But only if the author/publisher explicitly go in and permit it.
This isn't announcing that pdf's and epub's are now available for everything that was drm-free, this is announcing that they will _permit_ pdf's and epub's to be available.
But only if the author/publisher explicitly go in and permit it.
This isn't announcing that pdf's and epub's are now available for everything that was drm-free, this is announcing that they will _permit_ pdf's and epub's to be available.
I'm a self-published author. This is the default setting for new books uploaded without DRM. It's gated behind an "I understand" checkbox. I plan to allow my books to be downloaded as PDF and ePUB.
It makes sense not to do this retroactively.
Can you create the epub and pdf files yourself and have them distributed unaltered?
Technically, yes, but Amazon customers probably wouldn't benefit from that. I don't currently distribute or sell books directly because that creates a tax burden. So it's probably best to let the various stores handle it. I still want to sell books but I don't want my readers to be restricted by DRM for a book they paid for. The honor system is fine for me.
Edit: I now realize you might mean in the Amazon KDP UI. I don't see a way to upload your own.
As an independent author you can do what you wish. The only restriction is if you are in the Amazon KDP select program then you have promised Amazon exclusive use for a cut of the Kindle Select pie. I also distribute my books on all the other platforms, and for my free sci-fi book host it direct on my web site and on my Ko-Fi shop (the 'buy-me-a-coffee' site). Selling directly and collecting money requires a bit too much work but technically you could do it.
That seems reasonable enough to me though. It should be the publisher's choice what formats of the book they are willing to sell.
Having the action prominent and potentially with the default reversed would still leave it to the publisher's choice.
We can understand why they do it this way (they only need the option to exist, and can afford to apply dark patterns to it), but we don't need to excuse Amazon. Especially when they don't give a shit about what we think in the first place.
Oh I wouldn't expect Amazon to care what I think, especially with regards to digital books as at least I am not a customer.
I'm also not going to write off everything they do as evil only because of who they are though. Defaulting to disabled vs enabled would be reasonable too, though I don't know enough publishers or independent authors to know which option would be more often selected to pick a default.
Yes it reads that way, and I guess that also means all previous purchases will be behind DRM.
1. Sell digital things, that costs as same as physical copy
2. Make it so that customer doesn't even own them
3. Profit (No question marks in between)
What a mess. I've mostly stopped Kindle/ebooks but I still have audible which seems like suffering from the same problem.
> But only if the author/publisher explicitly go in and permit it.
actually, many kindle books I have from years ago mention they have no drm at the request of the publisher.
...yet were distributed in DRM .azw format
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