*Please* help me with a back issue of The New Yorker :(

[nusilver]

All,

Recently, I sat at my kitchen table with my girlfriend, reading her Jonathan Safran Foer's "Here We Aren't, So  Quickly," from the June 14th & 21st Summer Fiction Issue of The New Yorker. I wasn't trying to get all emotional, but the story just sort of swept me into it's insights about relationships and growing old together, and by the end of the story, tears were rolling down my cheeks.

I came close to tears again this morning when I went to read more of the issue on my Kindle and found out it had been removed from my device because I failed to mark it "keep." of course, the issue isn't available to download again from Amazon.com, and when I called customer service (my first time, I usually just email, but this was important to me!), the representative assured me they could send the magazine back to my Kindle, put me on hold, and then promptly came back and said "uh...I guess I didn't know our back issue retention policy. It's not letting me go farther back than July 5th." He then apologized because he couldn't help me, thanked me for my patronage, and hung up the phone.

I love my Kindle, and despite having an iPad, I recently ordered a second device for my girlfriend to read on. But this is a major disappointment! So I'm hoping to appeal to a community that I've always viewed from the outside as very passionate about their Kindles, and compassionate to users looking for help that Amazon couldn't provide them.

Is there someone familiar with the process of removing DRM from Kindle content who would *please* make a copy of the June 14th Summer Fiction Issue of The New Yorker and send it to my email address so I can load it back onto my Kindle? I realize that request seems like a shady one, but the recent changes to the DMCA that made jailbreaking iPhones legal also made removing DRM from ebooks legal. I'd be so incredibly appreciative if someone could help me out with this. If you're interested in helping me and, please email me. If you're not familiar with the DRM removal process, I can help you through it if you've got a Mac...I'm not sure how it works, if at all, on a PC. And even if someone just wants to send me a copy-protected issue and the serial number for their Kindle (required to remove DRM), I can do it myself, though I wouldn't generally recommend giving out your device's serial.

Thanks in advance, guys/ladies. Also, moderators, if this topic feels too "grey," despite my assertions to the legality of DRM removal from ebooks, please allow me to edit it before removing it. This is really, really important to me. 

[MichelleR]

Why not contact The New Yorker? I'm sure they could either get you the issue or the story.

[nusilver]

That is one option; I could buy the digital edition and sync in to my iPad - I don't need print copies cluttering up our house, though, so that's not a solution for me - but I'm really hoping to get the issue back onto my Kindle, since it's what I travel with and it's where my 30 other back issues reside.

[pidgeon92]

If you buy access to the digital edition, you may be able to send the story to a file that can be used on your Kindle.

[nusilver]

That's true, ala that "read later" button I've got that sends articles to my Kindle - but it won't show up in my periodicals folder with the rest of my back issues, and additionally, the idea of paying for something I've already paid for and thought I owned irks me. In any case, I appreciate both your suggestions, and am amused at your dog avatars , but my original request still stands.

In the meantime, it's time to head to the office, so thanks for your suggestions. Again, if anyone has the issue, please email me. My email address should be public. I'll check back here a bit later.

[pidgeon92]

I sympathize. I'd help if I could.

I do suggest that you back up every issue on your PC as you receive it. That way if something happens to the one on your Kindle, you can always retrieve your backup.

[PG4003 (Patricia)]

Have you looked at their website?  Most magazines allow you to order back issues.  Of course it would be paper, not digital.

[mwb]

Have you looked at their website?  Most magazines allow you to order back issues.  Of course it would be paper, not digital.

You can also buy digital access to specific issues of the New Yorker via their archives. 

[Ann in Arlington]

Is there someone familiar with the process of removing DRM from Kindle content who would *please* make a copy of the June 14th Summer Fiction Issue of The New Yorker and send it to my email address so I can load it back onto my Kindle? I realize that request seems like a shady one, but the recent changes to the DMCA that made jailbreaking iPhones legal also made removing DRM from ebooks legal.

That's debatable.    But let's not.

Regardless, we don't allow discussion of how to break DRM here at KindleBoards, or provide assistance in doing so.  Sorry.  

I suggest that you contact the New Yorker and see what they can do for you.  I appreciate that you aren't keen to pay for it again, but the magazine issue retention policies for Kindle subscriptions are pretty clearly stated.  It would be nice if one could buy back issues. . . . . maybe some day.

Good Luck.

[nusilver]

Ann,

A couple of things:

The legal removal of DRM from eBooks isn't debatable, it's fact, and anyone that's interested can read the text of the U.S. Copyright Office's Anticircumvention Rulemaking here: http://www.copyright.gov/1201/ . I will admit that that case covers a specific reason for DRM removal, a case which does not cover my situation...but I've made my reason for requesting this issue clear, and don't feel like I am violating any copyrights by requesting a DRM-free version, especially because I have already paid for this content.

Second, browsing through the New Yorker's digital edition FAQ, it specifically states that Kindle Subscriptions are separate and not equal to the Digital Edition, specifically going so far as to say Kindle Subscribers aren't allowed access to the archives. If the case were different, this would basically solve my problem of not having access to the issue I already paid for, though I wouldn't be able to read it on my Kindle.

And third, while issue retention policies are clearly stated on the page you click on to subscribe to a periodical, that doesn't mean the average user is going to remember that small detail at the point at which they made their purchase. I didn't know the policy, and the Amazon customer service representative that was, supposedly, a Kindle specialist did not know the policy either. If your specialists don't know your policy, it isn't stated clear enough.

In any case, I'm not trying to be "argumentative," per se, only trying to present a valid argument to your response. I will, of course, comply with your guidelines, appreciate the group's collective sympathy, and will continue to make use of your site.

Thanks, all!

Michael

[The Hooded Claw]

If you could scan a paper copy of the article into a pdf, the pdf is readable on later model Kindles. Or so I believe, I don't deal with Kindle and pdf much.

[Tom Diego]

I think that it's pretty clear that if the New Yorker isn't going to help you out, and Amazon isn't going to help you out, debating DRM here isn't going to solve your problem. 

Have you made your request on MobileRead.com?  They actively discuss DRM removal there and you're probably more likely to find someone there who is not only sympathetic to your specific plight but may have already deDRMed their copy of this issue. 

[nusilver]

Thanks for your suggestion, Tom. I wasn't aware of that site's existence. I'll migrate my request over to them.

mb

[Basilius]

I came close to tears again this morning when I went to read more of the issue on my Kindle and found out it had been removed from my device because I failed to mark it "keep." of course, the issue isn't available to download again from Amazon.com, and when I called customer service (my first time, I usually just email, but this was important to me!), the representative assured me they could send the magazine back to my Kindle, put me on hold, and then promptly came back and said "uh...I guess I didn't know our back issue retention policy. It's not letting me go farther back than July 5th." He then apologized because he couldn't help me, thanked me for my patronage, and hung up the phone.

I only subscribe to two periodicals, but I can go back to the beginning of my subscriptions (March) and retrieve all issues from the Manage My Kindle page. Also, I've got a Periodicals: Back Issues entry in my DX home page that has everything I've received since, I think, the 2.5 upgrade. Only two of these are marked "keep," so that's not why they're being stored on my Kindle.

I have no idea if either suggestion there will help you.

Is there someone familiar with the process of removing DRM from Kindle content who would *please* make a copy of the June 14th Summer Fiction Issue of The New Yorker and send it to my email address so I can load it back onto my Kindle?

Here, you are probably going to be out of luck. For two reasons which you may, or may not, understand. One, nobody has determined how to retrieve the PID from a kindle upgraded to 2.5 or later. This is required to strip the DRM from a file downloaded to your Kindle. Two, the usual workaround for this problem won't apply here because periodicals may not be downloaded to the Kindle for PC app.

The only way you'd be able to strip the DRM is if somebody has a copy of that issue on a Kindle that hasn't been upgraded to 2.5.

[nusilver]

Thanks, Basilius. I'm familiar with the process of getting a PID for the purposes of removing DRM, but wasn't aware that this method didn't work for Kindles updated to 2.5.

[Steph H]

I only subscribe to two periodicals, but I can go back to the beginning of my subscriptions (March) and retrieve all issues from the Manage My Kindle page.

My guess is that your periodicals are monthly, thus you haven't yet reached your first limit of 7 issues, where something will be automatically deleted.  The New Yorker, however, is weekly, so he apparently reached his over-7-issues limit and the problem is the issue he wants from June was deleted.  The limit doesn't go by months, it goes by number-of-issues, so you lose weeklies quicker than monthlies. Daily, of course, goes even quicker.

Of course, if your periodicals are weekly not monthly...I have no idea why you still have back to March in your archives.

[mrscottishman]

OK, count me strange and old fashioned but I have seen so many posts here and other places complaining about missing blogs, disappearing magazines, late newspapers and such that I haven't tried any of them. 

Heck, I can't even keep a kindle running until this last one.

The whole journal thing is haunted 

Scott

[LibbyD]

Hasn't it occurred to you that you can go to your public library and zerox the story?  Sometimes doing things the old-fashioned way is the most expedient.

If the story means so much to you, you shouldn't be "irked" by paying 10 cents a page to replace it, nor should you be bothered by the "clutter" of a few pages of real paper.  

[Tom Diego]

Hasn't it occurred to you that you can go to your public library and zerox [sic] the story?

And if you get the actual text of the article, you could always try scanning the pages using OCR to import into a Word document.  Send that to your Kindle e-mail address and have it converted.  Now you've got the text in a .azw format.

[BK]

I can really sympathize with you, having forgotten to click "Keep" on several occasions. 

I subscribe to The New Yorker via Kindle, but my son gets the dead tree version.  if you'll PM me with your address, I'll ask him to photocopy the piece for you.

We should lobby Amazon for a "Keep ALL" choice so we wouldn't have to worry about losing content we've paid for!

Bonnie

[fancynancy]

I'm glad you posted, because I didn't know a thing about any kind of "keep" for periodicals.  I just subscribed to the New Yorker 2 weeks ago.  Excuse my complete stupidity, but are you folks saying there is something I have to do to keep the New Yorker issues from disappearing from my library on the Amazon site?  Is the "keep" button on Amazon or on the Kindle?

[Linjeakel]

I'm glad you posted, because I didn't know a thing about any kind of "keep" for periodicals.  I just subscribed to the New Yorker 2 weeks ago.  Excuse my complete stupidity, but are you folks saying there is something I have to do to keep the New Yorker issues from disappearing from my library on the Amazon site?  Is the "keep" button on Amazon or on the Kindle?

If you press Menu whilst inside the periodical you wish to keep, then click on 'keep this issue'.

[Ann in Arlington]

I'm glad you posted, because I didn't know a thing about any kind of "keep" for periodicals.  I just subscribed to the New Yorker 2 weeks ago.  Excuse my complete stupidity, but are you folks saying there is something I have to do to keep the New Yorker issues from disappearing from my library on the Amazon site?  Is the "keep" button on Amazon or on the Kindle?

Amazon stores for you up to 7 back issues of any periodical.  Then they are gone unless you have 'kept' them, as explained by lin, in which case they are saved on your Kindle, and can be backed up on your computer, if you wish.

Note that periodicals are device specific.  So if you save an issue, then later get a new Kindle, it won't be readable on the new device.  It's a limitation required, I imagine, by the periodical publishers.   I admit it's not a big deal for me as I rarely want to save whole issues.  I do frequently clip specific articles.  The advantage there is, when clipped, they're dumped in a text file, so you can back them up and even print them out if you wish from your computer.

[Prazzie]

Thank you for the explanation, Ann. I'm a bit disappointed that the periodicals can only be read on one device. I'm giving my K2 to my father when I get my K3 and so am forced to lose all my saved issues. A big part of the reason I subscribed to magazines on the Kindle was so that I could keep them without cluttering up my home (I'm a hoarder, but I've stopped buying paper magazines altogether and am busy scanning in my old magazines into PDF format). It's completely pointless to be able to back the issues up on the pc, but be unable to read it on my new Kindle. I can't even read it on my pc.  Not an ideal system.

[Ann in Arlington]

It's completely pointless to be able to back the issues up on the pc, but be unable to read it on my new Kindle. I can't even read it on my pc.  Not an ideal system.

I suppose that's true. .  .I'm not an issue saver myself, as I said.  But, at least, it is made pretty clear up front, I think.

You can, of course, switch future issues to your new device. . . . .