Dealing with Kindle for PC/Mac 1.19 and KFX in calibre

[imno007]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

The authors would benefit if the books were purchased instead though.

Right, except that I wouldn't pay that much for them. Did I mention that I find most of the content junk? I'm charitable, but not that charitable. More than likely, I'll just end up canceling my KU subscription and my friend will have to fend for herself. That's life. Although, you do have me thinking. I'm pretty sure there's some scripts out there that do page turns for you, and I'm wondering if something like that could be used to quickly "flip" through an ebook and get an author paid...? Just a thought.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by imno007

Right, except that I wouldn't pay that much for them. Did I mention that I find most of the content junk? I'm charitable, but not that charitable. More than likely, I'll just end up canceling my KU subscription and my friend will have to fend for herself. That's life. Although, you do have me thinking. I'm pretty sure there's some scripts out there that do page turns for you, and I'm wondering if something like that could be used to quickly "flip" through an ebook and get an author paid...? Just a thought.

I imagine anything that even slightly looks like it might be automated isn't counted.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

I imagine anything that even slightly looks like it might be automated isn't counted.

Amazon has had to change the system used to account for books read on KU in response to unscrupulous authors who try to game the system in order to receive a disproportionate amount of the KU payout. It would not surprise me if a constant rate of page turns is one of the things scammers have tried and Amazon now checks for.

[ownedbycats]

ReCAPTCHA or hCaptcha (forgot which) is able to check for 'human-like' activity. I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon could do the same.

[imno007]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Amazon has had to change the system used to account for books read on KU in response to unscrupulous authors who try to game the system in order to receive a disproportionate amount of the KU payout. It would not surprise me if a constant rate of page turns is one of the things scammers have tried and Amazon now checks for.

It wouldn't surprise me, either. I would think that, ideally, you would want a script that you could set to spend x-amount of minimum time plus some random amount on top of that per-page, but who knows, they might have a way to detect that too.

[Alternativa]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Important update: Amazon has made a change to their service so the books published since Jan 3 2023 can no longer be downloaded using Kindle for PC or Mac versions prior to 1.39. This means that methods 1, 2, and 4 described below are no longer effective for those books. Methods 3 and 5 still work.[snip]

He intentado todo esto y al usar kindle en la versión anterior me obliga a descargar la nueva versión nueva para bajar el libro. Al cambiar a la nueva el libro aparece en Mi Contenido en otra carpeta con varios archivos que no pueden ser leídos por Calibre. Así que nada de esto me funciona. Alguna idea? Garcias

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by imno007

It wouldn't surprise me, either. I would think that, ideally, you would want a script that you could set to spend x-amount of minimum time plus some random amount on top of that per-page, but who knows, they might have a way to detect that too.

Just boycott KU and only buy Kindle ebooks. KU benefits Amazon at the expense of authors. Use a real library to borrow ebooks, unlike Amazon they have to buy the copies. UK & Ireland also pay a per loan royalty.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Alternativa

He intentado todo esto y al usar kindle en la versión anterior me obliga a descargar la nueva versión nueva para bajar el libro. Al cambiar a la nueva el libro aparece en Mi Contenido en otra carpeta con varios archivos que no pueden ser leídos por Calibre. Así que nada de esto me funciona. Alguna idea? Garcias

I have tried all of this and using kindle on the old version forces me to download the new new version to download the book. When switching to the new one the book appears in My Content in another folder with several files that cannot be read by Calibre. So none of this works for me. Any ideas

You can no longer use older versions of Kindle for PC to download newly published books. And you cannot remove DRM from books downloaded with the latest version. At present the only choice you have for newly published books is to have an actual Kindle device registered to your account, method #3 in the first post of this thread.

[mk14steve]

Early versions of the PC Kindle App no longer accept downloads of books published from Jan 3rd 2023 (as stated in the update at the start of the thread) and you are forced to use a later version.

So unless you have an old kindle you are screwed.

It won't be long before they stop supporting old kindles and force you to buy new ones ...

Amazon have finally outsmarted the "geeks" and won.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by mk14steve

Early versions of the PC Kindle App no longer accept downloads of books published from Jan 3rd 2023 (as stated in the update at the start of the thread) and you are forced to use a later version.

So unless you have an old kindle you are screwed.

It won't be long before they stop supporting old kindles and force you to buy new ones ...

Amazon have finally outsmarted the "geeks" and won.

They won't force me to do anything. When they stop supporting old Kindles, I stop buying from them. There are other stores where to buy ebooks. Whether I have a new Kindle or not has nothing to do with this. I won't buy an ebook with unremovable DRM.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by mk14steve

So unless you have an old kindle you are screwed.

It won't be long before they stop supporting old kindles and force you to buy new ones ...

Amazon have finally outsmarted the "geeks" and won.

Right now you're fine with a new Kindle for purchased newly published books.

Personally I have yet to buy a book that can't still be downloaded with Kindle for PC 1.17.

I don't buy much from Amazon anyway. I was pretty annoyed to discover that DRM-free comics I bought from Comixology now download from Amazon with DRM. I have my previous backups and I can still DeDRM new copies. But it's one more reason to shop elsewhere or borrow from my library.

[monoxdd]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

They won't force me to do anything. When they stop supporting old Kindles, I stop buying from them. There are other stores where to buy ebooks. Whether I have a new Kindle or not has nothing to do with this. I won't buy an ebook with unremovable DRM.

Good for you. I´ll still buying books.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by mk14steve

Amazon have finally outsmarted the "geeks" and won.

Defeating DRM has always been more of a lone wolf past time rather than a community effort. It takes someone with a combination of interest, reverse engineering skills, and drive to put in the large amount of time and effort needed and who also has the desire to share what they have done with others. There are not many people like that.

In the early days of ebooks there was a lot of interest in the new technology from software developers. And the failure of some early ebook stores made it clear that a purchased book with DRM might become unreadable at any time. So there was a lot of effort put into DRM removal the the "Tools" were a hot item.

These days most people have gotten used to streaming music and video along with subscription access to ebooks. A lot of younger people read social media instead of books and those who read ebooks are less worried about having permanent access to them. They don't use calibre and probably do not even own a computer.

I suspect that a large percentage of people who buy Kindle books and are interested in preserving them long term are older folks (like me) who are also owners of at least one Kindle device. For us not much has changed in terms of the ability to defeat Amazon's DRM.

Yes, Amazon has gotten better at creating DRM, but I believe that a larger factor is that there less interest in defeating it nowadays. If Amazon closes the last DRM loopholes that may change.

[Quoth]

They can't block photographing the screen. The unblockable loophole. The fact is that DRM is an annoyance for regular consumers and doesn't stop industrial piracy.

It's trivial to capture streaming video or audio at perfect quality.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by monoxdd

Good for you. I´ll still buying books.

So will I, just not from Amazon. Well, I buy from them as long as the DRM can be removed. But I've never bought only from Amazon, so it's not difficult for me to switch entirely to other stores.