DRM on Kindle it's a known fact. That's why Richard Stallman calls it Swindle
this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025
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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.
When I got a kindle (10 years ago) I did it on the basis that it was possible to strip the DRM of the books and load them on another device. I'm not going to be tied to some shitty platform for ever more. I must say though that when I have bought books on other places, the process of stripping the DRM and getting the book onto the device has been an absolute ballache - presumably the same for any device when you're not using the native store.
I won't be going back to physical books though. I bought a hardback for the first time in ages and my wrists don't like it. Nor does my partner when I'm reading while they're trying to sleep.
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Impossible? So cameras and OCR don't work anymore?
If a human can see it, it can be pirated
Few have the resources or time for that. And Google and Internet Archive were both sued for doing that with even public domain/orphaned/out of print material
This is why it sucks that physical print media is on the decline, because one could just scan their own PDFs or if possible epubs instead of dealing with this if physical print media was still commonplace.
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I think it was 10? years ago when I grudgingly tried a kindle because it was so ridiculously cheap and the people around me loved theirs.
The Kindle was an Ad bomb. After engaging internet only, no TV, no ads, since, 2003? (Whenever xfiles, Buffy, DS9, and Firefly were done.) The kindle hit like a sledgehammer with the native ads system. I returned the failed tablet to Amazon.
I don’t know how people live with that level of ad consumption and I grew up with TV commercials. Libby on iPad mini. It’s fine.
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It’s a weird concept that you buy a device and then have to find an exploit that hasn’t been patched in order to do what you like with it as though you’re a hacker trying to breach someone else’s system, but it’s actually your own system you’re trying to breach.
Buy a pocketbook and don't log into any accounts. Fuck em. I keep mine airgapped.
