This is not an anti-Kindle rant. I have purchased (rented?) several Kindle titles myself.

However, YSK that you are only licensing access to the book from Amazon, you don’t own it like a physical book.

There have been cases where Amazon deletes a title from all devices. (Ironically, one version of “1984” was one such title).

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html

There have also been cases where a customer violated Amazon’s terms of service and lost access to all of their Kindle e-books. Amazon has all the power in this relationship. They can and do change the rules on us lowly peasants from time to time.

Here are the terms of use:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201014950

Note, there are indeed ways to download your books and import them into something like Calibre (and remove the DRM from the books). If you do some web searches (and/or search YouTube) you can probably figure it out.

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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    9 months ago

    I can’t wait until a Senator or comparable “it’s not a problem until it happens to me” lawmaker loses access to their digital library and goes on the warpath. That’s the only way out of this “you will own nothing” hellhole we’re in and moving deeper into.

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      As someone who publishes on Amazon if you buy my book and Amazon takes it from you PM I will send said customer a epub version for free.

    • Tanis Nikana@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I’m an author of two books, and whenever someone asks me for a copy (or even says they want to read it), I straight-up hand them a free ebook. I just want people to read me.

  • sunshine@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    You don’t own your Kindle books because you bought them from Amazon

    I don’t own mine because I pirated them

    We are not the same

    edit: I actually try to circle back around and buy physical copies of any book I really enjoy. But I’m much better about paying for video games, tabletop games, and even journalism than I am fiction… I think my bezos resentment gets in the way a bit there.