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Backing up amazon kindle books & understanding DRM

· 3 min read
D Balaji
D Balaji
Lead Design Technologist

Amazon kindle books

What is amazon kindle & how it stores ebooks​

Kindle is an ebook reading device with a browser and other capabilities. The kindle differs from tablets in one thing, i.e. the screen of the kindle is easy on your eyes so you can read for long hours without straining your eyes.

You can download books to kindle and they are available offline. The download happens through 2 modes.

  1. Through wifi, direct download to kindle

  2. Through USB transfer, the book can be downloaded from the amazon site and sideloaded.

Amazon has its ebook format (AWZ3) in which the book gets downloaded to the device and is locked with DRM.

How is ebook different from PDF books​

If you are from web development, there is a concept of responsive web development in which the screen adapts itself to the screen width. IF we port the RWD concept to books, it becomes ebooks. The content is dynamically adjusted for screen width, font size, etc.

The adaptive nature cannot be found in PDF books. The page numbers and the contents are fixed and cannot be changed as per device requirements which makes reading a hassle on kindle. So do not sideload PDF books.

That's why in the reading world, other ebook formats are popular like epub, Mobi etc.

Whats the deal with AWZ3 and DRM?​

Let's say you download an ebook from the manage content and devices page on amazon, you cannot share it with your friend. You cannot read the book on your PC either. The book you download is locked to the kindle device or app preventing the sharing of books. It's similar to protecting a zip file with a password.

DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. Its a technique employed to protect digital assets from unauthorized access and use. In the simplest form, it's an encryption technique. In the case of Kindle, the book is encrypted with the kindle serial number so you can read only on the particular kindle device.

Why should we backup books from a kindle?​

I wanted to backup kindle books so that I can keep them in my personal ebooks folder. You may have your reasons too.

How to backup from a kindle?​

I prefer downloading the book from the amazon manage content and devices page. That way we can bypass the detective job of finding where and how the books are organized in kindle storage. Read more about it on an article from PCMag

DRM locks it from reading, then what next?​

Of course, we need to break the DRM by using online tools. Then you can preserve the book in your ebook folder on PC.

Before you use the online converter, make sure you have the kindle serial number handy.

I believe it's illegal and you should not mess with DRM books. As a geek, this article is to educate you on the possibilities and to understand tech like DRM. The very first professional assignment of mine had some work related to DRM (Digital Rights Management). I appreciate this technology.