Amazon to allow downloads of DRM free books

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by John F

Maybe it was always there?

Originally Posted by rashkae

Yes, Tor has been putting that in their book descriptions for at least 10 years.

Both Tor and Baen have that in their ebook descriptions for over a decade and Amazon's response is to apply DRM regardless.

Baen: At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (DRM Rights Management).

Tor: At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Amazon: Forget that nonsense. We must apply DRM to all books.

[k_men]

I was kind of surprised to find this (feature? facility?) has already rolled out in the European market (Spain, in my case). The DRM-free titles in my Kindle library now offer a DRM-free download ("EPub or PDF", you never know which one you're going to get).

So this is good. Unfortunately, it's not much use to me - all my Amazon titles had been downloaded, de-fleeced, and backed up years before Amazon eliminated the D&T possibility.

So, why now? Why is Amazon doing this in the Year of the Lord 2026?

My only hypothesis is that it might have to do with some kind of legal compliance in some market or economic area (the EC certainly wouldn't find the "we've got all these Public Domain titles covered in DRM and we don't care" approach very funny.)

So that's my 0.02 €.

[lkmiller]

Super annoying that Amazon took away the one indicator that we used to have that something should be DRM-free. I think it will be up to publishers/authors to make it known. For books published before 9 Dec 2025, you still won't know if a download will actually be available. And you won't know if any book will be available as an epub or pdf until after buying.

I'll stick to converting from azw3 downloaded to my Kindle Touch.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Super annoying that Amazon took away the one indicator that we used to have that something should be DRM-free. I think it will be up to publishers/authors to make it known. For books published before 9 Dec 2025, you still won't know if a download will actually be available. And you won't know if any book will be available as an epub or pdf until after buying.

I'll stick to converting from azw3 downloaded to my Kindle Touch.

I just downloaded a book published before December 9, 2025. It is a Star Trek book which should come without DRM. I think books like that with no DRM will be able to be downloaded via a browser.

I also had a look at the cover and the title page. It looks like the resolution is correct. There is more compression. I took a look at hi-res covers from Kobo and Amazon and they both have a larger file size. So if this is how it's going to be, I'm all for it for hi-res graphics.

[madelonw]

I downloaded a book I recently purchased marked in Content and Devices as "Download available in additional formats." It took me several tries to actually get the book into Calibre. It downloaded as a ZIP. Unzipping didn't work. I finally just draged the ZIP file into Calibre and if I remember correctly only the Title appears. I was able to convert the book to mobi, open it, copy the cover, and paste it into the Edit Metadata screen. I've not tried any other books, but at least I can figure out what to do if the book comes across as a ZIP. I have a huge Kindle library, and it looks like I may have my work cut out for me downloading books in different formats.

It is important to me to be able to open books in Calibre because I review what I read. It is easier to refer back to a book open on my PC screen than to go hunting around on my Kindle.

[slm]

Originally Posted by madelonw

I downloaded a book I recently purchased marked in Content and Devices as "Download available in additional formats." It took me several tries to actually get the book into Calibre. It downloaded as a ZIP..

Epub files are, in fact, zip files, so the "zip" extension doesn't bother Calibre. You can change it it you like.
The Amazon-created epubs seems to have minimal metadata included, which si why you see only the title.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by madelonw

I downloaded a book I recently purchased marked in Content and Devices as "Download available in additional formats." It took me several tries to actually get the book into Calibre. It downloaded as a ZIP. Unzipping didn't work. I finally just draged the ZIP file into Calibre and if I remember correctly only the Title appears. I was able to convert the book to mobi, open it, copy the cover, and paste it into the Edit Metadata screen. I've not tried any other books, but at least I can figure out what to do if the book comes across as a ZIP. I have a huge Kindle library, and it looks like I may have my work cut out for me downloading books in different formats.

It is important to me to be able to open books in Calibre because I review what I read. It is easier to refer back to a book open on my PC screen than to go hunting around on my Kindle.

Rename the file from .zip to .epub. Your browser is seeing that it's a ZIP file and converting the .epub extinction to .zip.

The two ePub I've downloaded have no author name in the metadata.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The two ePub I've downloaded have no author name in the metadata.

Are they (multi-author) anthologies or do the books have a single author?

Do kindle downloaded azw3 for the same books have filled in metadate for the authors?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Are they (multi-author) anthologies or do the books have a single author?

Do kindle downloaded azw3 for the same books have filled in metadate for the authors?

They are a single author. Kindle downloaded KF8 do have the author name. Some have first name last name or last name, first name (really annoying).

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by madelonw

I downloaded a book I recently purchased marked in Content and Devices as "Download available in additional formats." It took me several tries to actually get the book into Calibre. It downloaded as a ZIP. Unzipping didn't work. I finally just draged the ZIP file into Calibre and if I remember correctly only the Title appears. I was able to convert the book to mobi, open it, copy the cover, and paste it into the Edit Metadata screen. I've not tried any other books, but at least I can figure out what to do if the book comes across as a ZIP. I have a huge Kindle library, and it looks like I may have my work cut out for me downloading books in different formats.

It is important to me to be able to open books in Calibre because I review what I read. It is easier to refer back to a book open on my PC screen than to go hunting around on my Kindle.

No need to convert to mobi. Just rename the zip to epub before importing to calibre.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

They are a single author. Kindle downloaded KF8 do have the author name. Some have first name last name or last name, first name (really annoying).

Thanks. I finally thought to look at the library listing on a kindle for the KF8 for "Some of the Best from Tor..." and it has a long list of author names. I'm glad I didn't import it into calibre.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Thanks. I finally thought to look at the library listing on a kindle for the KF8 for "Some of the Best from Tor..." and it has a long list of author names. I'm glad I didn't import it into calibre.

I will import books with a long list of author names since that is useful for searching. OTOH, my send to device/save to disk templates only use the first entry in the author/author-sort for creating directory and file names.

[JSWolf]

Does anyone have an idea of how the ePub from Amazon are made?

[slm]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Does anyone have an idea of how the ePub from Amazon are made?

In post 8 of this thread JHowell speculated that:

Actually, Amazon's Kindle Create application has the ability to generate EPUBs from their proprietary KPF format for reflowable books. That conversion output is probably what Amazon will allow customers to download

At some later point, after the process was working, I think he confirmed this speculation.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by slm

In post 8 of this thread JHowell speculated that:

Actually, Amazon's Kindle Create application has the ability to generate EPUBs from their proprietary KPF format for reflowable books. That conversion output is probably what Amazon will allow customers to download

At some later point, after the process was working, I think he confirmed this speculation.

Thank you. I was unable to find it for some reason.