Amazon is closing USB access in Kindle that made it easy to remove DRM | Hacker News Reader

Amazon is closing USB access in Kindle that made it easy to remove DRM

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53 pointsisaacfrond25 comments

I’ve purchased about 1000 ebooks via Amazon over the years and use this feature a ton so that I’ve got a local library managed by Calibre. Amazon’s own interface for managing a collection is really not great. They haven’t improved it alongside making this decision.

Next, lots of authors who publish via Amazon just aren’t easily accessible via other storefronts, which contributed to the stickiness of Amazon as a ‘one stop shop’ for buying all types of books for me. While a few authors do go to the effort of selling via multiple storefronts or having DRM-free options, a fragmented buying and selling experience is more effort.

Amazon is also important to how borrowing works for my library.

I’m sure Amazon have done tons of analysis of which customers will be most impacted and which may leave, have concluded their business will be fine, but this absolutely sucks. It looks like this will make it much harder to buy books from Amazon and read on Kobo.

Do you re-read books you've purchased, or do you buy them for a single read? I've listened to a few thousand audiobooks, over several years, mostly borrowed from the library.

I used to purchase CDs of audio books, and sell them when I'm done, but with electronic purchases, there's no way to resell them, and I could never afford the rate I go through them.

I'm very happy I switched from Kindle to kobo. Kobo is not ideal but getting koreader/syncthing to work on it was a breeze compared to Kindle. It's a much less locked down platform, and it has usbc which got rid of the last micro USB cord I had in my backpack.

I bought a Kobo ereader, because I figured that being the same company as Libby, it would be really easy to use with library books and audio books.

It's not at all.

I should have known better, because the interface on Libby itself is almost unusable. There's no way to search books at a specific library. You have to search their store, open a book, click on a menu, then see if it's available in your library. It also works with audio books, but that functionality doesn't work at all with audio books borrowed through Libby.

I'd have been better off buying a generic Android ereader and running Libby on it, than to use their own product, with their own service.

Don't give amazon your money if you are into ebooks. Removing DRM is not pirating, it's just about being able to OWN the book your purchased.

No one let's you own ebooks. They all just license it to you for only as long as they feel like.

You have to get a physical copy, to get ownership rights.

Yes, but there are providers of Non-DRMed ebook files so in effect this is very similar to owning a physical book. They cannot revoke your access to a file.

>You have to get a physical copy, to get ownership rights.

What are you even talking about?

The many, many books I have had in my hard drive, DRM-free, entirely mine to use or transfer as I please would beg to differ.

Save for accidental data loss or data corruption (both of which can be prevented through modest diligence), these ebooks are mine and no third-party megacorp can take them away because my "purchase" somehow just lost all value for bullshit licensing reasons that make a mockery of how ownership is usually understood.

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43039924

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43041726

Seldom used feature my ass. Direct wire transmission is a fundamental feature. It is far quicker than attempting to download book pages piecemeal and content from other legitimate sources. It wouldn't be a war against piracy, it would be a war against sanity.

Direct wire transmission is still possible.

Wow, am I reading this right that they are going to completely remove USB mass storage access for existing Kindles? That's an essential feature. It's a different product without USB data access.

No they are not. They are removing Download and Transfer which was a way to transfer DRM laden Kindle books on over USB. You will still be able to put DRM free books on over USB.

Personally I would just avoid Kindle now. There's very little benefits to their devices, Send to Kindle might be the only serious thing but has issues.

Eh. Kindle still has the best rendering and best hardware, and they go on sale very often. There’s also a jailbreak for every firmware that was just released.

My interest in e-readers is reduction of distractions so I can get into a flow state for reading. Kindle is still the top choice for me.

They don't have the best rendering or the best hardware. Jailbreaking is often readily stymied for periods of time. I found when I had a Kindle there wasn't even a workable font size I liked without jailbreaking, everything was too big or too small with not enough middle ground.

Kobo has near-identical hardware, doesn't require jailbreaking and has actually usable text options out of the box.

Unfortunately I haven’t found a Kobo with an even backlight. They also went backwards with their screens for the smaller sizes, opting for indented instead of flush on all but the Elipsa.

I was interested in a self published book that was only made available by its author on Kindle. I actually bought a used Kindle solely to remove the DRM from the content I bought from Amazon using this method. Then I could read the content on my preferred reader.

I ended up doing this with a few books. The Kindle ended up getting used by others in the family.

Just to casually note, it's seldom the case that a book available via Kindle or the travesty that is Kindle "unlimited" (meaning the opposite of what it's name supposedly implies) can't also be found for download in any one of several formats and often even with multiple language options through something like Libgen or Z-library or others.

No DRM, no lock-in with Amazon's increasingly garbage notions of what buying an ebook from them means, and transfer as needed to your favorite ebook reading device.

I've been more than happy with my Kobo Calara B&W. I see they have a colour version now, which I would have been tempted to get if I were buying now.

The Kindle became big because it is the cheapest ereader on the market. That's because the hardware is deeply subsidised by Amazon.

I don't buy books I loan them from my local library and put them on the Kindle.

I'm not really bothered by why it became big. I'm just saying the Kobo is better, in my opinion, and that's probably because it's not the market leader, so has to offer more.

Quite often the second place competitor has the better product.

The color version takes a lot more light. You'll need the back light on any time it's not in direct sunlight. The color is also pretty muted.

All in all, it's worth buying if you need an ereader and want to use the color features, but I wouldn't recommend buying it if you already have the black and white version.

I’m very happy with my Onyx Boox. Same price, runs full android, put whatever books you want on it.

Yikes, this is disappointing. My general rule is I will not purchase media if I cannot strip the DRM from it, so this might be the end of my run with Kindle.

I'm glad I only just deDRMed all my kindle books. The option to download was already gone with the latest paperwhite but I still have a voyage so I used that.

Next ereader wil be a kobo, also because they have page turn buttons. This is a big deal for me. I'd have bought a Libra 2 already but they only sell the colour version now and that has greatly reduced contrast. So I'm waiting to see if they come out with something better. I don't care about colours but I do care about contrast.

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