Licensed to a different user?

[tncclibrary]

I am getting an error message when I try to read any of the titles that I sent to my Kindle from Calibre.

"Unable to Open Item - This item cannot be opened becuase it is licensed to a different user. Delete the item and download it from the Cloud or purchase a copy from the Kindle Store."

I suspect this has something to do with the way I registered Calibre that is inconsistent with my Amazon username, but I can't find anywhere in Calibre to check the registration.

I'm using a Kindle Touch at the moment, but my library (I'm a librarian) has other versions of Kindle readers that we're hoping to use Calibre with to manage our ebook collections.

And advice would be appreciated.

~ Susan

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by tncclibrary

I am getting an error message when I try to read any of the titles that I sent to my Kindle from Calibre.

"Unable to Open Item - This item cannot be opened becuase it is licensed to a different user. Delete the item and download it from the Cloud or purchase a copy from the Kindle Store."

I suspect this has something to do with the way I registered Calibre that is inconsistent with my Amazon username, but I can't find anywhere in Calibre to check the registration.

I'm using a Kindle Touch at the moment, but my library (I'm a librarian) has other versions of Kindle readers that we're hoping to use Calibre with to manage our ebook collections.

And advice would be appreciated.

~ Susan

Calibre knows nothing of Amazon DRM, so it will happily send DRM-encumbered books to Kindles that aren't licensed for them. If your Kindles are registered to different accounts, you can't mix and match; only books bought with the account the device is registered to will work.

You will either have to keep track of which book is valid for which device (bought with the account the device is registered to), or register all devices to a single account and use that account to buy books. IIRC, the maximum number of devices that can be registered to a single account at ony one time is 6.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

IIRC, the maximum number of devices that can be registered to a single account at ony one time is 6.

Actually, six is the maximum number of devices you can simultaneously read the same DRMed book on (and even that number isn't carved in stone. It's commonly five or even less--that's up to the discretion of the publisher I believe). To my knowledge, there is no limit to the number of devices/apps you can register to one account.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Actually, six is the maximum number of devices you can simultaneously read the same DRMed book on (and even that number isn't carved in stone. It's commonly five or even less--that's up to the discretion of the publisher I believe). To my knowledge, there is no limit to the number of devices/apps you can register to one account.

You're right; I confused the two.

[piperclassique]

Cancel that reply......

[tncclibrary]

Back again. I got busy with some other things.

All our devices are registered to the same account, that's not the problem.

I've done some experimenting. It goes like this....

I log into Amazon with a Kindle and download a book. Then I plug into Calibre and add that book to my library. Then I delete the book from the device and immediately resend it to the device from Calibre. And when I try to open the book on the Kindle I get the same error message "Unable to Open Item - This item cannot be opened because it is licensed to a different user."

For a while I thought this was only happening when I tried to send a title to a different device than the one I had originally downloaded from, but in fact it's happening with the very same device which makes no sense at all.

This makes Calibre completely useless except as a way to sort titles, which I could do just as easily in Excel.

[Sabardeyn]

Amazon recently added an ebook sync "feature" which will try to revert any alterations you make to ebooks they've sold to you. You might be running afoul of that. Try deleting the ASIN# shown in the ID field and re-send to your device. That might correct the problem.

[kovidgoyal]

Remove the DRM and all your problems will go away. Are you really surprised that Amazon is trying hard to make sure you dont use third party tools within their ecosystem. That is the only purpose of DRM after all.

[piperclassique]

I think the OP is a librarian, so it may not be advisable for the DRM to be removed. Just a thought.....

[Sabardeyn]

Oops! Very good point piperclassique.


tncclibrary,
Re-reading your posts, I see that you're referring to ebooks owned by the library. The suggestions made were appropriate under a fair use situation for personally owned ebooks. The suggestions made previously are not appropriate for books that a Library would lend out since there are business and legal ramifications.

[At_Libitum]

I don't have a Kindle of any kind and stay away from DRM as far as possible, but the way I read tncclibrary's posts, he's not trying to do anything that would violate any regulations.

if I understand correctly than this is the scenario

buy book on a Kindle,
connect Kindle to Calibre
upload book to Calibre
delete book on Kindle
send book from Calibre back to same Kindle
Kindle complains about license

Even without owning a Kindle, these steps clearly indicate something happens in Calibre that causes the Kindle to barf when it sees the book for the second time.

Assuming that there's nothing in Calibre which messes with the DRM, the only other thing I can think of is that there is something happening during the sending to device.

Could there be a configuration setting that does something to the Kindle file before it is send back? e.g. some type of conversion? Some other form of updating which could violate the DRM terms?

[Sabardeyn]

Originally Posted by At_Libitum

... the way I read tncclibrary's posts, he's not trying to do anything that would violate any regulations.

I did not say or imply that tncclibrary was attempting something nefarious. I stated that the suggestion wasn't appropriate for a library to use on a book they have in circulation.

I re-worded my previous post slightly in response, hopefully making clear that only my suggestion is inappropriate.

[At_Libitum]

oops. apologies if I gave the wrong impression Was merely trying to make clear that the cause must be something else than deliberate tampering.

I've no idea what touching a book's metadata does to DRM, so for all I know this might also be be considered as 'tampering' by Kindle/Amazon rules.

[tncclibrary]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've done some more experimenting.

I'm not sure Calibre really is sending these titles to the device. It says it is, and then the title shows up in the device menu, but in the column that shows the file size these books all read 0.0 MB, though they do have some MB size showing in the same column in the Calibre library window. I tried looking at the files in computer disk directories and the corresponding files are empty there too. I tried copying the files from my Calibre library to the device there and that didn't work.

Didn't touch the metadata - no effect, still have the same problem.

This might in fact have something to do with the DRM because a couple titles I tried which apparently do NOT have DRM (public domain I think) work just fine. Though they also do not show anything in the file size on the device menu so I don't know what's up with that.

Removing the DRM might solve the issue, except that I don't know how to do that, and searching the Calibre forums yields nothing except vague comments to the effect that "we're not going to say how to remove the DRM since that is not strictly legal" so without instructions that suggestion really isn't helpful.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by tncclibrary

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've done some more experimenting.

I'm not sure Calibre really is sending these titles to the device. It says it is, and then the title shows up in the device menu, but in the column that shows the file size these books all read 0.0 MB, though they do have some MB size showing in the same column in the Calibre library window. I tried looking at the files in computer disk directories and the corresponding files are empty there too. I tried copying the files from my Calibre library to the device there and that didn't work.

Didn't touch the metadata - no effect, still have the same problem.

This might in fact have something to do with the DRM because a couple titles I tried which apparently do NOT have DRM (public domain I think) work just fine. Though they also do not show anything in the file size on the device menu so I don't know what's up with that.

Removing the DRM might solve the issue, except that I don't know how to do that, and searching the Calibre forums yields nothing except vague comments to the effect that "we're not going to say how to remove the DRM since that is not strictly legal" so without instructions that suggestion really isn't helpful.

DRM will slow things down
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