over 100 books of my kindle library just vaporized

[haertig]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

...what do you expect people to do who bought eBooks from Amazon in good faith and can no longer download them as KF8...

While I consider it totally unethical, and IMHO "illegal", for Amazon to do this, it does reinforce the recommendation oft repeated on this forum: "When you buy a book, immediately download it, strip the DRM, and save it locally". Many of us here do exactly this.

While this definitely should not be a required step, it is a very good idea (if not a mandatory step) to do it anyway. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

When you see multiple examples over time of uncaring merchants abusing customer trust, it makes sense to just automatically take the simple steps to avoid putting yourself into a situation where the abuse will result in problems for you. This does not justify the abuse in the first place, but it is still a wise thing to do.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

If you remove the DRM protection, you are creating copies of copyrighted material. The license you have does not allow you to do that.

If I download a book from Amazon and create a copy of that book without removing DRM, that is equally copyright infringement.

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

You buy a non-exclusive license, which the copyright holder can revoke in any minute. You can buy a bottle of beer, but it does not mean you'll keep it forever and can replace it if it expires. Copyrighted material cannot be bought via retail, using the word "buy" for obtaining non-exclusive license is just a figure of speech without legal consequences.

Buy is not just a figure of speech. The jurisdictions I checked give it a very specific meaning in a court. Perhaps we need a law even more restrictive than the "terms “buy,” “purchase,” or any other term which a reasonable person would understand to confer an unrestricted ownership interest in the digital good". See California Assembly Bill (AB) 2426 (Chapter 513) for more about this.

[Sarmat89]

Originally Posted by haertig

You buy a book, but can't read it later, because "Oops, you didn't really buy the book, you only bought a license to read the book, and now we have revoked that license, without refunding your money of course". That kind of B.S. does not sit well with customers

You buy physical books which perish - why should the digital book be any different? It is unreasonable to expect owning something forever because "OMG digital!" vibe.

[Sarmat89]

Originally Posted by haertig

When you buy a book, immediately download it, strip the DRM, and save it locally

But that is illegal, it is piracy. The notion people are entitled to pirating stuff because they paid somebody sometime is as ridiculous as advocating for movie piracy because you've paid to see that movie in the theater once.

[Dr. Drib]

...so tiresome....

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

But that is illegal, it is piracy.

So what? I buy an ebook, yeah, I expect to keep it for as long as I want. As I said, I feel no obligation whatsoever to follow ridiculous laws designed to harm my interests. And I don't care what you call it.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

You buy physical books which perish - why should the digital book be any different? It is unreasonable to expect owning something forever because "OMG digital!" vibe.

No, it's not unreasonable, because it's perfectly doable. I fully expect to own my ebooks until I die. Of course, there are many people who don't want to own ebooks, so they borrow from libraries, use subscriptions or just never remove the DRM. OTOH, others want to own their purchased ebooks and we do. I don't care what the law says about it.

And yes, I still own all my physical books too. None of them has perished. Ditto for my ebooks.

[Sarmat89]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

what do you expect people to do who bought eBooks from Amazon in good faith and can no longer download them as KF8 ... because ... their functioning Kindle is not allowed to download eBooks and does not read KFX?

The same thing as those who bought records? No one is obligated to support obsolete formats indefinitely.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

You buy physical books which perish - why should the digital book be any different? It is unreasonable to expect owning something forever because "OMG digital!" vibe.

Some of us actually look after our physical books and store them. My oldest print edition is a copy of Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution dated 1837; it belonged to my great-grandfather, and I can still read it (if I want to be bored out of my skull by the writing style).

I see no difference with a digital edition; as long as there is hardware that can read it, I should be able to read it whether the edition is in copyright or not - if I have made a retail purchase. Borrowed books (Kindle Unlimited, library books etc) are not purchased content and I fully expect to lose access when I return the loan.

You seem to be conflating digital loan programs where you pay a monthly fee to access as much content as you want with digital purchases where you are paying for access to that specific content. It's like a streaming service - you can access the content if it's still available. If it isn't, tough. That's why I prefer to purchase physical media where I can - CDs, DVDs and the like.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

The same thing as those who bought records? No one is obligated to support obsolete formats indefinitely.

Why do you think records are obsolete formats? I still own and play LPs and singles. I grant you 78s now need very specialist hardware to play.

[brynstntn]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

You buy physical books which perish - why should the digital book be any different? It is unreasonable to expect owning something forever because "OMG digital!" vibe.

Putting legality aside, I don’t think comparing physical copies to digital should really be the goal. Physical books can last multiple lifetimes, digital media could last indefinitely.

All the limitations that are being put on ebooks (drm), are completely artificial. They are trying to make the digital books mimic physical books. All they are really doing is making the books less accessible, and locking users into ecosystems. It’s is really nuts.