Amazon changes how copyright protection is applied to Kindle Direct’s self-published ebooks

Amazon has announced a significant shift in its approach to Digital Rights Management (DRM) for self-published eBooks on its Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform. Starting January 20, 2026, authors will have the option to offer their eBooks in EPUB and PDF formats, free from DRM restrictions. This move is aimed at providing greater flexibility for readers and authors alike. Under the new guidelines, authors can decide whether to apply DRM when publishing their works. However, this change will not affect eBooks that have already been published. For those wishing to alter the DRM status of their existing titles, they will need to access the KDP author portal and adjust the settings accordingly. Clear instructions for making these changes are available on Amazon's KDP support site. The decision has sparked mixed reactions among authors. Leslie Anne Perry, a user on the KDP Community forums, expressed a change of heart regarding DRM, stating that she previously avoided it to allow for easier sharing among devices in a household. Now, she is considering enabling it for future publications to prevent potential downloads in PDF format. While some authors are embracing the new options, others have raised concerns about the implications for privacy and content sharing. One community member pointed out that the ability to convert DRM-free Kindle files into other formats has always existed, suggesting that the changes may not significantly enhance user privacy. Amazon frames this update as a way to enhance the reader experience by allowing access to content in more versatile formats. However, it's important to note that authors must actively choose to change the status of older works to enable these new formats. By selecting the option to go DRM-free, authors acknowledge that customers will then be able to download their eBooks as PDF or EPUB files. In recent months, Amazon has also tightened restrictions on eBook sharing and backup capabilities, introducing a new DRM system that complicates the process for Kindle users to back up their purchases without jailbreaking their devices. Following an earlier update that removed USB transfer options, this latest change has further frustrated many Kindle owners. Once authors update the DRM status of their eBooks, Amazon has stated that it may take up to 72 hours for those changes to become effective on the platform.