Say it with me kids, “This is why we pirate digital media from billion dollar corporations”
this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2026
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this is also why i started buying physical books and using my local public library again.
My local library allows borrowing ebooks. It's incredibly useful. I own two kindles and haven't spent a dime at Amazon for ebooks. I do buy physical books now and then from there, but only if I really need it and can't find elsewhere.
Good thing I put mine in airplane mode when I first got it and never updated firmware. I load books like its a flash drive.
Funny, my old kindle seems to be downloading e-books just fine from my self-hosted server.
Tell me more! My partner has an older Kindle, but it's been a while since I've added a book for her.
lol i already jailbroke my 2012 paperwhite and intstalled Koreader on it so I can sync it with my calibre epub library over wifi
It's a pity Calibre to date refuses to be refactored into a self-hosted service.
The core logic should be portable, with the app just being an interface to it, but no, the entire project is so much spaghetti it would feed the entire boot for over a year... such a shame.
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Kobo gang where you at?
I have an older Aura that isn't allowed library books. :/
YSK, there's a large number of older Kindles that can be jail broken.
I just ssh pirated .mobi files into mine
I've been using raw text files for my books, sent locally over USB, and that's the way it's gonna stay until my reader craps out
There's not really any advantage of using txt files over open standard drm-free epubs. You can still generate them yourself using txt editors or publishing software, you can still load them over USB. But epubs give you quality of life features on eReaders like title pages, table of contents, chapter headers, formatting markers like bold and italics.
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can't you just load epub with calibre or another sync to? I'm pretty sure that's what I do because that's what I'm doing
IMO for personal use "drag and drop into the correct directory" is an infinitely better organisational system than tag based libraries, especially for pirated books. I'm not going to sync my books across 10 different devices since I don't need more than 1 reader, so it doesn't make any sense for me to waste time using tags, let alone fix them for every book I download.
Or just drag and drop the epub.
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Jailbreaking and never turning airplane mode off has been the best decision I made with my kindle. Download from zlibrary, transfer to folder on kindle, done
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Correction: Older kindles can no longer download e-books with the stock rom
I have a kindle that I've had for ages. It has been jailbroken for a while and I've been loading my own epubs onto it. They make it easy with the 1 click send to kindle stuff but that locks you in to their ecosystem.
So the product lineup is now called "Kindle Paperweight" instead?
Weird.
I didnt know my Calibre server stopped working.
Just another day in the life of an enshittificator.
Switch to free and open formats, software and hardware. Ditch what you can. Hack and pirate what you must. Starve big tech.
I'm poor. I pirate stuff. When I can, I buy physical copies of the stuff I like.
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The magic word is Calibre
I've started to realize that early gen products are often less enshittified, even if they are frequently rough around the edges, and can often be hacked into a useful state unlike the newest hardware. By a few gens in, nearly everything is a giant plastic paperweight that only wants to phone home, download "updates" all the time, and probably needs multiple SSO sign ins and a subscription just to work. I'll keep my old Kindle 4th gen with KOreader until it breaks.
My older Kindle is jailbroken and does just fine. Jailbreak if you can, if you can't don't Kindle.
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Jailbreak then⚡
Jokes on Amazon I already jail broke mine and can directly download books from my Calibre server to it, KOreader ftw
As far as I know, it might still work with Calibre
My kindle has never been connected to the interwebs. Always used Calibre, wonderful software. About two weeks ago I used it to transfer books, worked with no problems.
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If I got an old kindle; how easy is it to jailbrake it and install a better system?
I just did it for the first time yesterday with an old Kindle I had lying around. It was super easy with this website: https://kindlemodding.org/
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Got my wife a Kobo for her birthday to replace her aging Kindle. She’s bought 1 book so far and gonna look at the Library integration.
Anyone got any tips for ways to use the Kobo? For example I have Calibre on my Mac and have used that to copy books I’ve “acquired” for her, is there any benefit in self hosting Calibre? Is it possible to get her Kindle books on the Kobo or is the DRM a nightmare nowadays?
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I have a kindle keyboard (2012) and I gave up on amazon a long time ago, now I just convert-upload epubs to it using calibre and read.
More than a decade on, and it's still one of the best kindles ever made, in my opinion.
You had physical buttons instead of a fiddly touch-screen, you could have music, have it read to you, and also go on the internet.
Plus it's old enough it supports a bunch of formats, and registers as a mass storage device to a computer, so anything can use it.
I mean it is very slow, and there are much newer readers supporting open formats. Pocketbook. Even Kobo is alright.
But best best Kindle, I guess is any jailbroken one
Any suggestions for which Kindle to get off of ebay for jailbreaking purposes, when they start showing up en masse?
Whatever e-reader you get make sure it's one that you can jailbreak to install koreader, beyond that it's just personal preferences. Do you want hardware buttons or a touchscreen? Are you happy with a lower resolution? Do you need integrated light for the display?
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They can still be jailbroken and Calibre still exists
So, I cannot buy new books or download my current ones. But, I can download them without paying and then install them still over USB? OK Amazon, that clears things up fine for me.
Good job me never ever having bought any books on amazon. I go out of my way to buy them DRM free. Good old Paperwhite Gen 1 still going strong here.
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My second-hand, old as hell, button-only kindle has never downloaded any book from Amazon since I got it. Only Calibre.
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