Don’t buy Amazon products. Fairly simple concept.
Yep, I had a Kindle library of a few dozen books, when they started their shenanigans locking down the desktop client earlier this year I downloaded all of them, de-drmed and converted to epub with Calibre. Hosting them on Calibre-web and accessing with KOreader on a Kobo. I continue to buy books on Kobo and Google Books, which let me download copies (albeit with DRM).
Makes me wonder after all these years why Amazon is locking down ability to move books around. I wonder if they’re starting to feel some real competition and feel threatened! The market of cheap e-ink Android ereaders seems to be growing more and more
I wonder if they’re starting to feel some real competition and feel threatened!
Probably the opposite. They’re confident they won’t lose sales over this because they’re too firmly established as a monopoly. And they know that with Trump in office they’re not going to face any pushback from the FTC.
I started that process and hit a road block after getting all the books downloaded to my pc. Can you recommend any tutorials or guides that might help get everything converted?
I used this guide from a thread on Reddit. It relies on Calibre and a set of plugins https://www.reddit.com/r/Calibre/comments/1c2ryfz/2024_guide_to_dedrm_kindle_books/
Awesome, thanks!
The problem is some authors signing exclusivity deal with Amazon, which means breaking the DRM and converting it is the only way to read it on a different e-reader.
The problem is some authors signing exclusivity deal with Amazon
Well then those authors can go straight to corpo-sellout hell and die a painful death, I’d rather never read a book again than buy from amazon.
Too bad. Then theres no sale unless I can crack the DRM ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This. All of these problems are solved by people not giving money. But often it seems difficult for people to actually stand behind principle when the time comes – convenience is a helluva drug.
i was dumbfounded that so many people stood up against Disney. it was so opposite of what modern americans do.
It’s only takes one person to crack those books and spread them across the high seas and the only way to force authors to abandon Amazon.
There are always people who extra motivated by these challenges. The fact that these are written texts and shown on a screen means there will always be away to scrap the content off even if that involves a camera on a second device.
DRM only hurts customers who want to pay for content.
Anna’s Archive
Kobo is cool Now just fyi. Works well with calibre.
The biggest issue I have is ebooks are almost all excusevly sold on amazon. I would give authors my money and not sail the high seas if it ment no DRM.
“Almost all”… Unless you read a very specific niche, I’ve rarely looked for a book that I wanted to read and not found it elsewhere. There certainly are some that are specific to KDP, but hardly “almost all”.
In fact just a few minutes ago I got another bundle from Humble that I loaded onto my kobo with no issue
How hard is to install KOreader on a Kobo?
Not to hard
Fairly intuitive, if you can drag the right file to the right directory on the device.
Basically a one-click install on supported devices. You just need a PC and a USB cable. Highly recommended
https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/Installation-on-Kobo-devices
KOReader is trivial to install but I would also say it is nowhere near as “required” as it used to be for the majority of readers.
In fact, a few months (year or two?) back when amazon started this bullshit in earnest, the main dev(s) behind Calibre finally picked up Kobos and DRASTICALLY improved support for the devices. Still some wonkiness with usually having to eject and re-connect to actually update metadata but everything “just works”.
Yeah, the wonkiness is particularly apparent on .cbz files. I got a color Kobo to read comics, but .cbz files don’t natively support metadata embedding. (It’s basically just a .zip file, so you could embed the data in the file… But the Kobo wouldn’t read it without actually open in the file.) Getting the comics to actually list the author and series has been a big struggle.
Oftentimes, comics will outright disappear from the kobo’s book list in Calibre, meaning you can’t even manage them at all; Pushing the file again doesn’t help because it’s already on the device, but Calibre can’t read the database so it’ll try anyways. The only solution when it happens has been to completely factory reset the kobo. Which is… Not a great solution.
Yeah. CBZ files have no metadata (I think there is actually a semi-standardized way to add it but almost nobody does?) so it won’t work well with metadata based systems. From discussions we had back in the day, the cbz/r/7z/tgz/whatever archives were mostly a necessary evil for file sharing. As long as you didn’t modify the scans, people could re-compress or whatever their files and still have a good chance of coming up as alternatives in DC++ and the like. And, at the time, PDF readers were basically Adobe Acrobat and not much else.
These days? Nobody really used DC++ anymore and the general etiquette is to keep an un-touched version in your torrent folder if you want to seed. And basically every web browser is a better PDF reader than anything before 2020. So there isn’t much value in not just reformatting to a PDF and removing the need for a special cbz reader.
All that said: I haven’t followed the changelog, but it might be worth checking if you have the latest Calibre version. Basically all the package managers are months, if not years, out of date and a LOT of work has been put in to making Kobos a first class citizen.
Easy enough. You can also install QuillOS which an open source operating system for Kobos.
Someone posted a comment somewhere else in this post with a list of sources of ebooks. Hope it helps!
I’m sorry but the idea that most ebooks are exclusive to Amazon is absurd. While they are trying and would love that to be true, it’s just not.
That was my first thought too, but I’m not so sure. I’d love to see data on it. I did a quick search and couldn’t find any numbers, but I did find articles talking about Amazon requiring exclusivity in some cases. https://www.ingramspark.com/blog/amazon-exclusive-options-createspace-kdp-select-and-acx
100% they have pressured some smaller publishers and authors into exclusivity, especially self published authors that use their print on demand services. But most books you can find at competing digital storefronts.
I hear what you’re saying, but I’d still like to see numbers before taking a stance.
Between Kobo and Google Books I haven’t had a problem of not finding a book. Are you talking about small authors self-publishing on Kindle? I could see that being an issue
Also Canadian, though now majority owned by Rakuten.
Boox is the best. Stock software, NO DRM. Downside is they are more expensive upfront
Boox’s Neoreader is surprisingly good, but KoReader just frog blasts it. And since it’s just and Android app, it’s trivial to install and keep updated
Agreed, that they are just an android tablet makes them far more useful than most ereaders as you can install apps from the Play store. I probably use mine in the kitchen more than as a reader.
To clarify:
“Traditionally published” books and even many “self published” books are sold in all major storefronts and often on the author’s website (if they have one).
The issue is that Amazon has REALLY REALLY good tools for self publishing and, at least until recently, Kindle Unlimited (?) was a great way for authors to make money without the power of a traditional publisher or the grindset for true self publishing. And Kindle Unlimited requires amazon exclusivity.
The “good” news is that Amazon is dicking everyone over with changes to Audible and the like (it is allegedly a big reason why Sanderson basically made his own publishing house) and a lot of the big names in SFF are increasingly considering their options. That is a drop in the bucket compared to Romantasy and the like, but it is not nothing.
So best recommendation is to politely nudge your favorite authors and to signal boost booktube/booktok/bookgram/whatever to keep pushing on this. One of my guilty pleasure “litrpg” authors has been open about this in the past that they use Kindle Unlimited but, at least on their discord, are increasingly looking into alternatives because so many of the diehard fans actively don’t want to give Amazon money but still want to give them cash.
Just to keep adding on: Funny enough, Christopher Ruocchio’s “whatever happened between him and DAW” is actually increasingly being used as an argument for why it is okay to change publishing formats. For those unaware, Ruocchio’s Sun Eater series is spectacular in that it starts as Space Rome and Barbarians At The Gates before… going places. But he had scope creep and wanted to do an extra book but his publisher (DAW) had given him a specific deal and did not want to renegotiate and it was a huge clusterfuck that more or less led to him changing publishers midstream.
Which is generally acknowledged as a death sentence for a series because it makes any form of promotion nigh impossible because the old publisher actively does not want to encourage sales of new books (that is “their” money) and the new publisher can’t sell the books that are generally required reading for the new ones. But between a lot of fans who had fallen in love with the series and prominent booktube influencers going REAL hard on it, he managed to successfully switch publishers and should be finishing up early next year?
But considering how many authors are in essentially the same mess where the first ten books are on Kindle but the next twenty might be on Kindle+Kobo+whatever? It is a very scary prospect that could literally end their literary career but… it is also increasingly doable.
Nice read. I’m no longer at keyboard. Good points.
I feel like nothing is impossible.
This is why I bought some Chinese android ereader than an amazon Kindle.
calibre ftw always and forever
There’s no such thing as “impossible” when it comes to piracy.
Just wait until you can only stream books, not download them, with random words replaced with synonyms using an algorithm that lets them track down who the originator of any scanned copies is.
That might sound ridiculous, but streaming-only to prevent perfect copies and hiding purchaser identifiers in the data are both DRM techniques that have been explored in other media already. There’s no limit to how anti-consumer publishers can get when they think there’s slightly more money to be had.
Log2(8.2billion) is about 33. That means if each word only had 1 synonym, you only need to change 33 words to uniquely identify who was responsible.
21 words need to change if each has 3 options. 17 words for 4 options.
Then we change an additional 100 words in the process, and their tell becomes a tale.
There’s no impossible because if you can see it, it can be captured and digitized, but there is a level of complication that can make it unreasonable. They could make it unreasonable to crack the drm outright and require you to screenshot/OCR it. Then they can limit the OS to make to difficult to automate capture.
Bottom line, they’re just kicking payers off their network when it’s easier to pirate it than to buy it through their service.
require you to screenshot/OCR it
So just like what people do with paper books.
What GOOGLE did WITHOUT PERMISSION to paper books. ;)
I’ve imaged a few short books with a cellphone and page correction software.
It takes dedication to make a pleasant final product. But those vacuum book scanners are freaking amazing.
The analog hole works on a lot of stuff
That’s my post apoc Youtube plan. Play on a sanctioned browser with videos and use comskip, write them off to my storage.
We’re going back to my TV->AVI setup from 2003, only maybe we’ll use HVEC this time.
Something something, piracy is a service problem. That’s why Spotify et al. still thrive, but more and more the Netflixes of the world are being replaced with yaaar
It’s also a pricing issue as well.
but there is a level of complication that can make it unreasonable.
Lol, just read the Arch Wiki about Bluray playing. Unreasonable only takes a bit longer.
Especially engineering people get creative out of interest if they’re denied access. And that’s a beautiful thing.
MakeMKV is in AUR :) Sure, it’s not playing a disk…
Once they started mentioning stuff like this I sold my Kindle and got a moann. Its a little odd to use at times, but I love the size and the fact that I can just throw whatever book on there that I want. I use Anna’s archive for whatever book I’m looking for or go through my friend’s calibre library and I have over 200 books on my reader. I can also use libby with no issues. Its been fantastic breaking away from being stuck in the kindleverse.
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OK, so kindle is off the list of potential readers.
Any recommendations for a good reader that can do epub, PDF, and maybe even html with CSS?
I like my kobo
Seconding a Kobo. They have Overdrive (library) integration in the US and their eink and full color options are both great.
You might try one of the larger Kobos to be able to read PDFs comfortably. The little ones might be a bit cramped with most PDFs. For html I’ve never tried that with Kobo, but a lot of people swear by the Android e-ink tablets from Onyx and Boox, though those are sometimes pricey!
I came across this giant comparison table of eReaders last time I was researching an upgrade. While it doesn’t list supported file types, anything running an android operating system that lets you download apps for reading from google play would meet your needs.
Boox Go 7 Color II
Install KoReader on it (it runs Android so it’s literally just installing a new app) and you’ve got the best reading experience out there
I use my remarkable 2 for that. Pretty expensive compared to other typically ebook readers but I use it to take notes too and it’s basically a pen and paper replacement for me.
I have a Kobo and it does OK. Nothing special.
Also saying Kobo. I’ve got the Kobo Libra Colour and love it.
It’s the only ereader I’ve ever owned but I used the spouse’s Nook and Kindle a couple of times in the past and the Kobo kills it. Granted, we’re talking about a nearly new release of the Kobo vs a 5+ year old Kindle so it’s not a fair comparison.
Because of eInk and auto-sleep, the battery lasts me well over a month of casual reading (~30min before bed) with the occasional multi hour weekend session. Backlight is present and is totally readable in dark areas at <10% brightness; 100% brightness is like a supernova in your face. While the Libra Colour is not specifically a note-taking tablet like a reMarkable, it does just fine for quick notes/todo lists/etc but I did splurge on the ($60) stylus. There’s a “notes” application that comes pre-installed.
eBook support for writing in margins (or over text), underline/circling, highlighting, etc is really nice but occasionally the highlight is flakey when trying to highlight the end of a paragraph. That seems to have been specific to certain epubs rather than an “always” thing, but it happens in around 20% of epubs I’ve used.EDIT: Notes and highlights you do in an epub (and presumably other formats) are exportable to your PC via Calibre (“Annotations”). I love this because I like to highlight things I find interesting, particularly good quotes, and this gives me an easy way extract them while retaining a reference to which book it was and where exactly in the book it was. Example attached.
What does this mean? What prevents me from OCRing the pages on a video that quickly goes through it?
Amazon is making it impossible for me to consider a Kindle.
I’m shocked at this unforeseeable turn of events.
The current timeline is truly a constant stream of unanticipated surprises
I don’t know why people buy an stuff like this and get surprised when this happens.
Plenty of other electronics that you have full control over.
Plenty ? Really ? And what are those ?
Four times the prices and from four years ago ?Having your cake and eating it too isn’t on the menu
Kindles were loss leaders to get you in their ecosystem, just like all the shitty cheap tablets they sold.
The from four years ago part is real, but honestly, 4 year old devices read books about as well as current devices as long as you’re not trying to go all fancy.
It’s just matter of time before they’re all locked down, even the bad ones from 2020.
Just like android where basically it’s all bootloader locked, except for a few suspiciously special models like the Pixel. Or a “new” 1000$ model with hardware from 2018.
Instead of pretending there isn’t a problem because there are still option, you should realize the WINDOW IS CLOSING
A Raspberry Pi with an E-INK screen is surprisingly doable.
The raspberry pi has no low power modes / suspend states, to prevent it being used as a cell phone or tablet.
The standalone eink display are also very expensive, more than a entire eink reader and there is very little choice and they cannot be harvested from a working device.Low power states is a good call,
Looks like there’s a lot of work on using ESP32 for this kind of thing, even a couple open projects, but they end up bit-banging the screen into submission. not super elegant.
You can get 7" eink panels for $50.
You can read books for free on just about any general purpose computer.
My wife doesn’t let me bring the Thinkpad to bed anymore
Kobo e-readers are 1-to-1 alternatives that allow you to easily transfer epubs or PDFs to it with a USB cable.
As far as I can tell, Kobos are bootloader locked now https://old.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/1ewadpc/kobo_is_now_using_secure_boot_on_at_least_one_of/
You can still transfer epubs and most books on the kobo store are sold without DRM (publisher choice)
That’s a far cry from
Plenty of other electronics that you have full control over.
mentioned in the first comment
Not arguing with your point, it’s valid. But I wanted to make it clear from OPs point about book DRM that this is not an issue with Kobo. The books themselves as mostly DRM free and you can put whatever you want on the device.
It’s not necessarily about the devices. Kobo books are very easy to remove DRM from, and don’t require owning a physical Kobo device or their app to do so. All it requires is two Calibre plugins. And EPUB is not a proprietary format, unlike AZW3 and KFX.
Also, I might be wrong, but it seems Kobo has a lot more DRM free books in general, compared to Amazon.
Kindle has always required either the Kindle app or an actual physical Kindle to de-DRM.
Unless Kindle prices came way down, Boox are comparable in price, nicer in features, and allow side loading any eBook or Android APK (including the Kindle APK, if you can still get a copy of it.)
I don’t think you’ve used anything but a Boox in a long time, and have forgotten what the standard is. Boox has 1/10 the battery life, takes forever to wake up, and doesn’t support deep sleep properly (so it either drains battery when sitting idle, or shuts off entirely taking 5+ minutes to power back on). It’s decent hardware with very badly designed software. Neither Kobo or Kindle devices have these problems, they have battery that actually lasts, deep sleep when idle for any length of time, and power back up, even from deep sleep in 10 seconds or less.
Agreed, the battery life is way worse. I find the features of full unlocked Android to be a worthwhile trade.
But my point is that the prices of various eInk Android tablets aren’t unreasonable anymore.
Edit: Although, for anyone worried - I literally don’t remember the last time I charged my Boox. It was sometime last month - and I read with it most days.
The battery life can be fine, when configured with conservative screen refresh settings.
But I think there is still a difference - when I binge-read something for many hours multiple days in a row, I’ll notice that I need to recharge my Boox sooner than my Kindle needed.
Oh yeah definitely. It’s a slow EInk Android tablet on a very old version of Android. If you need more than just an EReader it’s the only reputable brand.
I am honestly surprised it took this long! Kindle has been around a long time and it’s not like Amazon was any less evil back then. It makes me wonder if the competition has been starting to make them nervous!
I have an ereader and I’ve never bought an ebook. The fact that they’re priced the same as paperbacks is absurd.
I like to go check out the book I want from the library, and when it gives me the Amazon DRM version I just go search for the epub version online and download that. IIRC, completely legal as I have legal access to the book…somehow.
IDC personally. I remember publishing houses basically forcing the Internet Archive to stop letting people downloading books during the fucking pandemic. They killed fair use, fuckem.
