PSA: Amazon Kills “Download & Transfer Via USB” Option for Kindles This Week
Freeman writes:
Later this week, Amazon is closing a small loophole that allowed purchasers of Kindle books to download those files to a computer and transfer them via USB. Originally intended to extend e-book access to owners of very old Kindles without Wi-Fi connectivity, the feature has also made it easier for people to download and store copies of the e-books they've bought, reducing the risk that Amazon might make changes to their text or remove them from the Kindle store entirely.
The "Download & transfer via USB" option on Amazon's site is going away this Wednesday, February 26.
[...]
If you're trying to download your Kindle purchases to your PC and Mac before the deadline, you'll need to have a somewhat older Kindle or Fire device attached to your account.
[...]
Jason Snell at Sixcolors highlighted a possible timesaver for people with large libraries: a command-line tool called the Amazon Kindle eBook Bulk Downloader that can grab all your files automatically rather than doing one at a time.
[...]
Obviously, "people who want to download these files so they can strip their DRM" are not of concern to Amazon, but we contacted the company to ask if it has an official recommendation for people who are still using older Kindles and want to download Amazon-purchased books for legitimate reasons. An Amazon representative only responded with a statement telling us the other ways that customers could get Amazon books onto their Kindle devices."Customers can continue reading books previously downloaded on their Kindle device, and access new content through the Kindle app, Kindle for web, as well as directly through Kindle devices with Wi-Fi capability," the spokesperson told Ars.
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