Amazon is changing what is written in books

And here’s a reminder that if you run a Plex server, there’s an app called Prologue which turns it into a fully fledged audiobook server.

Plex doesn’t natively support things like audiobook bookmarks in m4b files, and tries to just play them straight through like a gigantic 4 hour long music track. But Prologue does support bookmark data. Prologue simply uses Plex’s service to access the files, (because admittedly, Plex is good for letting newbies remotely access their content) and then it ignores Plex’s built-in “lol just play it like music” instructions, and actually parses the files for bookmark data.

As someone who couldn’t get Audiobookshelf to work properly, (something about not being able to access network drives via Docker), Prologue has saved my audiobook library by allowing me to just host it via Plex instead.

Anything similar for ebooks?

Also downpour.com! I ditched Audible a long time back in favor of sites like these that don’t lock authors into crappy exclusives, provide DRM-free audiobooks for sale, and have actually decent deals with authors.

Thank you for this! I made an account and may get the membership!

At the very least back up your Audible library in a DRM free format with something like Libation.

I am still using Audible because their web player works in my restricted office, and the authors get a couple of pennies from dragon, but have my library safely exported to ensure continued access and prevent fuckery like this.

Do you have a friend code we could put in if we do sign up for libro.fm? I don't mind getting people free stuff for recommending awesome products!

Piracy was, is and remains a service problem, as Gabe Newell of Valve (Steam) once stated. Most people are perfectly content to pay a reasonable price to get access to the things they want. But if you make that impossible, they’ll find other options.

Take anime for example: even if you subscribed to every streaming service out there, you still wouldn’t be able to see everything you wanted. Some things aren’t streamable or sold ANYWHERE, or only on a service that’s actively blocked in your region. Which means there is simply no legal way for you at all to get that content.

Music on the other hand solved that dilemma. You can use Spotify, YT Music, Apple Music or a host of other options. You pay a flat fee and you can listen to pretty much every song you want, as often as you want. Nobody’s pirating MP3’s these days, because nobody needs to. It’s now more convenient to just stream it.

I’d really like to see someone do the same for books. An unlimited digital library that lets you download anything you want for a flat subscription fee. I’d pay 10 bucks a month for that for sure. Because that would make it more convenient than pirating is right now, with a more consistent experience.

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.

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.

Source: I sell my "Foundations of Amateur Radio" ebooks on the Kindle store

And thank you for the reminder that I should go get a license before the entire system is so messed up that it wouldn't be possible.

Well or it would be irrelevant because no one would care.

Either way!

Same boat man. 'OK I'll throw a few schmeckles in because the author does need the compensation, but i'm getting the actual book elsewhere.'

I haven't looked at or held or otherwise directly perceived a kindle in many years now, but when I did it was insanely easy to just pop any old file into a converter and slip that onto the kindle and pirate and read as you like. Did they put a stop to that with some proprietary nonsense?

Mr Stallman needs to be considered from all sides before deciding whether you'll follow his lead. He's not without some toejam.

Imagine: pirating ebooks but donating money to the author at the same time. Win win.

You mean the authors would actually earn money instead of the "publisher"? How unfair! /s

When mist books were made of paper, the publishers job was quite the deal including printing, delivering, stocks, pulp the rests etc. So they took the lions share of the price together with the bookstore and the author got maybe 10-15% from the final price.

Today it's just theft.

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

Like wiki articles.

And also if you want books that can’t be altered buy a paper book

The books on my 1st generation kindle have been there 15 years unchanged. Just don't connect devices to the internet that don't need to be connected to the internet.

The "internet of things" that was sold to us is just a way for corporations to exert more control. I am pro-technology. I think an ebook reader is infinitely more useful and valuable than a paper book - I can fit tens of thousands of books on my Kindle, more than I could read in a lifetime, and a full charge lasts more than a month at a time.

I can use whatever font I want, I can scale the size to what I want. I can change the margins, place bookmarks, gives a % of how far I am in a book, skip to chapters, etc.

Like, it's objectively better than a book.

But it doesn't need to be connected to the internet.

Dahl was a great author but wasn’t a very pc person , his family have had to apologise for his anti semitism.

That is putting it very mildly.

"There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere. Even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.”

He said that in checks notes 1971.

Worse, it was in response to criticism to an article he wrote that was justifiably criticizing Israel at a time when it wasn't so popular to do so. And when he was accused of the old "you're anti-Israel, so you're anti-semitic" nonsense, he decided to go, "hell yeah I am!"

Changing words seems wrong with it sanitizing and makes future audiences unaware of how bigoted and flawed writers of a time period might be. It underplays cruel parts of society leading to a flawed rosy colored outlook. Now future readers won't know how far from PC writers like Dahl were.

Wait, if you have the old edition on your kindle, do they reach into your kindle and change what is there? Or do they just change the version in the store to the new edition, preferably with a new ISBN, if Kindles have ISBN's?

I remember about the Roald Dahl thing and it seemed pretty clear which edition people would be getting. And some of this stuff (according to another internet poster I mean) may have been intended to keep the books in copyright longer rather than to merely mess with the content. Blyton died in 1968 so her stuff could enter the public domain in the next few decades otherwise. That's nefarious too.

I remember for sure that Huckleberry Finn had the N word. Maybe little kids shouldn't be reading it, I'm cool with that, though I read it as a kid myself. But grown-ups who do read it can deal with an unexpurgated version.

I'm not saying you should call anyone a removed but you americans sure have some strange problems with words if you can't even put it in writing.

Should we censor words like Nazi, Hitler, Accident, Hate, Rape, and so on? Who decides the approved words? How do you even transcribe events correctly?

It's like peopke think that there is nothing bad done if we just don't talk about it.

Smh

Yes, I prefer to read over watching a video and being forced to go at someone else's pace.

The changing the Books part hasn't been archived in the Catf wiki yet, but the non downloadable books is already fully written

https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Amazon_Kindle

it blows my mind that people buy ebooks when Libby is free.

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?

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.

This reminds me of a joke....

A new monk arrives at the monastery and is assiged to help the other monks in copying the old texts by hand. When he looks closer, however, he notices that they are copying copies, not the original books. The new monk goes to the head monk to ask him about this. He points out to the head monk that should there be an error in the first copy, that error would be continued in all of the other copies. "We have been copying from the copies for centuries," says the head monk, "however, I must admit you make a very good point, my son." The head monk then goes down to the cellar with one of the copies to check it against the original. Hours pass and no one sees him, so one of the monks decides to go downstairs to look for him. When he arrives he hears loud sobbing coming from the back of the cellar and finds the old head monk leaning over one of the original books crying. "What's wrong," he asks the old monk. "The word is CELEBRATE!" sobs the old monk.

Have you, as a foreigner, been caught up by the American political-polarization bug^tm!? Here are a few warning signs that you may be affected.

• Do you find yourself often injecting "left-wing" or "right-wing" into titles?
• Do you have a perceived notion that anything negative being said must involve a certain political party?
• Do you feel the need to bring Trump up in a post that has nothing to do with him?
• Do you find yourself in the comments blaming "sides" without having read the article or watched the video?
• Have you found yourself demanding answers or change that's addressed in the post? (he literally brings up Dahl as his first example)

If you suspect that you or a loved one suffer from this syndrome, please turn off the devices and go outside.

A punchier example would be And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - the best selling murder mystery of all time - which was first published as Ten Little removeds

The controversy you pointed out is about someone who was writing factually false information and feeding hate against people who should be covered under the freedom of speech. The ban happened during his life, and not years after he died. Therefore his works were not a peace of gone culture, but hate in the present of time.

If I follow your argumentation, that being that you should allow people write false information feeding hate against specific people just living their life in peace, you should be against censoring Hate speech against Lgbtqia+ people too, or the better question would be: where do you draw the line? At Jews? At queer people?