This probably won’t make a difference to most users, but it allows Amazon to remove titles you’ve purchased if they lose their license to sell them. Also allows Amazon to substitute edited copies of titles, for example, Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (and other titles) went through revisions eliminating the original text to be less racist. Maybe a good thing, but if you want to read it as written, Amazon will have taken that away.
Until 2/26/25, titles can be manually, individually download by connecting your kindle to your computer, going to “My Content and Devices” and choosing More Actions > Download and Transfer via USB.
Huh, I see no huge impact. I suppose if pressed and a version previously existed, people would probably bootleg the mobi file if they were truly desperate to read it that way.
To clarify further: you will still be able to download and read the books on your kindle. Not sure about the kindle app on non-amazon e-reader devices. You just won’t be able to download kindle books that you have bought to your computer.
Part of the problem is they can take away books you’ve bought and paid for, if they lose the rights to them. I had a book I couldn’t find on my “Content and Devices”. It was no longer on Amazon’s website. I did find it downloaded to my kindle, but not available for download to another device, for example.
Apparently they had a big brouhaha about selling George Orwell’s titles, then snatching them away because it was an error and they didn’t have license to sell them.
It’s make censorship more effective as the US transitions to fascism; they can take away books the fascists disapprove of without worrying you have your own copy. Probably why they did it, in fact.
Starting February 26, 2025, the “Download & Transfer via USB” option will no longer be available. You can still send Kindle books to your Wi-Fi enabled devices by selecting the “Deliver or Remove from Device” option.
I know they added epub support recently. So, if I bought a book in epub format and have it on my computer, or have a mobi book there (not in Amazon’s system) how will I transfer it over?
Well, it won’t be only books you have bought. It will also be books you’ve borrowed from the library. Which gives another reason , maybe the main one why Amazon is getting rid of this option - library books are supposed to disappear at the end of the lending period but that can only happen if the Kindle is connected to the internet.
If they lose to right to sell a book, that shouldn’t affect your access to it if you’ve already bought it.
That does seem odd. Are you sure it was a book you had actually bought (as opposed to one you borrowed, from the library or “Prime Reading” or something)?
As far as I know, I’ve never bought any Kindle books from Amazon that they later stopped selling, but I have bought audiobooks from Audible that they lost the rights to sell, and those audiobooks are still available to me in my Library.
There was a case a few years ago when an affiliate ePub sold copies of 1984 that they had no right to. When that became known, all the copies were pulled from Amazon devices. Here’s an article that talks about it. This is just the most publicized happenstance. AI plagarism is probably dealt with the same way. If for some reason a title is pulled from Amazon, your license ends.
My understanding (which I don’t guarantee is accurate) is that the only thing you will no longer be able to do is use the “Download and Transfer via USB” option to download a Kindle book you’ve bought from Amazon and then transfer it via USB cable to an e-reader or other device. (This is something I’ve never done and didn’t even know was an option.)
This would mean that you can still download and read Kindle books from within the Kindle app on a PC, tablet, phone, etc.
And you can still use a USB cable to transfer ebooks you’ve obtained from other sources (e.g. Project Gutenberg) onto your Kindle or other device.
That happened a long time ago (relative to the lifetime of ebooks); the article you linked to is from 2009. I assume they learned not to repeat their mistake.
So, if I’m understanding this correctly, any e-book I’ve downloaded to my Paperwhite and/or my Fire tablets after purchasing by using the “Deliver” function on the Amazon website “Content” page is and will remain mine on those devices?
Hmmmm. Well, given I have three Fire tablets (don’t ask), I could always disconnect one of them that’s already got the 775 titles downloaded on it from syncing. Also got the Kindle app on my Android phone, which is rarely turned on, so i wonder if that would be vulnerable to retraction of any books.
Used to be, you bought an e-book and it automatically showed up next time you turned on your Kindle, but for a while now I’ve found I have to go to “Content and Devices” after a purchase and indicate which devices I want the new content delivered to, so I automatically do that now for all of them.