Amazon Will Allow Downloads Again...Maybe

[cfrizz]

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/to...bDate=20251212

They are basically turning over the responsibility to the publishers/authors. So instead of slapping their DRM on every book, it will be up to the publishers/authors to make that decision. If they want to go back through the books that are drm'd they will have to go in and manually switch them over.

This should be very interesting to see if it actually happens.

It also means that Amazon probably lost a lot of book buying customers due to their bad decision to make books no longer downloadable.

I doubt the big publishers will change anything, but the independent authors just might.

I know I had a discussion with an Amazon only author whom I asked if he sold his books on Kobo, because I wanted his latest book. He told me no he didn't. I informed him that that was too bad because I no longer will buy books on Amazon due to them no longer allowing downloads.

I just bet thousands of people did just what I did with their favorite authors, and I bet Amazon got a million earfuls about it!

Go us!!!!

[Karellen]

It's being discussed here... https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=371082

[cfrizz]

Thanks, it never occurred to me to check the Kindle thread.

[JSWolf]

TBH, this does belong in the News forum as it is News.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

They are basically turning over the responsibility to the publishers/authors. So instead of slapping their DRM on every book, it will be up to the publishers/authors to make that decision. If they want to go back through the books that are drm'd they will have to go in and manually switch them over.

It was always a Publisher / Author decision for mobi, azw3 and maybe PDF. It was Amazon that unilaterally decided that KFX would only work on Kindles / Amazon Apps and actually be encrypted. They claimed that it was "really DRM free" as the title with "no DRM" selected in publishing would work on ANY Kindle or Amazon App. That is misleading, because it's not DRM free if the encryption means it only works on the Amazon platform.

[cfrizz]

I agree with you. At any rate, I don't trust the publishers or Amazon since they all lie like rugs. I will stick with Kobo and epubs and getting mostly self-published books.

It's just nice to know that even Amazon can be backed down. Hitting them in the wallet will always get results!

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

I agree with you. At any rate, I don't trust the publishers or Amazon since they all lie like rugs. I will stick with Kobo and epubs and getting mostly self-published books.

It's just nice to know that even Amazon can be backed down. Hitting them in the wallet will always get results!

If they were lying, why were the books without DRM at kobo or other stores?


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[tsgreer]

I publish everywhere, so I'll def be taking advantage. But the reality is, most readers don't know of even care what DRM is. They buy their book on amazon, download to their kindle, and read. That's it.

We are the nerdiest of the nerds though. But DRM just isn't on most people's radar. They read a book, and delete it, then buy the next one.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by tsgreer

We are the nerdiest of the nerds though. But DRM just isn't on most people's radar. They read a book, and delete it, then buy the next one.

I can't argue with that. But I do strongly suspect that the nerdiest of the nerds are also the ones that rely on services like eReaderIQ and BookBub because we buy so many books. So I do think there is some impact.

At any rate, it's unlikely that Amazon made this decision because they suddenly realized they were the baddies. There was pressure from somewhere on them.

[gbm]

I will speculate that lawyers got involved and Amazon legal said "What were you thinking".
Reminder that when it the book page says:

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

that is a contract between the Publisher and the customer.


bernie

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I can't argue with that. But I do strongly suspect that the nerdiest of the nerds are also the ones that rely on services like eReaderIQ and BookBub because we buy so many books. So I do think there is some impact.

At any rate, it's unlikely that Amazon made this decision because they suddenly realized they were the baddies. There was pressure from somewhere on them.