Last week I posted about how Amazon is making it more difficult to remove DRM from purchased Kindle ebooks, and now people are noticing that Amazon has removed the option to download Kindle Unlimited books from the Manage Your Content page for those that use the USB transfer option.
Amazon already removed the option to download samples some time ago, and now they’ve removed the ability to download and transfer Kindle Unlimited ebooks over USB too.
Amazon even updated the Kindle Unlimited help page on their website with the following:
Note: Borrowed titles can be delivered to and accessed on WiFi-enabled Kindle devices or through the Kindle app, but they cannot be downloaded or transferred via USB.
Some people think this is just the beginning, and at some point in the future Amazon will disable the USB download option altogether. Combine that with the fact that Kindle for PC and Mac can no longer download newer books in older formats that are capable of having the DRM removed, then we might have a problem.
Granted, not very many people use this method when it comes to reading Kindle Unlimited titles, and Amazon needs to know how much of a KU book a person reads in order for authors to get paid, so removing the USB transfer option isn’t surprising in this instance, but it goes to show Amazon is actively strengthening the borders of their walled ecosystem even more.
If this trend continues it might be nearly impossible to remove DRM from Kindle ebooks at some point in the future.
I’ve never been one to download purchased Kindle ebooks to a computer for backup, but the way things are going that might not be a bad idea. It would be wise to make backups of all your Kindle ebooks in AZW format in case Amazon eventually transitions everything to KFX format with (nearly) unbreakable DRM (it’s been cracked before but then Amazon locks it down again right away). If you don’t mind all of your purchased Kindle ebooks being forever locked into Amazon’s ecosystem then it’s not a problem, but some people really don’t like that.
Perhaps they’re rolling it out gradually, but as of today I still have the option to download my Kindle Unlimited rentals for USB transfer. Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/yqmWEoW.png
I just posted a comment here (which hasn’t shown up) that I was still able to download my KU titles by USB, so they must be rolling out slowly.
Well, they must have just updated me, because the option disappeared when I reloaded the page.
Sigh.
Thanks for this post. I.have a large library and although most titles are in Calibre, it is time to stay on top of this.
Thank god there has never been more viable competition, with Kobo and all the Android ereaders.
Amazon is going to Amazon, and I’ll probably vote with my feet whenever my Kindle bites the dust.
Everyone who downloads KU is stealing from the authors for their fee – they are paid by the pages read.
So it’s a fair solution on the part of Amazon
This is such a horrible idea, if true and you are shifting the blame from amazon to readers and authors, even though amazon is who introduced such a bad payment system, pennypinching the authors..
This is also a huge overreach on your privacy. You are being under surveillance while reading. How is this okay?
When you purchase a physical book the author gets paid for that one purchase. You don’t pay for the book every time you reread the book. So, how is amazon penny pinching the authors. If the book is a good book, they get paid for the full book. At least they get something if you end up not liking the book. They get paid for at least what little you read. With physical books you might not even buy the book if it doesn’t seem interesting. I agree that it is fair and no different from a physical book.
Nah man, I pay my monthly fee to amazon to read KU books. If I want to manage those books off Kindle (and get rid of the stupid paragraph long titles) that should be my right, I’m happy to mark the books as being read when I’ve read them.
Amazon doing this has just lost their kindle unlimited fee and authors that I wouldn’t have purchased their books otherwise have lost their commission.
Why should they not get paid per-download? Just because Amazon has developed a complex mechanic that requires spyware and is better than just not paying anyone does not mean they have a good solution. It’s a frankly terrible solution that benefits Amazon to the detriment of both authors and readers.
Also, you seem to be implying an author will get paid for a reread on Kindle Unlimited. That’s not true. At most, they will be paid for a single full read(and while I haven’t checked, I’d wager they will be paid less for that than a purchase would’ve netted).
You’re also pretending there is nothing between a Kindle Unlimited subscription and printed paper books. Like outright purchase of eBook files has not been a thing since the 90s.
A customer can read your Kindle eBook as many times as they want when they download it using Kindle Unlimited (KU). However, we will only pay you for the number of pages read the first time the customer reads them. This is true even if your KDP Select enrollment period has expired, and you choose not to re-enroll.
https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201541130
For anyone following, I’ve updated the first post of the “Amazon and DRM Changes” on MobileRead to be a bit more clear on exactly what and what is not allowed.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=351285
For Kindle Unlimited Titles I understand not having download and transfer via USB. But for regular titles you’ve purchased, i would hope it stays as is or else I’d start to think twice before continuing to use or purchase from the Kindle store going forward.
Yes, I am fine with this for rentals with KU, but they need to keep the option of downloading purchased e-books.
I hate this! I have a very large library in my Content and Devices an Amazon and I liked that I could download via USB only the ones I wanted to read at the moment. Today I went to download 2 new books from my Kindle Unlimited library and it doesn’t work. I get an error message. They don’t show up in the pending downloads page. Nothing does! KU books are not downloading via WiFi but my whole library is coming down when I don’t want them all at once. Stupid, effing Amazon! They shouldn’t have taken away the USB option. This makes me want to download books from file sharing websites instead of paying for KU. I was happy to do it until now but their stupidity will turn me into a criminal. Anyone here knows how to stop my whole library from downloading? And how to get the KU books to download now? I am giving them one last chance to fix this shit.
The harder your DRM, the less money you’ll get from me. From the beginning, I made sure only to buy e-books, where I could get rid of the DRM. If that’s not possible, I will not buy anything. And since it’s about KU – same thing. Amazon got plenty of money from me for that, but not any longer.
Ditto…. I don’t understand Amazons rush to DRM books. (All they are doing is alienating anyone with a non-kindle E-reader). DRM causes other issues btw…. e.g. I’m currently trialling Kindle Unlimited, and have even discovered DRMed books in there that cannot be read on ANY e-reader, (kindles included….). …which is just plain stupid.
{ I wanted to read a book called “The Meadow Project” (by Trey Hudson), and I discovered that it can ONLY be read on the kindle cloud reader, or PC/ipad app.. My Kindles, (an older kindle and a kindle scribe), are both greyed out on the download options, online, and the device itself displays “not compatible with this device” in the kindle store.). if this is a common issue, (and it does seem to be as the books format is the new Amazon KFX DRM format), then it’s a deal-breaker and I’ll be cancelling too}.
So… if I want to read my newly selected Kindle Unlimited book)s), all I have to do is get into my car and drive several miles of cobblestone roads to find some location with free Wi-Fi, not as easy as it might sound in the mountains of central Mexico.
I will no longer renew my Kindle Unlimited subscription, it is useless to me now.