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Comment by ratg13 | Hacker News Reader

I hate Amazon more because than most people, but let’s be realistic.

These devices came out in 2007-2012

14-19 years is a respectable lifetime for a handheld electronic device.

Yes...but let's also be realistic. Very few people are still using this Kindle as their daily driver. They've already upgraded to a PaperWhite or something better.

But there's a very simple reason that Amazon is cutting support for these. Many people (myself included--I have a 4th Gen still kicking around) keep one around because, after Amazon removed the Download option for Ebooks awhile back, having one of these old Kindles is the only way to download ebooks in a format from Amazon that can have their DRM cracked.

All Kindles newer than a certain date use the KFX format, with an encryption scheme that is constantly changing (basically any time someone figures out how to break it, Amazon updates it). Killing support for these old devices is basically Amazon's last step in removing "legacy" encryption schemes that can still be broken.

It would be the equivalent of Nintendo delivering a new firmware update for their Wii and Wii-U systems, in order to patch out a recently-discovered exploit. It serves no other purpose than to demonstrate the extreme contempt for Amazon's end-users and the lengths they're willing to go to combat user-freedom^W "piracy".

Good news: People are working on removing the latest KFX DRM, and it has already been cracked.

Bad news: Amazon is monitoring them and hasn't let up on efforts to update the DRM.

Good news: this cat and mouse game is keeping some of our brothers / sisters in software employed at FAANG. I feel like the girl from the kombucha reaction gif weighing both sides in this back and forth rally lol

I disagree. There's no technical reason why they can't still work. They're perfectly good devices (possibly some needing a battery replacement). Why do we think it's ok to turn working devices into e-waste, because the company behind them needs to make a "business decision".

(Which in this case is likely DRM-related, which drops my sympathy meter below zero.)

14-19 years might be a respectable lifetime for a handheld electronic device, but in most cases (good care assumed) it is not a respectable lifetime for a book.

These devices need to render text. We could render text on computers for god knows how long.

There is absolutely no reason to brick these devices

It's still unnecessary e-waste given that they work fine for their intended purposes.

My gameboy color still works

Why cripple the devices if they work? That's the issue.

The device still works. It's being crippled on purpose.

its a device for reading text ffs

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