How to discover/work around a limited number of devices for Kindle ebooks?

Question

After reading Nathan's answer to this question, I was surprised that there was a limit on the number of devices you can download book to. I'm assuming this is controlled by Amazon but I would like to find the details on this.

If you download to one device and then hit the limit is it possible to 'officially remove' the book from one device so you can read it on another, newer device?

Also, is there a way to see how many 'devices are remaining' for an ebook or when purchasing an ebook is there a way to see how many devices it supports?

Answer 1

To keep within the limit, you may want to deregister an old device that you no longer read on (for instance, you may have put the Kindle reading app on a laptop that you've since replaced).

To do this, simply log into your Amazon account and choose Manage Your Kindle (the link is located in the Digital Content section of Your Account page). You'll find Manage Your Devices in the options listed under Your Kindle Account_. When you select any of the devices you've read from, a "Deregister" link is available that removed the device from your list.

Answer 2

As stated in Consumerist, as far as Amazon goes (the rules are usually similar [not identical] for B&N):

• You can download a book an unlimited number of times.
• In most cases, you can download the book to 6 devices. If you need to download it to more devices than that, you can request that Amazon release additional licenses for the book. According to Dan’s [their contact] recap of the conversation, Amazon promises nothing. But you can ask and they’ll probably oblige.
• Then there are the “other” cases, where a publisher sets the number of simultaneous devices to a lower limit. The following is from an email Dan received from Amazon’s customer support: “Publishers choose whether they apply DRM to their content and thus determine how many copies of each title can be downloaded to different Kindle devices at the same time.”
• There’s no way to find out this limit prior to buying the book.
• Releasing new licenses requires that all of your current device licenses be removed, so you’ll have to start over and re-download them to all devices again.

You should be able to remove a book from one device and download onto another after reaching your limit as long as both devices are connected to the internet, but there's no guarantee. There does not seem to be a way to see how many devices are left.

Answer 3

Kindle is working as USB drive after connecting to computer, so you can copy any e-books to and from the device. In that way you can copy your e-book to the unlimited number of devices, though it requires some more work.

I personally use that way, because I want to have full controll over the e-books I have. In case of books with DRM protection you'd need to remove that protection (for some people it may be a bit controversial, but they are wrong - it's the principe that you should have full control over your property for which you have paid). I don't have any experience with DRM, because for principial reasons, I avoid anything that has to do with DRM.