Amazon discontinuing support for older Kindles in May

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I follow some independent authors and a lot don't want to go DRM free as they are paranoid about pirating

DRM has never stopped piracy. Pirate sites are full of books that originally had DRM.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I follow some independent authors and a lot don't want to go DRM free as they are paranoid about pirating

I used to know some who would only pirate eBooks that originally came with DRM. Also, Tor has said since going DRM-Free, they have not lost sales.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

As of May 21, 2026 you will no longer be able to use any Kindle made before 2013 to download any eBooks from Amazon.

You won't even be able to register any kindles made before 2013, they will be completely cut off from Amazon. You can read what's on them but nothing else.

It will be a support nightmare as CS's first option for troubleshooting is to tell a customer to deregister and reregister their kindle....

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

DRM has never stopped piracy. Pirate sites are full of books that originally had DRM.

It's the pirates that make out and the legit customers are the ones who lose out as most people don't know how to remove DRM.

Back before Readers, eBook DRM was either tied to the computer or tied to an online server. So if you changed your computer, you had to download the eBooks again or in the case of Microsoft, when they turned off the DRM serves, all the LIT eBooks with DRM were useless.

These authors need to do what's best for their legit customers.

[vermontcathy]

OK, so, debate this with me - After June 1, you factory reset your K3. People are saying it'll be bricked. I believe when Amazon said you won't be able to use it in any way, they mean with regards to Amazon services. If you turn off wifi now, so they can't mess with the software, resetting in the future will work the same as resetting now. How could that be changed if they don't send updated software to the kindles?

Some people are showing photos of their K4 prompting them to register as soon as they reset, but I tell them that you can back out of that screen and go to the home screen and never register.

My question here is, is there any chance I'm wrong? Is there any chance that if you turn off wifi now and forever, that behavior after resetting will be different in a few months than it is now? If you believe it could, HOW, if the software/firmware isn't changed?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

You won't even be able to register any kindles made before 2013, they will be completely cut off from Amazon. You can read what's on them but nothing else.

It will be a support nightmare as CS's first option for troubleshooting is to tell a customer to deregister and reregister their kindle....

My Kindle Touch will be useless.

My PW3 has not had the OS patched to change the DRM. But if I turn on WiFi, would i be able to download and then turn off WiFi before Amazon hacks the OS? I may try it after my Kindle Touch is no longer able to download.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by vermontcathy

OK, so, debate this with me - After June 1, you factory reset your K3. People are saying it'll be bricked. I believe when Amazon said you won't be able to use it in any way, they mean with regards to Amazon services. If you turn off wifi now, so they can't mess with the software, resetting in the future will work the same as resetting now. How could that be changed if they don't send updated software to the kindles?

Some people are showing photos of their K4 prompting them to register as soon as they reset, but I tell them that you can back out of that screen and go to the home screen and never register.

My question here is, is there any chance I'm wrong? Is there any chance that if you turn off wifi now and forever, that behavior after resetting will be different in a few months than it is now? If you believe it could, HOW, if the software/firmware isn't changed?

I just don’t know. This is what the email says


* You can continue to read books already downloaded on these devices, but you will not be able to purchase, borrow, or download additional books on them after that date.
* If you deregister or factory reset these devices, you will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way.


So no idea.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Also, Tor has said since going DRM-Free, they have not lost sales.

Technically, Tor can only objectively claim that their sales numbers have remained relatively unchanged (or that they find their sales to be satisfactory) since going drm-free. While it's true that not all pirated books will translate directly to a lost sale, it is equally true that they can. There's no way to effectively quantify whether or not someone who pirated a book would have purchased it had they not done so.

I'm not defending DRM. I just don't always agree with the specious arguments for why some believe DRM to be utterly ineffective in preventing piracy because: Tor.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by vermontcathy

OK, so, debate this with me - After June 1, you factory reset your K3. People are saying it'll be bricked. I believe when Amazon said you won't be able to use it in any way, they mean with regards to Amazon services. If you turn off wifi now, so they can't mess with the software, resetting in the future will work the same as resetting now. How could that be changed if they don't send updated software to the kindles?

Some people are showing photos of their K4 prompting them to register as soon as they reset, but I tell them that you can back out of that screen and go to the home screen and never register.

My question here is, is there any chance I'm wrong? Is there any chance that if you turn off wifi now and forever, that behavior after resetting will be different in a few months than it is now? If you believe it could, HOW, if the software/firmware isn't changed?

Who is saying it'll be bricked? You won't be able to register it or to use it to download Amazon books. You'll still be able to sideload, I presume.

[vermontcathy]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Who is saying it'll be bricked? You won't be able to register it or to use it to download Amazon books. You'll still be able to sideload, I presume.

Who is saying it'll be bricked? Oh, just reddit users...

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm not defending DRM. I just don't always agree with the specious arguments for why some believe DRM to be utterly ineffective in preventing piracy because: Tor.

DRM is utterly ineffective in preventing piracy as long as it's not too hard to remove. Case in point: various shadow libraries and pirate sites are full of books published with DRM, including Amazon exclusive ebooks.

What DRM is effective in is preventing casual sharing between friends and relatives (for people not well versed in such matters).

[MegDreamsofBooks]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I follow some independent authors and a lot don't want to go DRM free as they are paranoid about pirating

Same. In their defense, if they are a KU-exclusive author, and their books end up on a pirated site, Amazon will drop their account even though the author had no part in their books being available elsewhere via piracy. Getting everything restored can be a real fight, especially now that Amazon has (supposedly) moved a lot of the "decisions" to AI-based instead of human-based.

That said, I will not be purchasing from any author that doesn't allow downloads, whether that's through Amazon, Kobo, or elsewhere. I've already moved most of my ebook purchases to non-Amazon options, this will just reduce the last few Amazon purchases even more. Luckily almost all of the Amazon-exclusive authors who are auto-buy for me have either added direct purchase or added epub downloads via Amazon.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

DRM is utterly ineffective in preventing piracy as long as it's not too hard to remove. Case in point: various shadow libraries and pirate sites are full of books published with DRM, including Amazon exclusive ebooks.

What DRM is effective in is preventing casual sharing between friends and relatives (for people not well versed in such matters).

I tend not to differentiate between what might deserve to be called "piracy" and what might not. If casual sharing violates copyright, then I consider that behavior to be piracy. And if DRM can be effective in preventing that sort of "casual" piracy, then I don't considerer it utterly ineffective against piracy. Others' mileage on this will no doubt vary.

My main point was that using Tor's DRM-free approach to argue that it doesn't contribute to more piracy (casual or commercial), or lost sales is a bit unprovable. It only proves that Tor is satisfied with their sales numbers after going DRM-free.

[slm]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Who is saying it'll be bricked? You won't be able to register it or to use it to download Amazon books. You'll still be able to sideload, I presume.

It will be useless if after reset, it gets stuck on the "register this device" page. I don't recall whether for any or all of the models, the current firmware forces registration before you can access the other functions.

[vermontcathy]

Originally Posted by slm

It will be useless if after reset, it gets stuck on the "register this device" page. I don't recall whether for any or all of the models, the current firmware forces registration before you can access the other functions.

I know that with K3, K4, first Paperwhite, and others, you can back out of the "register this device" page that shows up when you reset it. The K3 doesn't even show that - it just goes straight to the home screen. K4 does prompt you to register it, but you just hit back or home (I forget which) and it goes to the home screen.

With newer kindles, it's a little annoying because every time you view your library it says that it can't show books in your cloud until you register it, but you can open a book and read, you just see that message each time you go to the library (and you tap ok to close it)

I have seen that perhaps the colorsoft can't be used without connecting to wifi at least. https://www.reddit.com/r/kindlejailb...or_the_kindle/