“Up yours Amazon!” Kindle users hurry to transfer their e-books due to new download policy

Those who want to have a copy of books they bought on Kindle stored on their computer should do it now.

Amazon is ending the “Download and Transfer via USB” option for its Kindle users. Those who have their books stored in the device and want to have them stored somewhere else still have today to make a move.

From February 26th, e-book users will only be able to download their books from Kindle via WiFi.

Amazon is now eliminating the last option that allows users to use their Kindle books outside of the Amazon ecosystem.

Considering that there are more ebook brands, this is the last call for users to download their Amazon library to use on other devices.

To download their books, users should go to Amazon and find Accounts and Lists. Scroll to Content Library and select Books. After selecting the book, click on “More Actions” and select the "Download & transfer via USB” option.

Once users have their books downloaded to their computer, they can also convert them to other reading formats.

Kindle’s terms of service note that users who own content on Kindle actually “own” a license for an ebook, which allows them to view the content via Kindle software. However, this doesn’t mean that they actually own the book.

By downloading the books, users can still read them on other devices without Amazon’s restrictions.

The news about the possibility of moving ebooks from Kindle has started a discussion online, with users not being particularly happy about the restriction.

Some users found it confusing, not knowing if the change would affect the books they purchased on the platform.

“I use the Kindle app on my iPad. Will I lose all my books in a few days?” asked one user. Others explained that while readers won’t lose books from the platform, they won’t be able to download them or convert them to epub format.

Some users shared that this prompted them to move from Amazon altogether.

“I've pushed all my ebooks through Calibre, bought a Kobo and put all my ebooks on there. Up yours Amazon!” wrote one Reddit user. “On my way to do that right now!” replied another user.

“[...] I will no longer be buying ebooks from Amazon (their DRM never held be back before) and will be going to other ebook websites,” said another Redditor.

Readers also shared how and what other platforms they’ll use instead: “[...] This should accelerate my process over to the Bookshop app [...]). Guess while I'm there downloading my books, I can dump my wishlist since I won't be buying books from Amazon anymore.”

Amazon/Kindle may remove your ability to download your ebooks soon, you should download them now!
byu/kingderella inAnticonsumption

“All my favorite books that I will reread are in physical hard copy I am slowly building my own personal library. Same with actual photos versus storing them on the cloud. I don’t trust we will always have access to digital media,” debated one Redditor, emphasizing the fact that many of us now prefer digital versions of various media.