Saw this on my twitter feed...
http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/out ... mazon-drm/

Whilst there needs to be DRM in place, what I do find disturbing is that if Amazon decides to close your account for whatever reason, even if they're mistaken as seems to be the case in this example, then they can take back all your legally purchased books and the onus is on you to prove that you're not in the wrong. Even Apple weren't this heavy-handed with their DRM.

There was an article about how Amazon only pay 3% VAT on ebooks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Very strange. Someone should tell Amazon that repeating the same cut and paste rubbish over and over is not good customer service either.

Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk 2

That's frikkin' disgusting. Could she not get info under FOIA (though I suspect it only applies in the UK)? What about legal action? If I've spent £££ on stuff and it all got taken away from me, I'd want to know why.

Is it even legal to do that here?

I must admit I thought that was called theft

You don't buy 'the thing' you buy 'a licence to view the thing' and the EULA includes a clause which allows them to withdraw that licence without notice. Not that it makes it right in any intuitive sense but you don't have any legal redress unless you can show the EULA isn't valid, which to be fair is something that's a matter of debate right now.

Not the first time this happened. Amazon withdrew a version of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four (Irony Alert) because they didn't have the rights to distribute that particular version. It vanished from every Kindle that had a copy. Amazon then had to do some firefighting.

This is the problem with storing stuff in he cloud, and certainly with relying on it when it comes to purchase virtual wares, like books, music, movies etc.. Publishers like it because it protects their interests, possibly for the first time ever in such a punitive way. Consumers will hate it because of events just like this.

The worst thing here is that there is no redress, no explanation from Amazon, and, because the EULA will have been deemed to be agreed to due to use of the service, little that can be done unless some legal minded folk can pick it apart.

Still not got a Kindle, even less likely to buy one now.

This kind of behavior encourages people to break copyright.
Kindle DRM can be cracked, and the files converted to mobi and backed up elsewhere. I would do that if I had a Kindle*


* It arrives on the 25th.

Same here.

Amazon's having all kinds of problems in my experience - send a sample and it says 'congratulations' when nothing has gone at all. Eventually get it to work and you might get the usual confirmation email, you might not.

I'm now concerned after reading the above as 'Ernie's 3rd Kindle' (name changed to protect the guilty ) has appeared in my registered Kindle device list, and I'm hoping that's them pre-empting my new Paperwhite purchase... Any grief and I'll turn it into a nightmare for them

Remind me again why Chrome OS is such a good idea....

The Freedom of Information Act only applies to public authorities. She would have a right to see any data held about her under the Data Protection Act though.

There may a case for Amazon to answer in the civil court.

You put your faith in Microsoft don't you?

If you were that bothered you'd run Linux. Actually no, you'd be a fully paid-up member of the Free Software Foundation and run one of these completely free distros.:

http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html

Probably. My paperwhite has appeared in the list and it's the only Kindle I have.