Amazon Kindle discussion
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Multiple Kindles per account?
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I've heard that you can do what you propose, but it's a PITA. And she may end up having to re-download books when she reregisters to her own account. If you want to share books on a regular basis, AND if you can trust her to pay you for charges to your account, you might as well just register her Kindle to your account.
Or, at only $80, get her a Kindle touch registered to your account, if she has a lot of content on her own. I think you can have it ask for the password rather than set up one-click for purchase.
Then, it could be the family pass-around Kindle, all hooked to your library.

This is how my friends and I do it -- step by step below. We each have our own account where we buy books. But we log on to each other's accounts to share books.
1. Get the sign in and password.
2. Deregister your Kindle from your account (from the settings page on your kindle -- or from Manage Your Acount page on Amazon).
3. Register your kindle to friend's accont (from the settings page on your kindle).
4. Immediately, all your folders dissapear, but everything 1) not in a folder and 2) hard loaded from your computer (not downloaded) stays on the kindle.
5. Go to archives on your Kindle (it will now be friend's archives) OR go to friend's Manage Your Kindle Content on amazon.com (you need to sign in as friend) and send/download the books you want to your Kindle (which is now registered to friend's account). I prefer browsing online once my kindle is registered to their account. But both options are available.
6. Once you have the books you want, deregister from friend's account (same as above.)
7. Register back into your account (same as above).
8. Your folders/collections will re-apear, all the books you downloaded from your friend's accounts are STILL (yippee!) on your kindle and also all the books you have hard loaded onto your kindle are there. So basically -- everything is there.
Easy peasy, takes literally minutes. :)

Once your friend deregisters from your account, the license number for the number of books allowed to be read at the same time on any given device -- returns to the original number. I have called and talked to Amazon about this and they have confirmed all this for me -- years ago before I started doing it.
I hope this helps.

The simplicity of it almost makes me wonder why Amazon won't allow basic lending with more flexibility.

I have reviewed the FAQs on account sharing and the user agreement, this is not a violation of it. Unless I have missed a provision and someone else would like to point it out. :)
The Nook has something similiar but there are more controls (or at least there were when I tried it). On the Nook you need to enter the credit card information once you have registered to an account. And then when you deregister the Nook from the account the book does not stay on the Nook.
There are some limitations to the Amazon method. For example, if you save the book and upload it to your computer -- if you get another Kindle, you cannot transfer the book from your friend's account to another kindle, it won't work. The book can only be read on the kindle that was at one time registered to the friend's account.

It's interesting. The licensing you buy (no quibbling here - you're *not* buying actual books, but licenses to access their content) is keyed to an Amazon account, but the download is keyed to a device.
Why?
Could Amazon be paying out royalties per "copy" based on device, even though we only pay per account? I doubt it's data mining - there's enough in the EULA to allow them to know what Amazon-DRM content you loaded onto another device even if you went through your own computer instead of direct from their site.
Maybe it's something about it being more difficult to clone a whole device than to create a jailbreak code that mimics attachment to a certain account? Such as the device ID including the MAC address or some other bit of hardware ID that's difficult to spoof.
It's just funny when you think about the concerns that both Amazon and the publishers have over "sharing" of different types. Seems quite silly how much they care.

I think if it were soley up to Amazon they would sell the books drm free like they do on their music side for mp3 files. I think it is the publishers who are insisting on DRM and limiting the number of devices linked to an account at one time.
The publishers are afraid of a napster or where a book club would by 1 copy of the book and register dozens of kindles to a single account instead of each member buying their own copy.


They don't even have ever to give out their amazon user name and password. The owner would just ask for everyone's kindle device I'd and register them on the website. The only time someone needs the password is to login on the web or to register a kindle through the kindle settings menu.

I don't give my password out to the world, but there is a limitation to what someone can do with it anyway. Sure, they could order something I don't want. But I get the email notifying me - -and then I call amazon and get it refunded and I change my password. There are not huge ramifications to it. But, still it is a sensitive ownership issue and I only give it to someone who I know and trust and who reciprocates -- like my mom, dad, a neighbor, and two other friends.


For example, if my sister was to get her own Kindle and wanted to read something that I've already purchased, it seems it would be possible to have her de-register the device from her account, register it onto mine, and sync a book that I had purchased. (No different than me loaning her a paper book - before anyone starts to fuss over royalties. :)
Does the system really work that easily to move devices around? Is there a limit of how many devices can attach to my account, or how many times one device can move? What am I perhaps missing here?