New to Kindle 3, advice on whispernet privacy and my old ebook library

[shanghaichica]

Originally Posted by suecsi

As the previous post, you can drag and drop or you can use Calibre as well to send to device for a Kindle (my preference). If the format you have is not one Kindle recognises, i.e. EPUB, Calibre will offer to do the conversion for you, then it sends the MOBI file.

If you have already done the conversion and have two copies, 1 EPUB and 1 MOBI, Calibre will either just send the MOBI, or will prompt you to pick the format to send (there is a setting in preferences somewhere I think).

Thank you for both replies. I think I understand everything now and should be ready to go when my kindle arrives
I already use calibre with my sony prs-300 and it's a great piece of software so I think I will use that for converting my (DRM free) files and transfering them to the kindle.

[babyd]

okay, to sum up. where whispernet privacy and Amazon actions are concerned I am safe to add Amazon bought books, I am fairly okay removing drm and converting books I have bought elsewhere, but best not to add darknet books at all?

I suspect they don't really care what you put on it, they just check that you don't do anything odd with the kindle software and books bought from them?

[Anarel]

It all comes down to the whispernet.

If it's not on, Amazon can't see what's on your Kindle. And if a book or document is on your Kindle that isn't from Amazon, I don't think they can see it. If they can, I don't think they care, they certainly can't do anything about it, due to the book or document not being on their servers.

[abookreader]

I'll agree with the above. Could they look onto your Kindle? I imagine so, the technology is there. But I'm not sure exactly how many Kindles are in operation right now but I have to guess it is in the millions range. Do you really think they want to go searching through all those Kindles and then make judgment calls over whether or not the non-Amazon originating content is a DRM'd stripped book or somebody's agenda for next Thursdays Sales Meeting or a local restaurant take out menu that somebody converted and is carrying around with them?

What could they possibly have to gain by doing so other than a bucket-load of bad press over invading their customers privacy if it ever hit the media that they were doing that?

I'll just leave it at there are ~many~ people who strip Amazon DRM before putting the books onto their Kindles (or so I've heard) and I've never seen one single report of people getting into trouble over it.

[babyd]

thanks Guys and Gals, as usual you are amazing

The wait is killing me!! I thought I could convert some of my purchased ebooks while I was waiting. Mind you I intend to buy plenty from Amazon anyway

As for the privacy, I dread to think what they know about me after so many years shopping with them anyway, so that side of things never worried me. Just the issue of acting upon seeing books with drm removed.

[thinkpad]

Good luck with your K3 babyd. Hope it lives up to your expectations when it arrives. Happy kindling

[deltop]

Ok I have to add your being just a little bit paranoid here.

You could go buy a kindle and download darknet books and add them eveyday of the week, you could add hundreds, thousands of them without buying a single legit book and Amazon couldn't and wouldn't do anything about it.

When you download a copyrighted book your breaking a civil law and it's upto the copyright holder to take action. Obviously Amazon would prefer you bought books from them but otherwise they don't care what you do with your Kindle, it's your device. They have no interest in policing what you put on your Kindle, the idea they would do so and then inform on you is just ridiculous. The kind of system they would have to implement in order to differentiate between a legitimately bought drm-less mobi file and say a mobi converted from a drm stripped epub or a darknet download would be extraordinarily expensive. It would also be massively prone to errror. If it could be designed at all.

Then they would have to be willing to inform on you. They would have to approach the copyright holder and be willing to say that they suspect a kindle owner of maybe downloading a book or of stripping the drm from a legit one. The copyright opwner would have to go looking for evidence it was true, (which they won't find after the fact), they would then in turn have to be willing to sue you or take action for stripping the drm. Stripping drm might technically be illegal in the uk but I'd be willing to bet if a case like that ever came to court it would get laughed at.

See how ridiculous it all sounds?

[babyd]

Thinkpadx: thank you

deltop: I agree, it does sound ridiculous, but it gets scary when you start reading about the privacy issues on the threads with regards the kindle. I simply thought it was best to check before getting carted off in hand-cuffs ;o)

[exposition]

I live in the US and have a Kindle 2. I have several books loaded on it that are not currently available from any retail source (and the very day the author changes her mind about making her work available in ebook format, I'll buy them, but enough about that). These aren't DRM stripped, they're OCR scans eidted and reformatted for ebook use.

Whether or not they are visible to Amazon via Whispernet I have no idea, but I have never heard a peep from them regarding the books, or any other content loaded on my Kindle.