We’ve seen it all before: a company decides to sunset a device, leaving you with a perfectly good product with no path forward. What’s even worse is what happens to digital content. Retailers and brands can’t come to an agreement, so the content often gets pulled, leaving users with nothing.
While interest in physical media is currently seeing a resurgence, we’ve also seen folks taking things into their own hands by making backups of their own digital media. It’s not always a clear-cut path, but if someone is interested enough, there’s always a way to be found, whether it’s music, movies, or books.
The Oasis is now a wasteland
Amazon’s Kindle Oasis has a pretty good following, even though it’s an older model. The great thing about the device is that you could still back up your books if you made an effort. However, it now looks like that window has closed, with a recent update pushed to the device.
The Good e-Reader website reports that sometime over the past couple of days, Amazon updated its Kindle Oasis line with new software that utilizes the brand’s current encryption system. This is the same encryption system that’s now on nearly all Kindle devices. This new system makes it very difficult to back up your purchased books.
Sadly, this is nothing new, and we’ve reported it before. While there is an argument for owning what you purchase, it’s much harder with digital items, since they can be easily shared with people who haven’t purchased them. To check whether your Oasis is updated to the latest version, look for software version 5.18.2.1.1. If you see this in the Settings menu, then you’re on the latest update.
Is there a solution?
There doesn’t seem to be a clear solution right now, and I don’t think there ever will be. While going digital is great, it has notable drawbacks, like not having access to it forever. If a digital product gets pulled from a service, you’re often left with nothing.
I’ve personally experienced this time and time again with movies and TV shows. The service I purchased from just one day no longer provided access to it. It was scrubbed from the service, and I was left scratching my head trying to find a purchase receipt so I could maybe try to get a refund.
While people have always asked questions, the crowds are growing, and the voices are getting louder. That’s even more evident lately, with Sony announcing that it will discontinue discs for its PlayStation console in 2028. Going fully digital for a platform that started with physical discs is a strong move.
As the world changes, it becomes clearer that owning your own media matters more than ever. Whether that’s physical media or even a digital copy.
