Amazon continues to crackdown on Kindle e-book sharing

In terms of the Kindle ereader ecosystem, Amazon’s Send to Kindle utility has all the time been one of many extra helpful options obtainable to end-users. The software makes it straightforward to wirelessly ship paperwork and digital ebook information on to your Kindle, permitting you to make the most of your E Ink display for a extra snug studying expertise.

For higher or worse, it now seems that Amazon is cracking down on one traditionally obtainable Ship to Kindle loophole: the flexibility to make use of a partial electronic mail tackle or a partial area to provoke the method. As reported by Good E-Reader, textual content information despatched from an unapproved or incomplete tackle will fail to be delivered beginning on April 1.

Bookworms on the unofficial r/Kindle subreddit rapidly took word of a brand new electronic mail despatched out from Amazon Kindle Help, by which the corporate seems to substantiate the coverage change in writing.

“To boost safety, Ship to Kindle will solely help full electronic mail addresses (e.g., “kindlecustomer@xyz.com”) and can now not help partial electronic mail addresses or domain-only addresses (e.g., “@xyz.com”) after April 1, 2025. This alteration helps be sure that solely senders from emails you particularly approve can ship paperwork to your Kindle,” reads the e-mail from Amazon Kindle Help.

Whereas this alteration is unlikely to have an effect on most on a regular basis customers, it does put a damper on issues within the schooling and enterprise scenes. Till now, some organizations have utilized domain-only electronic mail addresses to push out Advance Reader Copy (ARC) information to many customers in a simultaneous capability.

This Ship to Kindle change will undoubtedly put ARC companies like BookFunnel in a trickier scenario going ahead. As one Reddit user points out, the change may additionally break sure third-party app features. Specifically, the favored Readwise service offers a Ship to Kindle characteristic that depends on a @readwise.io partial area tackle to do its job.

Amazon seems to be within the strategy of closing book-sharing loopholes

The corporate not too long ago deprecated the Obtain & Switch through USB possibility throughout its Kindle lineup

Amazon made headlines simply weeks in the past, when it confirmed the removal of Kindle’s ‘Obtain & Switch through USB’ possibility starting February 26. This explicit change gutted the flexibility for customers to switch and backup their Kindle-purchased ebooks instantly through a wired USB connection.

Since then, some Kindle customers have expressed their discontent with Amazon’s ever-tightening stance on e-book file transferring, digital rights administration (DRM) insurance policies, and ecosystem lock-in. Ownership in the digital age is a sensitive topic, and, sadly, books are simply as inclined to nebulous licensing phrases as digital motion pictures, TV exhibits, and video video games are.

Fortunately, for the foreseeable future, the Ship to Kindle characteristic itself will proceed to function usually — as long as you present a full-length electronic mail username, and keep away from utilizing a domain-only tackle.

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