can be said about any service like this though. Quote:
The Kindle Terms and Conditions state this is a requirement. Last edited by Daveoc64; 09-23-2012 at 07:02 AM. |
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09-23-2012, 07:07 AM | #142 | |
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like with books, technically you own the game licence , not the game, but there is some assurance that it will not become worthless overnight the equivalent for Amazon would be them making all previously bought & downloaded kindle books continue to be readable on PCs. I don't know if they could or would do that. They have a monolpoly on the .mobi, .azw formats and thus a monopoly on the reader software. ( I know calbre reader can step in but it's not a real mobi reader, it does an on-the-fly conversion to epub in order to display the text, & the book has to be de-drmed) |
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09-23-2012, 07:21 AM | #143 | |
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Amazon is not like a games publisher, they don't own the content they're selling - they're more like a service like Steam or iTunes. I'm not sure how this is relevant. |
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09-23-2012, 08:26 AM | #144 | |||
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If/when you do happen to find a truly free ebook that gives you fits, I'd love to test it out, though. Feel free to PM me the details since I don't check this Kindle subforum as often as I used to. Last edited by DiapDealer; 09-23-2012 at 08:29 AM. |
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09-23-2012, 10:28 AM | #145 |
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re "the donor" - trust me - it was free - but now its £1.99.
that's another annoyance - kindle books can go free to £1.99 to £3.99 to 0.99 seemingly at random. you don't get to see the file type at time of purchase, but looking more closely: in kindle documents folder it shows as type .azw but in calibre I see .azw3 after import. I just checked my calibre database - I have 7 titles that were free and were .azw in kindle docs, .azw3 in calbre, all of them are now £1.99 or more in UK kindle store today. I guess that as soon as a free book becomes TOO popular they start to charge for it. the last 2 or 3 few books I've chosen have downloaded & synched OK, so I am waiting for the fault to re-occur on a future purchase, then I can explore some more RE the end of the last but one post "not sure this is relevant" - my point was once you have a monopoly there's no need to waste money on bug fixes or enhancements. K4Pc has not updates since July as there's an awful lot of grief re bugs both here and in other forums |
09-23-2012, 12:48 PM | #146 |
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This is most definitely due to "certain plugins" that "fix" things whenever ebooks are imported. Calibre itself never alters the file extensions of ebooks upon import (not that any of this is particularly relevant to the "must restart K4PC in order to see new books" issue, but I think it's important to avoid any potential confusion).
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09-28-2012, 02:54 AM | #147 | |
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I have another "bug" observation though - when i watched K4PC lose a book the exact sequence was: add 1 to number of books in library, show download progress bar, then lose book AND SUBTRACT 1 from books in library. there's a clue that I can't interpret in that add / subtract behaviour PS you are right about the registry. in software I see sections for both Kindle user settings and Kindle for PC user settings. one of those must be redundant |
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09-29-2012, 03:57 PM | #148 |
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Hi there, I have been searching for an older version of Kindle for PC, such as 1.3 or 1.4 but all files I have downloades from File Hippo just doesnt work. Some install, some dont, those who install the program wont open in windows 7.
Anyone can tell where I can download a funtional older version? |
09-29-2012, 03:59 PM | #149 | |
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09-30-2012, 03:07 PM | #150 | |
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there are many sites that archive & make available older versions of software google something like kindle for pc old versions |
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