It seems that after 26th February, it will no longer be possible to download books to a Mac or PC, in order to back them up manually or convert them to other formats.
So you will be locked in to the Amazon ecosystem after that date if you want to read any books you have purchased in the past - if you cancel your Amazon account, then it’s goodbye to all the books you have purchased.
Part one of the solution is to go into your Amazon account, go to Digital content and devices / content and devices / books, select the books you want to download (doing no more than 25 at a time is recommended) and then choose “deliver to device” from the row of buttons at the top of the screen.
Then choose which Kindle-enabled devices you want to send the files to (I am sending them to my phone, my iPad and to a Mac, but make sure you send them to at least one computer so you can get at the downloaded files).
Repeat ad nauseam for all the books you have purchased.
Then you at least have backups and will still be able to read them on those devices even if no longer connected to Amazon.
The second step, which I haven’t yet tried, is to remove Amazon’s DRM and convert the books to some other readable format such as PDF.
There is an app called “Calibre” which can be used for this apparently.
Well yes, but equally legitimate users should have a right to make fair use of the books they have bought, not have them held hostage by being locked into a proprietary platform.
Content can be withdrawn from digital sources at any time - look at what happens to movies on Amazon Prime, Apple TV etc, and to songs on the various music streaming services.
Even if you’ve paid for it, it can become inaccessible without warning. That’s not right, even if pirates are abusing the system.
Easy to say, but I have over 700 books that I have purchased on there that I don’t want to have to buy all over again.
I took hundreds of physical books to the charity shop when I left for Turks & Caicos in 2003, something I sometimes regret; since then I have bought books on Amazon/Kindle as they take up no physical space, but I’m not going to have all those made inaccessible at the whim of Jeff Bezos.
And who knows if books will start disappearing from online services because Trump bans them - his minions have already started removing “inappropriate” books from libraries.
Got something to do wth free speech, apparently, I heard JD going on about it the other day but I didn’t realise he was condemning paid for speech as well.
I only buy a max of 4 books at a time, and then no more 'till I have finished them. All on my Kindle so I hope I will not be affected.
I gave up on Amazon e-books years ago because hassle and restrictions.
I now use e-books in epub format.
With one exception, all are DRM free and have been obtained at no cost.
On my laptop I use SumatraPDF to read them (reads epub, mobi and PDF formats)
There are plenty of Android apps to read epub books.
I also use Calibre https://calibre-ebook.com/ for:
• Changing the font, style, title, author and book covers;
• Importing books in one format and changing to epub.
• Adding tags, descriptions and classifications.
Calibre can remove DRM from e-books, however this requires a plug-in which is not the easiest to install.
Calibre is available on most platforms.
I have never used Amazon, I read all my books on an open source app called Cool Reader, I love it as it has night screens, I can change the font size ect snnd all my books are stored on hubbies computer and backed up.
Most of the books that I buy (admittedly non-fiction and seldom of general interest) are s/h hardback ‘real’ books that have been de-accessioned from US public libraries. The bindings, paper and print quality are usually far superior to comparable editions from UK publishing houses and of course the books are usually being de-accessioned because nobody has read them. Many cost just 1 cent plus postage.
I do have a small collection of epub books and so on, mainly for reading on the 'plane or waiting rooms. Handy to have something on a mobile 'phone, but nothing really compares to falling asleep on a hammock and dropping a real book.
We need to beware as this could be the start of a move to charge rent to be able to still read books you’ve already paid Am for. Or future books coming with a time limit
