How to Protect Your Amazon eBooks

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A Norwegian woman recently claimed her Amazon Kindle was remotely wiped – all the books she paid for were suddenly gone, with no explanation.

She eventually got them back after making some noise online, still without any explanation from Amazon. But if you want to prevent a similar situation from happening to you, Ars Technica explains how to do it. Though they’re not sure if it’s legal…

Fortunately, though, there’s an easy way to ensure you can avoid the same fate as Nygaard. By downloading a free and open-source e-book management app known as Calibre, and a corresponding plugin that cracks Amazon’s DRM encryption, you can convert any Kindle e-book into an iBook format, or pretty much any other format that you like.

We will offer this caveat, however: it’s quite possible the technique we’re about to outline violates not only Amazon’s Terms of Service, but the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as well. We are not advocating breaking the law, but we are demonstrating for non-American Kindle users how this technique can be used to safeguard against remote deletion tactics. Related laws may differ in countries around the world, so be sure to check your local situation if you’re unsure. In short, follow our instructions at your own risk.

Check out the step-by-step instructions with pictures at Ars Technica.

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