In light of Amazon’s decision to disable the ‘Download or Transfer via USB’ feature from their Kindle devices, Arnav Kaman discusses DRMs/TPMs, the rights of the user, what users can do with their ebooks within the fair use doctrine, and the future of ebooks in this guest post. Arnav is a 3rd Year Law student from Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab. He’s interested in Narratives and the Law, along with supporting local independent bookstores.
Amazon Owns Your E-Books and Wants More
Arnav Kaman
To admit authorities, however heavily furred and gowned, into our libraries and let them tell us how to read, what to read, what value to place upon what we read, is to destroy the spirit of freedom which is the breath of those sanctuaries. Everywhere else we may be bound by laws and conventions — there we have none.
Virginia Woolf, How Should One Read a Book?, 1925
As of 26th February, 2025, Kindle users will no longer be able to use the feature ‘Download or Transfer via USB’, for Kindle Purchased books, as Amazon is discontinuing the feature. The ‘Download or Transfer via USB’ feature allowed users to download their Kindle-purchased books onto their device, or to transfer it to a different Kindle via USB. Kindle users will still be able to download and transfer purchased books via Wi-Fi. On the face of it, the act appears to be harmless, discontinuing a feature many Kindle users might not have used, but Amazon’s intentions are far more calculated and effects wide-reaching. In the blog below the author will analyse Kindle’s nature as a bookseller, why this reduces the rights of consumers, and why this spells out a dark future for eBooks, and the broader world of literature and knowledge.
Kindle Does Not Sell Books
Before delving into substantial analysis, a simple truth about Kindle must be understood. A curious truth, that, to Kindle’s credit, they have never attempted to hide. Kindle is not a bookseller. They categorically do not sell e-books. What Kindle sells, instead of books, is licenses. More specifically“… a non-exclusive right to view, use, and display such Kindle Content…. Kindle Content is licensed, not sold, to you by the Content Provider.”
Many publishers and independent authors will sell the PDF or EPUB files of books, being the universal format recommended by booksellers to rally around, and after legally purchasing them, consumers own that digital media. Similar to owning physical copies of a book they can do whatever they wish with their copies under the fair use doctrine but the relationship of consumers and Kindle is not one of buyer and seller, but licensee and licenser.
When purchasing e-books on the Kindle app for Desktop or for the E-reader, books are not sold in the EPUB format, instead these ‘licenses’ are downloaded in their own proprietary formats: AZW3 and KFX. These formats of ‘access’ to the books cannot be read by non-kindle devices, but conspicuously it must be noted that Kindle can read EPUB files.
Sharp customers had found a workaround for this system that narrowed their rights of access. By backing up or downloading the content onto their computer or desktop via USB they could through a process using digital tools, change the format of AZW3 format into a universal one such as PDF and EPUB, but the same will no longer be possible after the discontinuation of the feature.
These techniques of access control are all part of Digital Rights Management (DRM) and more specifically these are Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) introduced to protect the rights of the copyright holder. One might argue that this move by Kindle is to crack down on piracy and to prevent illegal circumvention of TPM and DRM.
But it is pertinent to ask a prior question: Is changing the format of a purchased Kindle book to other formats, by itself, punishable by law?
Is Reading Books in a Different Format Illegal?
The question in this section must be narrowed to, whether or not changing the format and circumventing the DRM is illegal, by itself. Individuals do not change the format only for commercial piracy purposes, instead they may have personal uses. They might prefer to back up their copy offline, change the material to a disable-friendly format, or most pertinent example; shift one’s Kindle-purchased book library to a different E-reader device altogether.
Through the Copyright Amendment Act, 2012, DRM and TPMs received a legal sanction as the newly introduced Section 65A (1) criminalised the act of circumventing the DRM with the intention to infringe on copyright laws. But sub-section (2) equally importantly notes that:
Nothing in sub-section (1) shall prevent any person from (a) doing anything referred to therein for a purpose not expressly prohibited by this Act.
While piracy, unauthorised sale and distribution of copyrighted materials has been explicitly prohibited by the copyright act, it is not necessary that the act of circumventing the DRM will always lead to piracy. Section 65A is unique in the fact, that it prescribes criminal punishment rather than a civil penalty. Thus the higher evidentiary standard of intention to infringe upon copyright must also be proved (p 588).
Only when it is proved that there has been circumvention and intention to commit copyright infringement, such as through piracy, is Section 65A applicable. This view is further supported by the proviso to sub-section 2 that lays down the legal method to facilitate such a circumvention. The inference is that not all circumventing activities are illegal. Only the ones that lead to further infringement of copyright.
Section 52 espouses the exceptions to infringement of copyright under the Fair Dealing Doctrine. After the 1994 amendment, S. 52 (1) (i) included the exemptions of “private or personal use, including research;”. Activities such as making a backup copy for private use, converting to a disable-friendly format or transferring to a different E-reader cannot be considered as infringement of the copyright, if they do not include sharing, commercial use etc. instead coming under the Fair Dealing Doctrine in India.
Such activities are assuredly against the Terms of Service of Amazon they are not punishable under law.
Kindle’s One Way Street
There are two major effects of Kindle’s move here: Firstly, it disincentivises consumers to leave Kindle and secondly, increases their control over the content.
Since books purchased on the Kindle library can only be read in an unconvertible format, it basically makes it impossible for users to transfer their Kindle Purchased library to any other E-reader. Users wanting to shift can no longer use the transfer via USB feature and instead would have to buy those books again. Thus, disincentivising readers to leave the Kindle ecosystem.
Secondly and more dangerously, it shows a pattern of Kindle continuing to reduce the rights of individuals over their books. In 2009, users woke up to find their purchased copy of 1984 had disappeared from their library. This was possible through the unique licensing arrangement of Kindle and would not be possible in the case of ownership. After a fairly large settlement in the US, restrictions were put on Kindle to never remove or modify books purchased in the US without the user’s consent. But the same is not applicable for the rest of the world including India. At any moment, an Indian Kindle user’s legally purchased book could be taken away, or replaced and edited in their Kindle library without their consent. This would be perfectly within Kindle’s rights. This is not a far-flung proposition either, as it is happening with Roald Dahl’s books being edited and censored in 2023. With Kindle removing the feature to download via USB, they also take away the only feature for users to exercise control over their legally purchased books.
Conclusion
As more and more readers opt into the Kindle ecosystems, their control grows over reading culture. They will ultimately govern the relationship readers have with the purchased materials. Whether by way of removing purchased books, or editing the content of books, wholly without the customer’s consent, a private corporation will control the flow and access of digital books. But such a dystopia is only true when consumers continue to opt into their ecosystem and contribute to their monopoly. Consumers should carefully consider where they will spend their hard-earned money to buy books and eBooks. New competitors are entering the field of eBooks, and one should never forget Amazon’s biggest competition; buying physical books from local independent bookstores.