this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2025
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On February 26th, Kindle customers will lose the ability to download eBook purchases directly to their PC. If you want to switch to a rival eReader brand in the future, I suggest that you use the soon-to-be discontinued "Download and Transfer via USB" feature to archive your Kindle library.

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[–] singletona@lemmy.world 102 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

thus I have my personal library backed up on calibre. Wonderful software that's been around for twenty fiveish years.

[–] somenonewho@feddit.org 19 points 3 weeks ago

I love Calibre. I've recently broken my E-Reader (Tolino) but all my books are backed up on Calibre so the only loss is the hardware (still sad but not as annoying)

[–] vividspecter@lemm.ee 14 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

There's also calibre-web for a self-hosted option with a web interface.

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[–] Unpigged@lemmy.dbzer0.com 81 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)
[–] accideath@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

What can I do with a jailbroken kindle that makes it worth doing instead of just using calibre?

[–] ocassionallyaduck@lemmy.world 18 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Better Calibre integration.

Custom shelves and book collections on Kindle.

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[–] SaltySalamander@fedia.io 58 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I'll continue pirating, thanks.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 49 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

PSA: “Archiving” is a general legal-neutral and safe term you can use with co-workers.

Wether i am also a pirate one may speculate but i am always an archivist.

[–] stardust@lemmy.ca 26 points 3 weeks ago

Turns out it really is archiving when government decides to go renegade and start deleting everything they disagree with or wipe from history. Archive away beautiful data horders.

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[–] kitnaht@lemmy.world 48 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Joke's on them, I get all my books from Z-Library anyhow.

[–] singletona@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago

I have a few books I bought, but even then, I grab from z-library. More portable and no DRM.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 40 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (6 children)

library genesis exists, people. anna's archive, anyone?

digital drm is the one fucking thing they push onto us that we don't actually have to fucking deal with. thanks to our team of ~~rippers and crackers~~ people who hate this system.

leave amazon. leave netflix. leave whatever fucking streaming service you subscribe to, and stop being sensitive about rich people's money.

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[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 39 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

reMarkable, PineNote, Bookeen, etc...

I'm not saying anybody deserve to be mistreated ... but come on, at this point if you buy something from Amazon it's Stockholm syndrome. Just do NOT. It's that easy.

F*ck Bezos and other billionaires. Stop making them even richer from your pain. Stop your mind from being literally enslaved!

[–] major_jellyfish@lemmy.ca 20 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

There is a whole community of people out there who will pretty much refuse to buy brand new electronics. And thats for very obvious and valid reasons.

Kindles can be found for dirt cheap if not free 2nd hand. And so many users have a kindle for this reason. Myself included. Id never throw out or discard an electronic device that continues to work. For the same obvious reasons as why i dont buy new ones.

And so this information is super relevant and important to users like me. Regardless of how much people like you might be convinced that "we had it coming" or whatever.

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[–] matterofact@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Thing is, the pinenote is €610, and the kindle paperwhite is £160, cheaper on discount.

I get your point and there’s a reason why the kindle is as cheap as it is, but I can understand why someone would see those prices and go for the kindle.

[–] madjo@feddit.nl 15 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

Or go for the Kobo, which is similarly priced as the Kindle. The Kobo Clara Colour is £150

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[–] huquad@lemmy.ml 36 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

If it's alright for Facebook, it's alright for me. Yoho

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[–] noxypaws@pawb.social 33 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

That was amusingly well timed:

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[–] Rolder@reddthat.com 28 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

My Kobo e-reader is pretty nice and takes any ol e-pub file just fine. And Calibre, a third party software for managing ebooks, has a plugin to crack Kindle files. Just sayin

[–] SaltySalamander@fedia.io 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

And Calibre, a third party software for managing ebooks, has a plugin to crack Kindle files

Which requires being able to download those files from Amazon. Which is what this post is all about, Amazon not allowing you to download the files anymore.

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[–] ftbd@feddit.org 28 points 3 weeks ago (15 children)

It eludes me how people pay to 'buy' something that they cannot download in the first place. If I don't have it as a file on my computer, I don't own it. You wouldn't pay to 'buy' a physical item if that meant only being able to look at it at the store, without the ability to take it home and do whatever you want with it.

[–] coolmojo@lemmy.world 18 points 3 weeks ago

If buying is not owning…

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[–] Prox@lemmy.world 25 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Am I an idiot for enjoying my Kindle Paperwhite as an eReader, while at the same time never actually buying books from Amazon?

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[–] Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world 23 points 3 weeks ago (10 children)

I am sorry, what?

Turn on PC or phone. Download ebook from torrent site. Enjoy.

It's not difficult to switch?

[–] ZombieMantis@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Try explaining how to do that to your non-techie relatives, especially the older ones who like reading. Yes, this makes is more difficult to switch.

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[–] ATDA@lemmy.world 22 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

That's fucked.

So anyway self hosting Kavita to read everything in my browser is hella convenient.

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[–] generic_computers@lemmy.zip 20 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

To all the people who are saying "I'll just pirate books," you are aware you can buy eBooks from places that aren't Amazon, right?

Have a look at https://bookshop.org/ebooks You can buy books/eBooks and support local bookstores that aren't Barnes & Nobles or Amazon.

I'd suggest you download/archive your Kindle books and then buy your eBooks from elsewhere. You can still load those onto your Kindle.

Saying "I'm going to pirate because one specific website is changing its policy soon," is pretty stupid.

EDIT: Turns out I was wrong about bookshop.org, you actually can't load their eBooks into a Kindle. You need their app since they have their own DRM. Looks like I got all worked up about something without looking it up first.

See: https://bookshop.org/info/ebooks

[–] magnus919@lemmy.brandyapple.com 9 points 3 weeks ago

Addendum: that specific site is dog shit. Imagine thinking you just bought an ebook but instead you bought a lease to some DRM shit that only works on their app.

EPUB or GTFO.

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[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 19 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Well, you should not use Amazon anything. Valuable lesson learned.

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[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

This is why I never once purchased a book from Amazon even though I have a Kindle.

Pretty pumped to jailbreak it with the new jailbreak.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

New kindle jailbreak you say?

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 3 weeks ago (13 children)

https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/WinterBreak/

Supposedly works on all Kindles, I haven't actually done a deep dive yet, just have it bookmarked since yesterday.

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[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

My solution was to just redownload all my books from z-lib after I bought them already.

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[–] madjo@feddit.nl 16 points 3 weeks ago

I'm really glad that I downloaded my entire Kindle library a month ago, and converted it all to either CBZ or Epub.

Fuck Bezos.

One tip for the audiobook-fans: Download your Audible books while you still can. It's only a matter of time before Bezos locks those downloads too. Libation will help liberate your library into DRM-free files.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 16 points 3 weeks ago

Piracy is the answer to the corpo over reach.

Deny the parasite profit... You are funding your enemy

[–] eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz 14 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I love my Kobo. I installed KO Reader on it and have Calibre for managing my ebooks.

Get all my ebooks from z-library or Anna's archive.

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[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 14 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)
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[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Locked-in platform closing the door. How surprising.

Accepting DRM in the first place is the problem. Hard to avoid, but still. I just got a boox; great value, can't use adobe DRM. Didn't have any problem there. Of course, money is going everywhere except big "publishers", but that's hardly an issue; they choose their business model, I choose my customer model.

[–] rowanthorpe@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 weeks ago

they choose their business model, I choose my customer model.

Ooh, this is very pithy. I like it. I will use it.

[–] WatDabney@fedia.io 12 points 3 weeks ago

It's not an accident that I download epubs and read them on Moon+.

Amazon signaled clearly years ago that their goal wasn't to make a convenient ebook reader, but to create an entire proprietary e-reading system designed solely to extract as much money as possible for as little value as possible. And this is just another step in that ongoing process.

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 3 weeks ago

In the meantime, hackers have just released a new jailbreak and made it a more open platform than ever :^)

[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago

Repeat after me!.... En-shit-ti-fication!

[–] Xed@lemm.ee 10 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I use a library app called Libby to read non torrented books. But I’m not sure if it’s available on the kindle. It’s good to support your local library, even if it’s only digitally

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[–] Drakena@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I resisted eBooks for years, preferring physical books from the library or new/second hand stores. I got gifted a Kindle from a well meaning relative a few years ago and I have a small collection on there, mainly built up when I was commuting.

This news came just as I am backing up my own data, moving off of the big name Cloud services and going back to open source software. (In confession the convenience of M365 etc won me over so the last 10 or so years I fell into the trap!)

Anyway needless to say my 40(ish) Kindle books quickly got downloaded and archived this week. Thanks to Calibre I've also fixed the covers to a book series that suddenly got updated to an awful 'new hip' version! :)

I'm now intrigued about repurposing the Kindle hardware as it still works and I don't want it to go to waste, but with this and other recent events I'm done personally proving data or money to these big corporate companies as much as I possibly can.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago

ebooks have managed to pull the same scam that game developers pulled on gamers 20 years ago.

"ebooks will be cheaper! and with the fact that we wont have to pay for printing, shipping, storage, etc, You'll pay a lower price while the author/publisher still receive more money than they would have from the physical book! its a win/win for everyone!"

aaaand then as soon as they were accepted ebook prices became the same (or near enough) price as the physical version, and in a few rare cases, even more expensive. Resulting in the massive promised profits for publishers, and maybe authors, but no gain but lots of demerits (like obnoxious drm, and shit like amazon going onto your device to delete it cause they lost the rights or something, which has happened) for end users/readers

And thats first party, brand new books.

There is no second hand market for ebooks, like there is from physical. Si theres no browsing a place like Half Price Booked or whatever to find something that isnt in your normal wheel house but thanks to being pre-owed, its cheap enough to roll the dice on.

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

It's not just Amazon. Libraries (and Libby, the app they use) are also making it difficult to do anything but read in a browser or use Kindle.

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[–] Paradox@lemdro.id 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Already been doing this, but I think this will finally light the fire under my ass to move to a boox device for all my reading I've got the big boox, which I use for sheet music, and quite like it, so the smaller ones are no brainers

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