You don't own your Kindle books, Amazon reminds customer
www.nbcnews.com

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.

  • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    3 months ago

    That’s a shame. They need more licenses per book, it sounds like. But at least your community is highly engaged with your library!

    • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
      1·
      3 months ago

      Borrow the hardback

      The digital titles often come with a price tag that’s far higher than what consumers pay. While one hardcover copy of Cook’s latest novel costs the library $18, it costs $55 to lease a digital copy – a price that can’t be haggled with publishers.

      And for that, the e-book expires after a limited time, usually after one or two years, or after 26 check outs, whichever comes first. While e-books purchased by consumers can last into perpetuity, libraries need to renew their leased e-material.

      https://www.staradvertiser.com/2024/03/12/hawaii-news/libraries-battle-publishers-over-e-book-prices/

      • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        This might actually make sense. Borrowers can’t lose or destroy a digital copy, or bring it back late. Probably a digital copy enables more checkouts. Max of 26? Well think about he condition if the last library book you checked out that had 26 stamps on the list. Hard copies don’t last forever. Sad that they had to charge more based on these assumptions, but you can imagine some reasoning to them.

        • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
          1·
          3 months ago

          I think we need to know the average number of lendings for hardback vs ebook over a 2 year period. In theory, the library should be indifferent to the format being lent out and the costs should reflect that.

          • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            3 months ago

            Sadly it’s probably also the case that publishers’ ebook pricing to libraries is based on paranoia about them destroying all book sales, plus the usual corporate greed.