Credit: Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Amazon’s latest Kindle update makes it almost impossible to remove DRM from newly downloaded e-books.
- A jailbreak specialist says the e-books are now tied to a hidden “account secret” only accessible with a previously jailbroken device.
- It follows earlier restrictions like removing USB transfers and blocking downloads on older versions of the Kindle Android app.
Amazon just rolled out a change to its Kindle e-readers that could frustrate anyone who likes to keep permanent copies of their e-books. The newest firmware update, version 5.18.5, strengthens Amazon’s Digital Rights Management (DRM) — the copy-protection system that prevents people from freely backing up or transferring Kindle books.
Goodereader reported the change, citing a post on the Mobileread forum that the publication identified as from one of the lead developers of a jailbreak method. In the poster’s explanation, they said the new system applies fresh encryption to any newly downloaded e-books, regardless of when they were originally purchased or published. Books where the publisher has opted out of copy-protection are not affected.