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).
this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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Been using 10th gen kindle, 5.17.1 firmware, as my daily driver. It's not jailbroken, use calibre server to download my alternately sourced ebooks, convert to .mobi as needed.
I looked at Winterbreak. Decided not to fool with it as I can still sail with stock.
Any advantage to a jailbreak other than future proofing against side loading being disabled?
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Why not too old? I bought 4 gen 4 & 5 kindles off ebay for like $20 on purpose. I hate backlights and they still work great.
Not a recommendation, saying mine is not too old. Random info as part of discussion.
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
Its just a bitter taste, thinking about how a few companies can lay words into the mouth of people they did not even say, years after they died
I would rather just have them Ban the books, because then you can see how they are manipulating the information you see.
Hell, I'm surprised the publishers aren't up in arms about it.
Amazon is changing copyrighted works.
Increasingly more often Amazon is the publisher.
Does Amazon have permission to change what's in your book though?
Copyright prevents them from making derivative works and if they change your text without your permission, that's a clear copyright violation.
I don't know how licensing deals work with Amazon but I'm guessing if they are doing this en mass, there is probably some provision in their contract.
The bigger question is do they care. At worst they get a slap on the wrist by the US government. At best they get to control the narrative and have books like having history books on their platform talk about how the the Allies first striked Nazi Germany because they were lifting the country out of economic crisis and making the world a better place.
I doubt they'll care or listen if EU says stop since they'll just find a way around whatever they have planned to try and stop revisionist ideology from taking hold.
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Is there a text version of this?
Yes, I prefer to read over watching a video and being forced to go at someone else's pace.
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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.
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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 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.
Yes, but you say it like the Author himself changed it.
In the specific Example, the book is from before 2000 and the author is long dead. That book is a piece of culture now, displaying the writing style from a place in time where it was normal to discriminate against people. By changing a book, regardless of if it was actually amazon or just some manager that bought up the rights for the book, it is manipulating the Past. Amazon should not allow to do such things
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There are other ways to buy books, I don't understand why so many people have a boner for Amazon. It feels like Stockholm syndrome to me. I've never bought a single book from Amazon, not one.
The reality is that Amazon is the most convenient way to buy a lot of things, and as a result, people will put up with a lot of bullshit.
I genuinely try to buy things locally before I start looking online. It's increasingly difficult even for common items. The big box stores are shifting to branded only retailers. Where I used to be able to go to any hardware store and find a similar spread of items available, Lowe's, home Depot and Menards all offer their own lines of tools to varrying degrees. Menards is the worst about it, but they're all doing it.
Less common items are being phased out in stores, going to online order only. Where in the past you'd have your choice of just about any brand of thing you could think of in any store in any major town, now you're lucky to find certain things at all. And if I'm going to have to order it online anyway, Amazon has the best return policy.
Hobby or specialty items are easily marked up 300% locally. And you have to go to that specific store, which may require a fucking membership just to get an only marginally hyper inflated price. It's fine if it's one thing I need right now but I'm not going to pay for the privilege of shopping at a hobby shop. I'm at Costco every week and I'm salty about that membership. Jack Tanner's Leather Emporium isn't even getting my email address.
And frequently on Amazon it's not just the same thing, it's the exact same fucking product. Likely shipped to the hobby shop from Amazon. I get that these guys need to make a living, but bro, have a little respect for modern consumers. I'll pay a premium, I'm not signing up for anything and I'm not paying triple the price.
And even if you are resolved to buy online, and you try to go to the branded website to buy the specialty thing, Amazon has it, they have free shipping, and they'll get it to you tomorrow. But if you go to Rockler's website they're going to charge you 10-20 dollars to ship a single item, unless you spend more money, and it'll take two to three weeks to get to you.
I'm sorry, Amazon fucking won. Even if I say I'm willing to eat the cost, pay the shipping, pay a premium, and I'm willing to wait for the stuff I order, I'll even make an account at every shady ass website I want to order from and give all of them my payment information, regardless of how much I trust their security, because I know Amazon is a horrifically evil company, I'm a drop in the fucking bucket. So are you and anyone reading this.
It's just too fucking convenient. Too many competitors are cutting off the tail to try to keep up. They've won
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1984 right here.
I'm glad I've already pulled my audible library in to audibookshelf, I didn't have many ebooks so didn't bother with them. I'm moving to librofm this month I think.