The clock is ticking for Kindle users. After February 2025, a long-standing feature disappears. Will this change how you buy and store digit
You have until Feb. 26, 2025, to download copies of your Kindle books to your computer. After that, Amazon will remove the ability to download books to files you can control yourself.
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First of all, just as a matter of general principle, it's nice to have control over the stuff you bought and presumably own. Digital content isn't really property we own. Vendors make it abundantly clear that we're licensing that content, and even if we paid full-price money for something, it's just licensed, and they reserve the right to take it away if the whim strikes. There have been some examples of where Amazon has reached into our Kindle devices and removed books. In fact, back in 2009,Β Big Brother Bezos deletedΒ 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles everywhere. Just last year,Β Puffin Books editedΒ many of Roald Dahl's books, including Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, to be more socially conscious by removing words like "fat" and "ugly." Those edits were pushed into digital copies of the books already in customers' possession. Books have always been unchanging snapshots directly into an author's mind. They are instruments of record. But when companies can change their content on the fly, well, that can change everything.
18 February 2025
