If you’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop on Amazon’s device limits for using kindle edition books …
It’s 5 devices.
A lot of kindle books’ Product Details now include -
- Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
It’s happening even if you haven’t specified a limit (as it did for my free kindle calendar).
It seems to be a 5 device limit by default. There are however two exceptions -
- Some books don’t have the information yet.
- Some books have 6 device limits.
What does Kindle 5 device limit mean?
- You can download a kindle edition book as many times as you like.
- At one time you can have a book on at most 5 devices.
- You’ll have to have the 5 licenses reset if you go beyond 5 for any reason. This would be a call to customer service.
There’ll be more details revealed in time. Hopefully in a clear post at the kindle blog that explains everything.
My Thoughts on 5 device limit
- Its great that there’s clarity about the limit.
- It sucks that the default is 5 devices.
- Don’t really like that it’s specified as a publisher limitation when it’s not in my case.
- 3+ member families are not going to like this.
- There’ll be a hue and cry about how a 5 device limit is too limiting as compared to physical books where you could tear it into 7 sections and share with 6 other people.
Thanks to Earthling at the kindle forum for bringing this up.
Michael Jackson Updated Autobiography available early on Kindle
A Kindle Exclusive (certainly seems so) Michael Jackson book is making its way up the charts (it’s at #102 already) - Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958-2009 (Kindle Edition) by J. Randy Taraborrelli.
It’s supposedly only available in the Kindle Edition. Physical editions available are ones published in 1993 and 2004. Hardcover for this 2009 version is supposed to be out August.
And finally, a free short book – Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith #2: SkyBorn.
Filed under: news Tagged: | 5 device limit, kindle device limit
It is worse for periodicals – only a single device per issue and your iPhone cannot be one of those devices. When I switched from the K2 to the DX, I lost access to all of my unread back issues of a couple of magazines, except for the last couple issues.
Forgot to add: That wasn’t the case when I switched from the K1 to the K2. Don’t know what changed.
its ALWAYS been in the terms of use/EULA for the kindle that its a 5 device limit. i know because i actually read the terms of use before i bought my kindle 1 way back when it first came out.
as for periodicals, this also has always been the case, and again it was spelled out in the terms of use. you can manually back the issues off your kindle at any time, but the website will only provide a certain limited number (3 in most cases) of the most recent issues.
seriously, those ToS/EULA agreements that people usually just click through really DO need to be READ. they ARE contracts, after all. and if you dont read them, frankly, i dont think youre entitled to cry about it later when something covered in them comes up and bites you in the ass.
radio_babylon – I don’t know where you got the ‘always’ part on the reports of the of the 5-device limit for self-publishing authors under the Amazon publishing program (DTP).
See Amazon’s policy at
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200316870&#howmany
It’s been “up to 6 devices” – or shared WITH up to 5 other devices since I first looked a year ago.
In fact, the 5-device statements found by Earthling are apparently an error, which according to research by a staffer at the DTP forum at Amazon and they’re working to change those. Some self-publishing authors via Amazon are seeing the statements gone.
– Andrys
thats what i meant… “shared with 5 other devices” = “6 devices total”.
The DTP forum discussion of this, including statements by the Amazon staffer, is available to all, including guests, at
http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/thread.jspa?threadID=5281&tstart=0
– Andrys
Actually, the limit has always been six and it still says so in the FAQ page (the only place, other than marketing literature that the limit is discussed). I blogged about this on Thursday and started asking authors why they had set the limits – turns out none of them did, it was a blanket decision/change by Amazon as the DTP publisher.
However, it appears that whoever made the change didn’t clear it with someone (or it was just a test to see if anyone noticed). I’ve posted a note from “dtpadmin” that says they are working to correct the error (although no book listings that I checked have updated, yet).
http://booksontheknob.blogspot.com/2009/07/update-device-limits-on-dtpindie.html
does this mean I could have a friend register his kindle on the same email and we could share all our books? (have them on both of our kindles at the same time)
actually yes. you’d have to register both kindles on the same account and work out how you’d share payments.
then you could share every book. even read the same book at the same time.
Is there a Kindle 5?
No.