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.
Finally got around to backing up my over 200 audiobooks in a DRM-free format after this post reminded me it was on my to-do list. Libation is pretty damn good.
Also to add that amazon has been caught encouraging users to “refund” e-books and purchase a different one, without telling users that these refunds are clawed back from the Authors.
Then to double fuck the Authors they didnt give authors detailed statements - only payments of the monthly total, so any “refunds” were deducted from the total sales from that month and author paid the difference. This was only noticed when an author with an accounting/finance background noticed a negative payment statement one month and looked into this and found amazon routinely charging back authors, sometimes for multiple copies of ‘refunds’ that didnt actually get refunded, straight up stealing from the Authors.
Jokes on you I pirates mine!
I do, I get them directly from IRC
How lol, Books are the only thing where I find it hard to … well, get a legal copy from cough
IRCHighway channel #ebooks, don’t use a web client, I won’t give you links but this should be enough to send you on your way
Nah, no need to be a shitheel. I’m cool with paying for books, authors gotta eat. I wouldn’t refund a book I’ve read.
I pirate first, and when I’ve really enjoyed a book I add a physical copy to the collection. I just can’t get behind paying for digital shit, for the reasons enumerated in this thread here. I just wish there was more direct-to-creator payments. Music and literature are perfect mediums to give directly to the artists who create it. I don’t give a fuck about whoever paid fir the digital ink. Maybe the record people get a little money.
Totally agree with paying for recently written books. But are you cool with paying authors who have been dead for 69 years?