{"id":63,"date":"2019-07-01T21:53:04","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T21:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.grunk.xyz\/?p=63"},"modified":"2026-06-24T05:45:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T05:45:25","slug":"microsoft-announces-it-will-shut-down-ebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.grunk.xyz\/?p=63","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft announces it will shut down ebook program and confiscate its customers’ libraries"},"content":{"rendered":"

alls-well-that-ends-weird<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

unlimited-shitpost-works<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

winneganfake<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

greenycrimson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

mostlysignssomeportents<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n
<\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

\nMicrosoft has a DRM-locked ebook store that isn\u2019t making enough money,
\nso they\u2019re shutting it down and taking away every book that every one of
\n its customers acquired effective July 1.\n<\/p>\n

\nCustomers will receive refunds.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis puts the difference between DRM-locked media and unencumbered media
\n into sharp contrast. I have bought a lot of MP3s over the years,
\nthousands of them, and many of the retailers I purchased from are long
\ngone, but I still have the MP3s. Likewise, I have bought many books from
\n long-defunct booksellers and even defunct publishers, but I still own
\nthose books.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhen I was a bookseller, nothing I could do would result in your losing
\nthe book that I sold you. If I regretted selling you a book, I didn\u2019t
\nget to break into your house and steal it, even if I left you a cash
\nrefund for the price you paid.\n<\/p>\n

\nPeople sometimes treat me like my decision not to sell my books through
\nAmazon\u2019s Audible is irrational (Audible will not let writers or
\npublisher opt to sell their books without DRM), but if you think Amazon
\nis immune to this kind of shenanigans, you are sadly mistaken. My books
\nmatter a lot to me. I just paid $8,000 to have a container full of books
\n shipped from a storage locker in the UK to our home in LA so I can be
\ncloser to them. The idea that the books I buy can be relegated to some
\nkind of fucking software license is the most grotesque and awful thing I
\n can imagine: if the publishing industry deliberately set out to destroy
\n any sense of intrinsic, civilization-supporting value in literary
\nworks, they could not have done a better job.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/boingboing.net\/2019\/04\/02\/burning-libraries.html<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you\u2019ve got an ereader and want to actually own your books, I heartily recommend using cailbre to scrape the DRM off and so you can backup the files.<\/p>\n

Cailbre d\/l:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/calibre-ebook.com\/download<\/a><\/p>\n

How to use cailbre to remove DRM:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.geoffstratton.com\/remove-drm-amazon-kindle-books<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Seconding calibre as a brilliant tool for ebook management in general.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

calibre is good<\/p>\n

and it\u2019s free and open source software!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Cailbre helped me properly access ebooks my dad bought for me ages ago whose encryption keys had been outmoded and were no longer available for my new laptop\u2019s os! Nearly 15 of the books he\u2019d given me I hadn\u2019t even had a chance to read before then, but the free copy of cailbre I got online had all of the old, outdated encryption program keys!! <\/p>\n

10\/10, It\u2019s good software!<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

alls-well-that-ends-weird: unlimited-shitpost-works: winneganfake: greenycrimson: mostlysignssomeportents: Microsoft has a DRM-locked ebook store that isn\u2019t making enough money, so they\u2019re shutting it down and taking away every book that every one of its customers acquired effective July 1. Customers will receive refunds. This puts the difference between DRM-locked media and unencumbered media into sharp contrast. I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.grunk.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.grunk.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.grunk.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.grunk.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.grunk.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.grunk.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2258,"href":"https:\/\/blog.grunk.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/2258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.grunk.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.grunk.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.grunk.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}