Dealing with Kindle ebooks in calibre

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by Leighlee

I found out that some of the books downloaded from K4Mac 7.x can be converted while others can't. After dragging and dropping quite a few (about 30) books, I noticed that some are KFX, while others are the dreaded KFX-ZIP.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason which format a book is going to be, as some books I bought today are KFX and convert fine, and others that I bought months/years ago are KFX-ZIP and don't convert at all.

That is very interesting. Are the ones that will convert books which are suppose to be DRM-free?

[gordonsj]

For information of those interested I am using Kindle for PC 1.17, which ceased to be able to download new books a few months ago. As it is therefore no use to me I turned on auto updating a while ago however it has not updated, or prompted me to update and remains on the old version. I have no explanation for this anomalous behavior. I f I want to read new books on the PC I use the web reader.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by yoshi

It's disheartening that we've become a minority. Amazon will be indifferent to the potential loss of profit, even if they decide to ban our accounts. It would be better if Amazon disabled 2.4.0 rather than banning users. (In that case, I might consider switching to taking screenshots instead.)

You have a Voyage according to your profile here. Why don't you use Download & Transfer?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Leighlee

I found out that some of the books downloaded from K4Mac 7.x can be converted while others can't. After dragging and dropping quite a few (about 30) books, I noticed that some are KFX, while others are the dreaded KFX-ZIP.

That is somewhat good news. It indicates that the new Kindle for Mac is still using DRM that the DeDRM plugin supports, at least for some books.

With KFX format all books sold or loaned by Amazon contain DRM. However there are two categories. Books that the publisher requested to be sold with DRM are locked to the particular device or app for which they are downloaded. Books that the publisher requested be sold without DRM will still have DRM in KFX, but it will not be locked to any single recipient.

Books locked to the Kindle for Mac app will not be able to have their DRM removed because there is no known way to obtain the unique key associated with each installation of that app. But the less restricted books can be unlocked as long as the DRM algorithm used is supported by the DeDRM plugin, as appears to be the case here.

I have no doubt that Amazon will switch to using newer, unbroken DRM as soon as they learn that people are taking advantage of this loophole.

Originally Posted by Leighlee

There seems to be no rhyme or reason which format a book is going to be, as some books I bought today are KFX and convert fine, and others that I bought months/years ago are KFX-ZIP and don't convert at all.

There is no certain way to determine which category any particular book falls. Many with less restrictive DRM will show "Simultaneous device usage: Unlimited" in the product details of the listing but that isn't always the case.

[yoshi]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

You have a Voyage according to your profile here. Why don't you use Download & Transfer?

I know the "Download & Transfer" method, but I have concerns that Amazon might disable it in the near future. Therefore, I'd like to have two deDRM methods prepared.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by yoshi

I know the "Download & Transfer" method, but I have concerns that Amazon might disable it in the near future. Therefore, I'd like to have two deDRM methods prepared.

Of course, but if you're worried your account might be banned, then you should use D&T as your main method. At least there's nothing against the TOS in using that.