Amazon Kindle removes download feature of purchased books
The Amazon Kindle website warns about a policy change which states that starting from February 26 2025, you can no longer download your purchased e-books directly. A warning appears on the download page for e-books.[1]
Background
Amazon allows purchasing e-books on their platform, and with their download and transfer feature it was possible to locally store the e-books as a backup for e-reader devices. It also allows a customer that bought an e-book to read it on another type of e-reader, and convert the format themselves. Amazon Kindle e-readers use a proprietary format, contrary to many other e-readers which use the EPUB standard. Without the feature to download your purchased e-books, customers are limited to the digital service Amazon offers.
Removal of download and transfer via USB
The removal of the download feature retroactively change the purchase of customers of e-books through the Amazon Kindle platform. This platform is subject to the terms Amazon sets: "Amazon says they can remove books from a device at any time, for any reason".[2] An important side note is that it is still possible to download e-books to the device, but it will require an internet connection on the e-reader, which was previously not the case.
Consumer response
The concerns and questions of the customers can be summarized as follows:[3]
- This new policy changes an already purchased e-books, and also affect the older devices
- This new policy limits already purchased e-books to only be read on Kindle e-readers
- This new policy forces customers to have an internet connection on the e-reader to download purchased books through the Kindle platform
Customers also reacted by downloading their purchased e-books while they still can, and buying their e-books via other providers going forward.
References
Amazon are changing the way you own your Kindle books - you have 10 days to react, CriminOlly, original video on youtube.com