How Does Amazon Combat The Issue Of Pirated Books On Kindle?

The physical/digital combo. Some publishers offer free e-book versions with the purchase of a hardcover (e.g. “Includes a free e-book” on the jacket flap). This option is becoming more common. Old bookstores sometimes sell codes for e-books that were included with physical copies but were never downloaded by the previous owner. I’ve managed to find a few of these in old bookstores, they make for a weird gray market where one pays for something that was already paid for. As a more direct option, some authors run promotions where one can download e-book versions of their books if one shows proof of purchase of any edition, including old used copies. One can find out about such promotions on an author’s website or Twitter.

A hardware fault could also be at play here, especially with older devices. The Wi-Fi antenna is usually a pretty weak point, so if you’ve had your device for a while it could be worth checking if it’s failing in some way. If Wi-Fi connections are never coming up or dropping straight away and you have a cellular model then this could be a physical repair issue. Perhaps an upgrade or a look into your warranty is in order.

This is why subscription services like Kindle Unlimited are a better fit for me than buying individual eBooks. I’m renting access to a rotating catalog of work, no misperception of ownership here. If the book in question ever leaves KU I lose it from my library – that was always the explicit agreement on my end for signing up for the service. Contrast with books that I wish to own in physical form. KU for discovery of new works, physical copies for my keepsakes – the two models of distribution serve different purposes for me and I’m extremely content with how things are currently setup.

Follow the steps in this order to go through the troubleshooting systematically: 1) restart your Kindle; 2) Make sure Wi-Fi is on and not in Airplane Mode; 3) Make sure there is enough space on your device; 4) Delete and then re-download single book; 5) Try reading a different book; 6) Deregister and then re-register your Kindle; 7) Update your Kindle’s software manually; 8) Contact Kindle Support. It’s okay to contact support first and have them walk you through the steps, but doing them first can save you a lot of time on hold. They’re going to make you go through all of these steps anyway, so having a list of steps to go through can turn your frustration into an orderly process.

One area Amazon doesn’t fully serve yet is in offline access to manage between devices. While a book that one downloads to their Kindle will automatically appear on their iPad or Touch, for example, a book one downloads to their Kindle does not automatically appear on their phone. This would use too much storage space on mobile devices, but Amazon could add an option to download to other devices as well, and have it apply offline as well. For now, users can manually download the same book on each of their devices (with or without wi-fi) as needed. For most people who are systematic in their reading and load up the next few titles on one device before switching to another, this works fine. But for spontaneous readers who switch between devices frequently and often lack reliable data access, there’s a need here for some way to enable downloading of titles to read offline on additional devices with a bit of up-front thought or planning.

I want to make sure any PDFs I add to my collection are copyright compliant. I check where I got the PDF from. Reputable sites to download PDFs from are Project Gutenberg, Open Library and an author’s own website. On these sites you will find PDFs of works in the public domain and where the copyright holder has given permission for the work to be made available for download. Sites other than these (even if free to download) are generally best avoided. A second way to confirm PDF copyright compliance is to check for a copyright page or for a disclaimer within the body of the PDF that explains the terms and conditions of use of the PDF. This could be a watermark on the review copy that you have downloaded. Crosschecking the book's status on well known online stores such as Amazon.com or Google Books helps me to determine if the same book is being sold as a copyrighted work. I only download a PDF version of a book that I intend to read if it is available for sale through such stores, and I purchase or borrow a legal copy where possible. When dealing with older books, it is important to confirm whether or not the book is in the public domain. In the U.S. this typically means books published prior to 1928. I use the Copyright Office’s database as well as the HathiTrust to help confirm a book’s public domain status. If I’m unsure about a particular book then it’s best to err on the side of caution and avoid downloading the PDF. I also make sure to pay attention to the terms of Creative Commons licenses, such as CC BY-NC, which allow for non-commercial use and distribution but require that the creator be given proper credit for their work. By being mindful of these details, I’m able to ensure that my PDF collection is both legal and ethical.

Much confusion surrounds the term “Kindle” in relation to books but believe me it’s just a tag given to books in e-format. When checking out a book you will see the option to ‘Deliver to:’ and here you can select from any of your Kindle apps that you have registered on your amazon account i.e. ‘John’s iPhone’ or simply select the default Kindle app and the book will be sent to the ‘cloud’ to be downloaded at a later date by opening the relevant Kindle app on the chosen device. Very easy to do once you have done it.

Does this work for audiobooks too? Is that a whole different ball of wax when it comes to Audible subscriptions, or could we make this work for that too? Sorry for the detour, I am curious though.

It’s all really confusing – Prime, Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, Prime Reading – lots of things to choose from and I just get confused. I don’t really know what the difference is, but when I search for a book I click on it and it tells me whether I can read it for free as part of Prime or not. If it doesn’t say ‘Read for Free with Prime’ or something along those lines then I know I’ll have to pay for it to read it. But I don’t know the limits of Prime and what’s included and what’s not – I just search for what I want to read and it tells me whether it’s free or not.

I wanted to be able to read on my phone, but I didn’t want to be tied to my Kindle hardware. The Kindle app for your iOS or Android phone or tablet works really well. You need to have an Amazon account to log in to the app and download books that you have previously purchased. For new books, you can download them to read on your phone as well. I have even added borrowed books (from friends and from the library) to my phone. I use Calibre to convert the book to a MOBI file and then I email it to my Kindle address. One minor obstacle I faced was with books that had DRM. To get around this I occasionally use the ‘Unlock Ebook’ functionality within Epubor Ultimate (I’m very aware this is usually classed as copyright infringement, and thus use it sparingly). Otherwise it’s very easy to organize your books with tags. The ‘Send to Kindle’ functionality from desktop applications works very well for me with my academic PDFs, just check the supported file types on Amazon first.