How Many Times Can You Download Your Kindle Book?
By Bonnie Crowe
The number of devices that can read e-books has exploded since the first Kindle came out in 2007. Kindle books can now be downloaded on e-readers, computers, tablets and cell phones. As you acquire new devices to read your books, you most likely will want to transfer those you’ve already purchased, as well as understand how many times you can download your Kindle books to new devices you might buy in the future.
Amazon's Answer
Amazon’s website contends that you can download Kindle books an unlimited number of times to each registered device attached to your Amazon account. It also reminds consumers that there are limits on the number of devices that can simultaneously access a Kindle book and that six is the typical maximum amount; so if you’ve already downloaded your Kindle book six times on six different devices, you can only download it again to one of these readers and not on anything new.
The Digital Rights Management Issue
While Amazon limits the number of devices you can download a book on to six, the book's publisher could decide to restrict that further. When you purchase a Kindle book from Amazon, you aren’t actually buying the book, but purchasing an access to license Amazon’s copy of the book. The book’s publisher is the one who owns the digital rights management, or DRM, which ultimately controls how many times you can download a Kindle book and on how many devices you can read it. If a book you wish to purchase has a special limit set by its publisher, Amazon will put the limit on its product page.
References
Writer Bio
Bonnie Crowe is a mother of two teenagers; a teacher and author of children's books, curriculum and articles on English grammar, literature, technology, art, parenting and career guides for high schoolers. She's a former director of AOL Parenting, a member of SCBWI, and a graduate from the University of California,Berkeley.