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Amazon Making it More Difficult to Remove DRM From Kindle eBooks

January 7, 2023 by Nathan 23 Comments

Kindle for PC

I saw this post over at MobileRead with a discussion about how Amazon is making it harder to remove the DRM from purchased Kindle ebooks.

Apparently, newly-published Kindle ebooks can no longer be downloaded using older versions of Kindle for PC/Mac, so if you use this method to get your purchased Kindle ebooks to remove the DRM you’re going to run into problems moving forward. So far the change only affects new books published starting January 3rd, 2023.

If you’re not sure what this means, some folks use older versions of the Kindle for PC app to get the older format of Kindle ebooks in order to easily remove the DRM so they can read the ebooks on non-Kindle devices like Kobos and Pocketbooks. The newer versions download ebooks in Amazon’s KFX format that can’t be stripped of DRM (except with certain older versions).

So far this doesn’t affect older ebooks published before January 3rd, so you can still download those with older versions of Kindle for PC/Mac to remove the DRM, but it makes you wonder how things are going to change in the future, and what other things Amazon is going to do to make removing DRM more difficult.

Moving forward, you can still get the older format for Kindle ebooks when using the download option from the Manage Your Content page at Amazon, but that requires having an E Ink Kindle registered to your account. Some people choose to buy an old cheap Kindle just to get the option to download Kindle books that way.

See this Dealing with Kindle for PC/Mac guide at MobileRead for more details about the change and for workarounds to get Kindle ebooks in older formats to remove the DRM. Things are definitely getting more complicated but it’s still possible to remove the DRM from most Kindle ebooks one way or another.

Filed Under: Amazon Kindle Tagged With: ebook drm

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. PiperKev says

    January 7, 2023 at 4:32 pm

    Thankfully there’s still the DeDRM plugin for calibre, and that’s reportedly still functioning.

    Reply
    • ownedbycats says

      January 9, 2023 at 2:02 am

      Not the newest versions of KFX; the developers have tried, but Amazon immediately changed the DRM.. The point of using the older Kindle for PC was to get files that DeDRM could actually decrypt.

      Reply
    • HUBHUB says

      January 12, 2023 at 2:01 am

      not really, tested all versions without success

      Reply
  2. Steve H. says

    January 7, 2023 at 6:35 pm

    An oblique effort to make it hard for Kindle library owners to leave for a competing system. Ostensibly about protecting author’s rights, but Amazon’s focus actually seems to be anticompetitive.

    Reply
    • Chery says

      January 8, 2023 at 2:45 pm

      What is DRM? I had an older Kindel got a new version for Christmas am getting confused but then I am old so that does not help

      Reply
      • Meghan E. says

        January 8, 2023 at 10:59 pm

        Digital Rights Management. Ostensibly to protect authors, but Amazon is using it for its own publishing enterprise.

        Reply
      • Lark A says

        January 8, 2023 at 11:18 pm

        Hi Chery, DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. When you purchase a digital book from Amazon, the book file goes to your kindle so you can read it. But in order to prevent someone from intercepting the file and distributing the book online for anyone to read for free, it is encrypted in a way that only allows the book to be viewable when the file can verify that the person who is opening the file is using Amazon-approved software and is logged in to the account that purchased the book. People are rightfully concerned about DRM because in effect, it means you don’t really own the file you paid for. If for example, Amazon shut down as a company and was no longer able to verify your ownership of the book or your Kindle stopped receiving updates to connect with Amazon when it got old, then all the DRM book files you have would be unreadable!

        Reply
        • Laurie A says

          January 10, 2023 at 9:17 pm

          Lark A. Thank you for the clear explanation for we people who are not “technical people in the know” I really appreciate you taking the time to help with this. I like reading with my older Kindle reader. Hopefully I will not have to get something different. Thanks again!

          Reply
    • ownedbycats says

      January 9, 2023 at 2:01 am

      If they actually gave two shits about “author’s rights,” they wouldn’t push authors into exclusivity (KDP Select) to access better royalties and Kindle Unlimited.

      Reply
      • Phil says

        January 13, 2023 at 7:33 pm

        We can however choose to publish our books on it without DRM on the book but that doesn’t bypass the crappy new format which causes problems on the Kindle Reader. A lot who are not on an older version of Kindle can’t open their books.

        Reply
        • dumbooks says

          January 25, 2023 at 6:02 am

          What happened to them natively supporting EPUB? Was it all a lie?

          Reply
    • allan says

      January 9, 2023 at 6:11 am

      Like Apple’s walled garden.

      Reply
  3. Rick says

    January 7, 2023 at 9:31 pm

    As a Mac user, even if you try to download an older Kindle for Mac version, it will not work with a newer macOS version. It’s not compatible and will not open The last supported macOS version for kindle DRM is High Sierra, which is about 4 1/2 years old.

    Reply
  4. John S Davis says

    January 8, 2023 at 12:33 pm

    OK Amazon, if you continue this course of action, you will no longer be my go to for ebooks. I’ll just buy it off wall-mart and download it to my kobo directly. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way.

    Reply
  5. Joost says

    January 8, 2023 at 1:58 pm

    Amazon makes it impossible to buy a kindle book. I get the ‘I cannot determine in which country you reside’ since a few weeks. DRM sucks in more ways than one can imagine. It feels like hdmi now.

    Reply
  6. Helen L. says

    January 9, 2023 at 1:18 pm

    So many of the ebooks I read are only sold on Amazon. I don’t know where else I can find them. I switched to Kobo Libra 2, and want to be able to read my books there. I always download and keep a copy of my purchased books on my laptop, and use Calibre to convert the format. I do own an old Kindle Paperwhite.
    I wish more authors would publish their books on more platforms, not only Amazon.

    Reply
    • ownedbycats says

      January 11, 2023 at 3:25 pm

      If you see a book by a self-published author be on Kindle Unlimited, they’re most likely in the KDP Select program, which forces them into exclusivity in exchange for higher royalties and access to Kindle Unlimited.

      Reply
      • Helen L. says

        January 12, 2023 at 1:02 pm

        Thank you. That might explain it.

        Reply
    • kitimitsu says

      January 13, 2023 at 11:49 am

      Some of my authors only sell their books on Amazon and like yourself I own an older model Paperwhite for reading Kindle books. However, my preference for reading are my Kobo ereaders and I also use Calibre for sideloading books. Find it very frustrating that some authors are choosing to limit their audience and their sales by only having Kindle format books and selling only thru Amazon.

      Reply
  7. Clive says

    January 14, 2023 at 11:55 pm

    I have Kindle Paperwhite 10th Gen with latest firmware. However it is unable to read the latest Kindle Unltd ebooks of Jan 2023. Do I need to wait for Amazon to release a new FW for KP10? Or how do I download Kindle Unltd post Jan 2o23 ebooks?
    PL suggest

    Reply
    • Nathan says

      January 15, 2023 at 7:30 am

      This is the first I’ve heard of anything like that. The PW4 already supports KFX so it shouldn’t be an issue. Have you tried restarting the device?

      Reply
  8. Hexrottweiler says

    January 20, 2023 at 3:41 am

    Still keeping a Kindle 3 around for that exact reason.

    Reply
  9. Bruce Ferrell says

    January 23, 2023 at 11:29 pm

    I strip DRM for the purpose of archiving. And I just ordered a pw as I need to rebuild my archive and now… Old techniques don’t work.

    Reply

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