Amazon removed books from my Kindle

[slm]

I think I'm probably repeating something that has already been said, but--nonetheless--bears repeating.

To Amazon, we are all edge-cases. They are not interested in helping (or, as far as I can tell, hurting) people who sideload books, and they has even less interest in people who sideload books and modify the metadata to look like an Amazon book.

I strongly suspect that Amazon is focused on a "common" case of a user who switches back to a long-unused Kindle and that they think they are doing a service by matching the "Amazon" books on that revived Kindle to their records of what should be on it. They probably don't keep track of things like requests from the web account to remove a book from the somnolent (they think) device, so a request to delete just fails silently. When the supposedly retired Kindle comes back into service they don't check removal requests, they just match up to the status of each Amazon book on the web list.

The above is just guess work but makes seems to me to be reasonable explanation for why Amazon does what it does.

The fact is that all of you are just odd fluff to Amazon.
So am I, of course.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by slm

... I strongly suspect that Amazon is focused on a "common" case of a user who switches back to a long-unused Kindle and that they think they are doing a service by matching the "Amazon" books on that revived Kindle to their records of what should be on it. They probably don't keep track of things like requests from the web account to remove a book from the somnolent (they think) device, so a request to delete just fails silently. When the supposedly retired Kindle comes back into service they don't check removal requests, they just match up to the status of each Amazon book on the web list.

This ↑↑↑↑↑ !!!!!

ETA: I'm not sure whether Amazon thinks they're doing a service, but I do think all Amazon is doing is "matching the 'Amazon' books on that revived Kindle to their records of what should be on it" as part of its normal syncing process. If you don't want Amazon to touch your sideloaded ebooks (PDOC), then don't manipulate the metadata to trick Amazon into thinking it's an Amazon-supplied ebook (EBOK).

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by slm

I think I'm probably repeating something that has already been said, but--nonetheless--bears repeating.

To Amazon, we are all edge-cases. They are not interested in helping (or, as far as I can tell, hurting) people who sideload books, and they has even less interest in people who sideload books and modify the metadata to look like an Amazon book.

I strongly suspect that Amazon is focused on a "common" case of a user who switches back to a long-unused Kindle and that they think they are doing a service by matching the "Amazon" books on that revived Kindle to their records of what should be on it. They probably don't keep track of things like requests from the web account to remove a book from the somnolent (they think) device, so a request to delete just fails silently. When the supposedly retired Kindle comes back into service they don't check removal requests, they just match up to the status of each Amazon book on the web list.

The above is just guess work but makes seems to me to be reasonable explanation for why Amazon does what it does.

The fact is that all of you are just odd fluff to Amazon.
So am I, of course.

Yes, you're probably right. Still, this doesn't mean we should just nod and agree it's a perfectly ok thing for Amazon to do.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by odamizu

This ↑↑↑↑↑ !!!!!

ETA: I'm not sure whether Amazon thinks they're doing a service, but I do think all Amazon is doing is "matching the 'Amazon' books on that revived Kindle to their records of what should be on it" as part of its normal syncing process. If you don't want Amazon to touch your sideloaded ebooks (PDOC), then don't manipulate the metadata to trick Amazon into thinking it's an Amazon-supplied ebook (EBOK).

Do you happen to know what the difference is between pdoc and ebok, when they're both sideloaded via USB? Unfortunately I no longer remember.

[Sarmat89]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

It is still not their business to remove any content from anyone's personal device.

You don't own the content of your device, Amazon does.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

You edited QualityCheck plugin to set PDOC instead of EBOK?

Originally Posted by zzjing

Yep.

I just did the same, to see if I'd succeed. Yep, now I can set the cdetype to PDOC for all the AZW3 files in bulk (Calibre sets it to EBOK by default, and there's no way to change this behavior). I don't use a Kindle currently, but who knows, I might get one again someday. Of course, the bug might be fixed by then, but I'm not optimistic.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

You don't own the content of your device, Amazon does.

Don't care. My device, my way.

And actually, no, Amazon doesn't. Amazon is just the seller, in most cases not even the publisher.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

You don't own the content of your device, Amazon does.

How accurate is this.

If I purchase a paper book, I own the paper, the ink, ... everything physical. The copyright holder can't erase what is on the paper, take the book, ... Copyright limits copying, distribution, ...

If I purchase an ereader, I own it. I own the cover, the eink screen, the memory, the storage, ...

I may have purchased/licensed the ebook, but I still own physical part on my device, there are just limits on what I can do with it.

I don't know, just thinking out loud.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by odamizu

If you don't want Amazon to touch your sideloaded ebooks (PDOC), then don't manipulate the metadata to trick Amazon into thinking it's an Amazon-supplied ebook (EBOK).

The problem is, when you convert something to AZW3, Calibre sets the EBOK tag automatically and there's no way around it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

You don't own the content of your device, Amazon does.

Let's say I have a public domain ePub which I loaded into calibre which I then converted to KF8 and side-loaded onto a Kindle. Amazon does not own this. I do. It's public domain with no copyright so it's mine. Now if Amazon removes it, Amazon is removing content that I own and that should be illegal.

Also, if I buy the eBook from Kobo, eBooks.com, Google Play Books, Smashwords, or direct from the author or publisher, there is no license with Amazon for that eBook. So Amazon has no legal control over it.

[Hollow Man]

It's worth noting all the books I own via tor.com, which I converted using Calibre from epub to kfx then sideloaded to my Kindle, are now gone.

Amazon knows darn well they don't have the right to delete these books, yet, either by mistake or via a conscious effort to try to enforce a battle against piracy, they did.

As I've always said, anti-piracy enforcement hurts the paying customer more than the pirate.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

As I've always said, anti-piracy enforcement hurts the paying customer more than the pirate.

Yeah. Just like geo-restrictions in the movie industry hurt the paying customers and in some cases may even drive them to piracy. Pirates who habitually download their stuff illegally won't care.

[Hollow Man]

For now I've tried taking the epub files and using send to Kindle to get them loaded back on. We'll see if that does the trick, but I don't like the idea of Amazon having a copy of books that aren't theirs sitting on their servers.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The problem is, when you convert something to AZW3, Calibre sets the EBOK tag automatically and there's no way around it.

Can't you edit the AZW3 file?

Make a request for calibre/plugin to be changed?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by John F

Can't you edit the AZW3 file?

Make a request for calibre/plugin to be changed?

Yes, but you'd have to do it one by one; can't edit them in bulk.

The request has been made, Kovid replied that you should convert to dual MOBI (both old MOBI and AZW3) to change the cdetype, but this would take twice the disk space for the format I don't need (old mobi), so not really feasible either.