Amazon and DRM changes

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by jhowell

That is not true for all books.

There are some categories of book published before that date that cannot be downloaded using older Kindle for PC versions because they are only available in KFX format.

Also some non-KFX so called ebooks that can't be downloaded to eink Kindles (usually fixed layout / print replica). I complained to Amazon recently about a title that had no need to be print replica and told them they shouldn't brand such as Kindle titles.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Yes, this. Which is why i phrased it as is.

Agreed. I was just commenting on why Patitapetit's suggested edit was incorrect.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Joykins

Well. You are eventually supposed to return KU books but there’s no deadline for returning them. I still have some checked out from 2019. So theoretically I could keep them indefinitely.

As long as you don't go above the current limit of 20 books, you could keep a KU loan indefinitely.

However, the issue was returning the KU loan and keeping a copy.

[copyrite]

Since they've upped the borrow limit to 20 titles, I have some books that aren't even in KU anymore! One day I'll get around to reading them.

[Fat Abe]

Originally Posted by DNSB

As long as you don't go above the current limit of 20 books, you could keep a KU loan indefinitely.

I think the system is pretty liberal about how they implement book returns. Suppose you own two Kindles with wireless capability. You send book 1 to Kindle A, and the other 19 to Kindle B. Then, Kindle A dies or you place it into long term airplane mode. You tell your web browser that you want to return all copies of book 1. They automatically remove it from your loan list, and you are able to borrow book 21. How long will Amazon allow you to keep Kindle A off the grid? A second interesting question involves titles are rolled off their time on KU. I've seen a list of titles leaving or about to leave KU. We need to find one that is soon to leave, and figure out how long Amazon will allow it to stay in your reader. I know that Overdrive ebooks that you return early do not stay on a Kindle Fire for a full week (say, your original borrowing period), as they disappear the moment you re-enable wireless.

[copyrite]

Originally Posted by Fat Abe

We need to find one that is soon to leave, and figure out how long Amazon will allow it to stay in your reader. I know that Overdrive ebooks that you return early do not stay on a Kindle Fire for a full week (say, your original borrowing period), as they disappear the moment you re-enable wireless.

Found in a KDP community:

How am I getting KU page reads on a book that's not enrolled in KU?

I unenrolled my books from KU in May, but have had isolated (full book) KU reads for both in the last month. Any idea how that's happening?



You'll see page reads for a while still. The borrowed books stay in the KU members' Kindle devices until they get rid of it to make room for more KU books. I opted out of Select over a year ago and I still see KU page reads.

[steinarb]

I have tried to get to the level where I could read books bought on kinxle into calibre on my debian GNU/linux laptop.

So far I have found that
1. kindle 1.24 didn't install under wine
2. kindle 1.39 installed perfectly in wine and I could download and read books, non-DRMed KFX files imports nicely into calibre (I have a Baen book I bought on kindle because I didn't spot it was from Baen), but DRM'd KFX files fails to convert
3. kindle 1.26 also installed fine under wine and I have done the changes to make it not download KFX, but it still downloads KFX files (at least that's the way they lookks to calibre) and DRM'd KFX files have the same behaviour as with the kindle 1.39 files. Anyway... with the january 2023 policy change from amazon this would be useless for new books anyway...

So... I was looking into buying an older eInk kindle to get a download link.

But the oldest I can find is Paperwhite 4 (2018 vintage) and KFX support came with Paperwhite 3, so there is no point in buying that?

So... I either will have to get an alternative purchase route for ebooks... or go back to paper after 10 years on eInk...

[lkmiller]

All KFX files have DRM. Even for books which should be DRM-free. But if downloaded with 1.26, they can be DeDRMed. It can be very tricky to get things working on Linux though.

Even a current Kindle will get you a download link from the website for purchased books (for now).

eta: The download links provide non-kfx, decryptable files except for the few books which aren't available in non-kfx.

[steinarb]

Thanks! Maybe I'll try that Paperwhite 4 then.

Re tricky getting kindle 1.26 working right on linux. Do you have any tricks or tips?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

The download links provide non-kfx, decryptable files except for the few books which aren't available in non-kfx.

Which may not work on any eink or conversion anyway because they might be fixed layout.
Some non-KFX are also fixed layout and won't download for eink either.

[Patitapetit]

Originally Posted by steinarb

Thanks! Maybe I'll try that Paperwhite 4 then.

Re tricky getting kindle 1.26 working right on linux. Do you have any tricks or tips?

Try 1.17. I have it in Linux Mint and always get a mobi or an azw3 eBook, which in my opinion are easier to dedrm than Kfx

[steinarb]

It's still possible to download new books with 1.17, after Amazon's january 2023 policy change?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by steinarb

It's still possible to download new books with 1.17, after Amazon's january 2023 policy change?

No, only those published before January 3.

[jhowell]

To be clear the vast majority of Kindle books can still be downloaded using older versions of Kindle for PC. Only books published this year are blocked. You are only impacted if you need to download a newly published book.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by steinarb

It's still possible to download new books with 1.17, after Amazon's january 2023 policy change?

To be clear: there are two parts:

1. 1.17 still works and downloads books in mobi or azw, except:
2. Books PUBLISHED AFTER January 03, 2023. Any book published after that date will require a newer version of Kindle for PC and will only download as a KFX with (currently) unbreakable DRM.