I just bought two kindle books that were only available as ebooks and I didn't realize that it has been made so difficult to download them. Everything I search comes up with "download them before Feb. 25th!"

Has anyone got a work around for this? I have no desire to use the kindle app to read them and I HATE that I don't own these books to do as I please.

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[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I have kept half an eye open for updated workarounds since the Feb 25 change and haven't heard of any.

In my personal framework, once I've bought a copy and supported the artist, it doesn't weigh on me to acquire a copy elsewhere. YMMV.

I'm choosing to buy from Not-Amazon going forward. All the major alternatives I've looked into similarly lock the content to their readers and apps (based on agreement they have with author), but unlike Amazon, they state it clearly up front and aren't changing access retroactively.

Shoutout to bookshop.org for being crystal clear in product descriptions when an ebook is DRM-free.

[–] HiDiddlyDoodlyHo@beehaw.org 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You can download an old version of the Kindle desktop app (for Windows) and download the books there, though I'm not sure how long that feature will be available if Amazon turns it off server-side. I've personally decided not to buy Kindle books anymore due to their anti-consumer DRM and ability to revoke my books at any time, but I'm also not sure who does a better job.

[–] nagaram@startrek.website 3 points 1 day ago

Lots of places do a better job providing DRM free or DRM Lite ebooks (Chicago press only ties your name to the files so you'd have to doxx yourself to share it, but you can share it), but the sheer library of self published books on Amazon is hard to find.

There's an author I've become good friends with who I pay him (in coffee) for his books because I disagree with giving Amazon a cent. But he noted that's just where the masses are still and it's hard to break that momentum.

[–] gonzo-rand19@moist.catsweat.com 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As far as I know, the only workaround is not to buy from Amazon. Try Anna's Archive, LibGen, or an alternative digital book storefront like Kobo, eBooks.com, Bookshop.org, Smashwords, etc.

[–] BlueSquid0741@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 day ago

I got a humble bundle full of Star Wars books/magazines the other week. I haven’t bought a humble bundle in a few years so I didn’t realise I was actually buying Kobo estore licenses for them.

I’ve now spent a week trying to strip the Adobe drm using calibre, with no luck. I either get an error message from calibre or the output still has drm on it.

[–] Localhorst86@feddit.org 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I used calibre with the dedrm plugin to strip all my kindle ebooks from DRM and converted them to epub.

I then jailbroke my kindle and installed koreader on it, ditching amazon completely. I am not buying books from amazon anymore, but I get my books exclusively drm-free as epubs.

Calibre, combined with koreader on my device, allows me to sync my ebooks wirelessly over WiFi at home.

[–] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago

1+ for koreader, it's so much better than the stock Kindle reader.

[–] greenskye@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago

It's still possible, but only with a physical Kindle device and I believe only one of the older ones. You can copy files off those devices to your PC and crack them that way.

Otherwise I'm not aware of any other method. It really sucks too as my favorite genre literally only exists in the Amazon ecosystem (small indie authors that rely on KU and so don't publish anywhere else)

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What books are they? It's possible you could find them on one of the sites linked on fmhy.net

[–] alucard@feddit.org 4 points 1 day ago

Or libgen.

[–] LoganNineFingers@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Unfortunately they're by a Canadian author and I haven't seen them even at my local library even.

It's "The Power of a Playlist" and the workbook as well

[–] Quexotic@infosec.pub 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think Calibre can convert en masse. May be mistaken.

https://calibre-ebook.com/download

[–] LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You have to get the file from Amazon first in a format that deDRM works on. That's the trouble here.

Kindle for PC still works, but you have to find an old version and disable updates.

[–] Quexotic@infosec.pub 1 points 23 hours ago

Ooooh. I see now.

I can't provide a solution to a drm issue here.