Designed for Kindle Fire Books

[stumped]

"Instead you need to do what Deskisamess proposed here. On amazon.com go to the "Manage Your Content and Devices" page under your account, select that book, and choose the option to "Download & transfer via USB"

this is the specific test that needs to be applied, for that specific title, without the results of that test we are all just speculating

out of curiosity I checked a site that specializes in "downloads" for e-books and its not there, which suggests the DRM is working as intended and preventing piracy (or maybe its just not that popular? )

my prediction is that amazon will have flagged it to not allow an AZW4 option

exploring some more- on the amazon page, for free sample of that book there is a transfer via computer option. That takes me to a page what asks which of my various devices I plan to transfer it to, so clearly they are going to apply device specific DRM to what they send me, but my non-amazon android tablets are greyed out. I can only have it prepared for an old HDX which amazon have not realized I've sold already

[Deskisamess]

I can only have it prepared for an old HDX which amazon have not realized I've sold already

That means the HDX is still registered to your account, and the new owners can purchase content on your account. Unless you intended that, you should deregister that device from your account.

[Deskisamess]

My library has the book in question, so I borrowed it. I can read it on any of my iDevices, but none of the e-ink Kindles.

All of the devices on my account show as a destination, but it doesn't download on the Kindles. At that point it shows not compatible.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

That means the HDX is still registered to your account, and the new owners can purchase content on your account. Unless you intended that, you should deregister that device from your account.

OK, maybe I got muddled so I will double check. I sold my 4th Gen hdx [ after doing a device reset] on ebay for spares/not working , with full disclosure of battery issues, as battery was becoming iffy. it was all good except for the battery, which would drain overnight on standy, even after various attempts at reset/ troubleshoot. I figured the battery was approaching end of life after mush use.

and I sold my 2017 HD 10 as I plan to get the 2019 one soon.

but I kept an even older 3rd Gen HDX for grandson though as that battery is still ok

a device reset does sign you out- that is something I checked - but maybe the device remains associated with your account until such time as a new owner registers it into a different one.. the new owner cannot retrieve my password though, so it should be safe. He was optimistically planning to fit a new battery - that looked hard but he bought it cheaply with full disclosure as to what he was in for and I never heard back from him. Maybe he gave up?

I have sold other amazon devices - kindles, fire TV sticks ...where I have simply trusted "device reset" to take care of stuff. AFAIK I've not been hacked yet but maybe I will go carefully through "my devices" online - it can't hurt any.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

My library has the book in question, so I borrowed it. I can read it on any of my iDevices, but none of the e-ink Kindles.

All of the devices on my account show as a destination, but it doesn't download on the Kindles. At that point it shows not compatible.

its a little strange that it worked on your apple device, yet the option to get the free sample delivered via computer to go to my Huawei or Lenovo android tablets ( both have the Kindle for Android app installed) was not available. maybe the sample behaves differently to the loaned book?

I see that amazon describes it as a "print replica" book. I have had other "print replica" books that do run ( poorly) on e-ink Kindles, so its all a bit of a mess. I think amazon are testing various restrictions but avoiding upsetting too many customers at once.

[Deskisamess]

A factory reset should remove the registration of any device. I've never had it not do that. Once a device is deregistered, there should not be any link to the original account, except in your Order history.

[Deskisamess]

Restrictions come from the publishers, not Amazon. That book was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (October 16, 2018).

It's all color pictures, no font options at all. It would be dreadful on a small Greyscale screen, and not great on a small tablet or phone. It unreadable on my iPhone 7+ unless I pinch to zoom.

This is a screen grab from my phone, so it looks ok, but in actuality it is tiny and unreadable.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by stumped

my prediction is that amazon will have flagged it to not allow an AZW4 option

Perhaps I was unclear. I already tried it with that book and it does deliver an AZW4 file with no DRM.

Originally Posted by stumped

exploring some more- on the amazon page, for free sample of that book there is a transfer via computer option. That takes me to a page what asks which of my various devices I plan to transfer it to, so clearly they are going to apply device specific DRM to what they send me, but my non-amazon android tablets are greyed out. I can only have it prepared for an old HDX which amazon have not realized I've sold already

That is normal. Downloading from Amazon is only allowed when destined for an e-ink Kindle or a Fire tablet. The resulting file will only have DRM if that option was chosen by the publisher.

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Restrictions come from the publishers, not Amazon. That book was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (October 16, 2018).

According to Hitch who prepares Kindle books for a living, it is actually Amazon setting device/app restrictions based on the format uploaded to them by the publisher. So the publisher only controls this indirectly.

In this case the book is a print replica produced using a version of Amazon's Kindle Create software that was current when the book was published. I suspect that the device restriction derives from that.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

A factory reset should remove the registration of any device. I've never had it not do that. Once a device is deregistered, there should not be any link to the original account, except in your Order history.

strange. when I was troubleshooting the HDX battery issue, I did a full factory reset, then I registered it back to myself afterwards ( and the battery was no better) so I sold it off, and I was pretty sure I'd reset it again first.
I also did a practice re-isntall of Google services so that I could supply instructions to the buyer for that. Anyway I have zapped it now via the my devices page.

the other things I had sold this year - a paperwhite and a HD10 - had dropped off of the devices page, like they should have

I do have one strange device entry still - my Samsung TV soundbar!. that is not a voice operated or a smart device, it does not have Alexa on board, but I did experimentally link it to an Echo, via various samsung apps and alexa skill settings, to test saying "alexa play xxxx on soundbar" - which works but it leaves soundbar set to the wrong source afterwards for TV sound, so it's not something we will regularly use.

I had quizzed amazon about the 10 device limit rule for amazon music and they had said they only count devices that can download tracks ( so they do not count Fire TV sticks or TV smart apps) but maybe they are counting the alexa linked soundbar as 1 of my 10 allowed devices

[stumped]

Originally Posted by jhowell

...


According to Hitch who prepares Kindle books for a living, it is actually Amazon setting device/app restrictions based on the format uploaded to them by the publisher. So the publisher only controls this indirectly.

In this case the book is a print replica produced using a version of Amazon's Kindle Create software that was current when the book was published. I suspect that the device restriction derives from that.

i had thought that amazon made all the DRM decisions, as there have been instances of Kindle editions having DRM despite the author expressing a wish for the book to be DRM free - and of slightly polished/annotated versions
of public domain stuff appearing in DRM kindle formats.

but this thread is about a cookery book!. I suppose a publisher could decide we only want this sold with the full size full colour pictures of the scrumptious food, not shrunk down onto small screens or into less appetising greyscale e-ink images.

[Deskisamess]

I don't mind having to use a tablet or smart phone for cookbooks, but I don't care for print replica books. I need font control, and the ability to read a recipe without messing with pinch to zoom. I don't buy cookbooks much anymore, I may borrow from the library, but recipes are free all over the interwebs and various cooking sites.

I usually end up putting recipes into Evernote, so I have them on every device no matter where I happen to be.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by stumped

i had thought that amazon made all the DRM decisions, as there have been instances of Kindle editions having DRM despite the author expressing a wish for the book to be DRM free...

The publisher choses whether or not they want DRM applied, but Amazon doesn't always respect their wishes.

Books in the older formats, such as MOBI and KF8, will only have DRM if requested by the publisher. Books in the newer KFX format always have DRM regardless of what the publisher chooses.