Amazon is changing what is written in books

If you're into audiobooks, I strongly recommend libro.fm instead - it's all DRM free downloads, so you never lose access.

It's kinda odd that all these years later, you're still better off pirating than paying for anything digital. All these services solved piracy but we've now gone full circle.

A hosting provider always has the ability to change what's on their infrastructure. The Kindle store is no different.

As it happens, they've been doing this for years. For example, the price you set as an author is not fixed nor is how it turns up on the page or how and when it's promoted.

The standard ebook format is essentially a zipped up series of text files.

Source: I sell my "Foundations of Amateur Radio" ebooks on the Kindle store

That's why Richard Stallman calls kindle the swindle.

I paid for (the license to view) the books already, so I’m getting epubs from z-library without the slightest bit of moral pain.

I could do the calibre decryption thing, but meh.

The man who made that video is annoying. The story he read out was from the twits by Roald dahl, it was a few years back that those changes were made. Dahl was a great author but wasn’t a very pc person , his family have had to apologise for his anti semitism. So whoever is in charge of his works wanted to make them more modern and less insulting which misses the point of Dahl but anyway. They’ve done it with Enid blyton books too. In one of hers they have a dog called the n word so probably more necessary with her work lol.

All amazon have done is update the digital edition to the match the latest edition. There’s a million things to hate Amazon for you don’t have to make things up. And also if you want books that can’t be altered buy a paper book, you own them and they don’t run out of electricity.

Is there a way to donate to the authors? Because I think pirating and then donating the money (directly) to the author is much more ethical than putting a megacorp or a publisher in between

Even better if you send it with something like Monero which doesn't even put the bank between you and the author

It would be nice if that stuff worked more like git where yeah maybe the release version gets changed but you can always work back through the history to see earlier versions.

Not git specifically but just deltas from one version to the next instead of replacing the whole thing with a flattened text.

Amazon’s ebook store front (as well as the internet in general) is flooded with AI slop. The internet is a place where the signal to noise ratio is dropping rapidly.

Physical media is necessary. Especially books. Especially the kinds of books regimes might want to ban. When it’s time to rebuild, we’ll need firm ground to stand on, and physical books work as long as you can hold them.

I just buy physicals of the reference books I really want and pirate the digitals of anything else that isn’t sold DRM-free. I WILL own what I bought, whether they like it or not.

I've heard a jailbreak was recently released for all kindle models: https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/WinterBreak/

I'll be trying it out soon!

It’s time to de-Google, de-amazon, de-Microsoft, de-apple, etc.

1984 right here.

Uh, title is a bit clickbaity, editorialized. Amazon isn't changing books yet, they are planning to make it possible for publishers to do so, I think, and also recoking ownership. And the video is not great either.

Is there a text version of this?

That's why I only read manuscripts. Don't trust machines. F*cuk Gutenberg

I've got an old Kindle, but not too old, which I jailbroke just yesterday with Winter break. I recommend that method for those considering getting drm free usage out of their device (instead of it contributing to ewaste).

They got caught doing this over a decade ago as well.

Don’t use kindle? They aren’t the only ebook provider

1984 - Get away from everything GAFAM does

I'd also point towards alternative reading apps and hardware and drop everything related to Amazon.

Honest question, how is this different from the left doing the same? Take this for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl_revision_controversy

As an outsider, it seems the USA is currently in a culture war, and neither side minds burning & changing the books they deem offensive?

I'm all for the Trump hate, what's happening there is insane, but the American left wing being bothered by books being changed seems pretty hypocritical seeing recent events....

Is that what the "you can't download your shit anymore" is really reaching at?

"How about instead of words, we fill books with numbers?"