Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Reaction to Removal of USB Download Feature

  • Many power users say this was a “last straw,” since USB download was central to backing up, de-DRMing, and format-converting their purchases (especially via Calibre).
  • Some plan to cancel Prime or stop buying Kindle books entirely; others note they never used or cared about offline backups and will just keep reading as before.

Ownership, DRM, and Trust

  • Strong sentiment that Kindle buyers never really “owned” their books, only revocable licenses, citing past remote deletions and silent updates.
  • The change is viewed as “welding shut a fire exit” that enabled interoperability and long‑term access, especially for non-Kindle devices.

Piracy, Ethics, and Libraries

  • One camp advocates outright pirating ebooks, then optionally buying physical copies or paying afterward if they liked the work.
  • Others argue this mainly harms authors, not Amazon, and insist on either buying from non-Amazon stores or using public libraries.
  • Counterpoint: some see little moral difference between “pirate then buy if liked” and reading from a library then buying; critics reply that libraries pay and operate under agreed terms, whereas piracy does not.

Impact on Libraries and Workflows

  • For some US library systems using OverDrive/Libby with Kindle, the USB download path runs through Amazon’s “Download & Transfer via USB,” so the change may break long‑standing workflows, including “offline forever” loans via airplane mode.
  • There is disagreement and confusion about exactly which library setups are affected.

Alternatives and Technical Workarounds

  • Kobo is frequently recommended: more open devices, easy sideloading, ACSM/Adobe DRM that can be stripped, and good Calibre integration.
  • Users describe elaborate self‑hosted setups (Calibre-Web-Automated, Kavita, KoReader, Tailscale/OPDS) that treat their own libraries as a “store.”
  • Other sources mentioned: Ebooks.com, some small/specialty presses, Humble Bundles, certain DRM‑free light novel publishers, and Bookshop.org (criticized for app‑only DRM).

Device Longevity and E‑Waste

  • Older Kindles that lost network support or can no longer authenticate are cited as examples of planned obsolescence; some use this to justify piracy.
  • A side debate emerges: whether accepting frequent device replacement is reasonable progress or wasteful and exploitative.