• TommySoda@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    The optimist in me says they’re doing this to avoid piracy.

    The pessimist in me says they’re doing this so they can purge books because of the Trump administration.

    Either way, I can’t say I’m a fan.

    • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The optimist in me says they’re doing this to avoid piracy.

      Won’t pirates just buy their source copies on a different platform, so now Amazon loses the original sale as well?

      • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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        2 months ago

        The “original sale” in that case is not even pennies. So… not sure why amazon would care?

        Also: Many smaller authors basically depend on kindle because of the ease of use of the web portal and incentives to do larger discounts for their audiences. One of my favorite guilty pleasures has talked about exactly this (although he IS investigating alternatives).

        And, much like with video games: The Sandersons of the world will be pirated. MAYBE a Dalglish will be too. But nobody cares enough to go after a Samphire or Shel.

    • Andy@slrpnk.net
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      2 months ago

      Yep. Not to gloat, but I never touched Amazon’s ebook marketplace.

      My current e-reader is a second-hand Kindle that has a permanent message asking if I would just please connect to a WiFi network just one time just for a moment PLEEEEEASE.

      I get my books from libgen, Gutenberg, or Kobo, and keep them on my computer. They’re organized in Calibre, and I transfer them over on a USB cable.

    • CarbonBasedNPU@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      My libra 2 breaking just after they were discontinued will forever be an unhappy event. I know the libra colour exists but I can not stand color e-ink screens.

  • GoumLeChat@jlai.lu
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    2 months ago

    That’s why I avoided Kindle and picked a Kobo. Sure you can remove DRMs from the books you’ve bought. But at some point they could block you from doing that. They can change anything at anytime and there’s nothing you can do about it.

    • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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      2 months ago

      That is no different than Kobo. Thus far, Rakuten have been pretty good about not caring more than the bare minimum. But there is nothing stopping them from doing the same bullshit with firmware updates to the kobos and drm updates to the store and apps.

      I am finally migrating from kindle to kobo (tried kindle to boox last year and it was bad…) but I am under no illusions that I am just hoping one company is better than another. I mean, the other is Amazon so it is a pretty safe bet. But still.

      • GoumLeChat@jlai.lu
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        2 months ago

        Well there’s a key difference, Kobo allows epub. I don’t think they could legally remove it from devices already on the market?

        • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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          2 months ago

          And Kindle supports mobi files? It is just that those tend to get preprocessed into azw or the other one files. Much like Kobo tends to work best if you preprocess those epubs into kepubs.

          The issue is that Amazon has repeatedly changed their mobi variants to fight against de-drm tools as well as increasingly locking down their apps and even devices to make it harder to get data off (and now on) to them.

          There is absolutely nothing stopping Rakuten from doing the exact same with Kobo. And people should be aware of that rather than just stanning their favorite company.

        • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          Kobo allows epub

          Kindle doesn’t? Mines 2 years old but my co worker got one for Xmas and theirs loads the epub I sent them no problem at all

          Honestly the Kobo is better as a physical device imo but the Kindle is perfectly simple to commit crimes on if you have Calibre

  • turtle [he/him]@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Ugh, thanks for the warning. Time for me to download and de-drm all my old kindle books and never again buy anymore.

  • Polysics@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I sure am glad I got a Kobo for myself for Xmas and ripped all my books to it. Guess I’ll be recycling my Kindle for good.

    • sunshine@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      I just got a Kobo color (don’t recommend the color feature; no book is ever going to use it except the red-letter Bible and House of Leaves) and gifted the old Kindle to a friend. I e-reader is an awesome gift actually because for a lot of people it’s something they would never evenly in years take a chance on, but that they would love it if they tried.

    • ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      If your model accepts a custom OS, some of them make decent e-ink displays for weather, family photos, etc. Things look good in the black and white ones especially.

      • Polysics@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Yeah I’ve actually thought about doing that and making it an office desk calendar or something. Thanks for reminding me!

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      early models didn’t have wifi, only usb or cellular from one provider or another–and those models’ 3g connectivity was killed off years ago.

      this will obsolete all the non-wifi kindles still in use.

        • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 months ago

          So it just obsoletes them for the model users that buy ebooks from Amazon and put them on their Amazon device without conversion in between. Even though this user group should be Amazon’s favourites.

          lol, lmao even.

          • Cid Vicious@sh.itjust.works
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            2 months ago

            The specific devices impacted by this are pretty old (I think only the first and second gen ones? So at latest 2009), so honestly I doubt they’re very worried about it.

    • FlyingLoon@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I mean, I agree with this. I have a kindle and had no idea you could directly connect it to download books. Guess I learned my new thing for the day.

    • jonathan@lemmy.zip
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      2 months ago

      It’s the old bait and switch, they had to have this feature to build initial trust in ebooks.

        • jonathan@lemmy.zip
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          2 months ago

          Amazon spent 20 years being unprofitable on purpose. You think they don’t have long term strategies?

          • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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            2 months ago

            Profitability as reported by companies, especially tech companies, is complex. Also understand that most of that 20 years (assuming that is an accurate statement) was the era of venture capitalism and infinite funding.

            But yes. Amazon did spend decades inventing and taking over e-commerce.

            But that is not what you described. You described a “bait and switch” which implies that they designed the old keyboard kindles with built in wikipedia support as some long con to get around the eventual invention of a de-drm plugin for the eventually invented Calibre library manager.

            The reality is that this is just a case of locking down walled gardens to take advantage of market share. Everyone is doing it. It isn’t some deep conspiracy and is more just the logical end result of a walled garden with large market share.

  • schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business
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    2 months ago

    If only there were some way to get books to read in a format where a billionaire’s trillion dollar company can’t gatekeep them.

    Some sort of physical product, perhaps one made out of trees?

    • yeehaw@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      If only there was a library for geniuses where I can read in a format that billionaires aren’t able to gatekeep what I read on my e-ink device.

      Some sort of website, perhaps one on the internet?

      • schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business
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        2 months ago

        While I don’t disagree, I still think using a Kindle device is stupid.

        No reason that they can’t just go ‘oh we didn’t sell those books, we should clean up all that unauthorized content’ at some point in the future.

        Buy something that’s not made by Amazon, even if it costs a bit more or has worse features, because well, they’re not to be trusted.

        (Or custom non-connected firmware if that’s a thing for Kindles. Never really looked so no idea if that’s a thing.)

        • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          No reason that they can’t just go ‘oh we didn’t sell those books, we should clean up all that unauthorized content’ at some point in the future.

          On our personal devices? That’s illegal where I am and I doubt they even have the capability to do that currently, anyway

          Or custom non-connected firmware

          Just don’t connect to the Internet and use Calibre to manage your library, there’s no need for custom firmware

    • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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      2 months ago

      I recommend actually listening to some authors.

      The “gatekeeping” back in the days before ebooks was infinitely worse than it is now. These days? Basically anyone who can fill out a webform can publish a kindle book. And other stores aren’t much harder. And those ebooks can be sold indefinitely.

      Contrast that with needing to find a publisher who is willing to allocate some of their limited production time to you. And then hope that Borders et al are willing to put you on the shelf. And then realize that you are never getting another penny for that book because the first MMPB run ran out and you aren’t getting a second because you didn’t sell enough to justify it.

    • tabular@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Amazon will come into your house to take your digital copies of books you paid for (e.g. when they did that with 1984). No reason to think they wouldn’t take physical books after they’ve violated your digital sovereignty - it is only a question of if that were to ever become a viable option for them.

  • ghashul@feddit.dk
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    2 months ago

    I’m glad I started converting all my amazon books long ago. When I finally got a Kobo last month, there were no issues since the work was done.

    • roofuskit@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Adding on to this that Barnes and Noble sells DRMed ePUB files that are relatively easy to strip DRM from using Calibre.

      So if you can’t find a book anywhere else, at least they don’t use a proprietary format and still allow you to download your books using their PC software.

      I was a semi-early adopter in the ebook space and I have refused to get onboard with the kindle ecosystem from the start. There’s no reason for their proprietary format other than complete control over things they pretend to sell you. Amazon is also the Walmart of books and uses their position to browbeat publishers and authors into taking smaller cuts of sales.

      One of my friends got a book published and I waited and waited for it to be available anywhere else. Eventually just bought what was probably a print on demand copy from Amazon because that’s the only place his publisher sold books. I never buy physical books anymore but I’d rather do that then buy a kindle book.

  • almost1337@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    I’m quite glad that I never bought fully into Kindle/Nook/Kobo and instead went with an eInk Android tablet.

      • almost1337@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        I went with a Box Note Air 3C, and it’s great. I hear the new model is basically the same but faster.

    • Lem453@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Kobo connected to calibre web is the ultimate freedom/privacy ereader

    • Dil@is.hardlywork.ing
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      2 months ago

      im glad i didnt even try eink, i just went to best buy tried the cheapest tablets and the s9 fe works perfectly for me, wanted to like the p12 lenovo but the brightness was terrible on it, couldn’t see shit. I think id be dissapointed in my reading experience if eink is so much nicer, i like having options to watch media and do other stuff