Kindle Readers Beware

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/08/amazon-kindle-licence-orwell

This article highlights some of the problems with the Kindle's EULA. When buying books from amazon to be sued on the Kindle, the degree to which the user owns the books is dubious. The licensing agreement prevents them from sharing, lending, selling or even donating the book at a later time. This is because the users do not own the book, rather they have entered into an agreement with Amazon granting them "the non-exclusive right to keep a permanent copy of the applicable Digital Content and to view, use, and display such Digital Content an unlimited number of times, solely on the Device or as authorized by Amazon as part of the Service and solely for your personal, non-commercial use."

This gives Amazon control over what by all means, should be the property of the person who paid for it. This control was exemplified when all kindle users who had purchased George Orwell's 1984 (an amusingly appropriate choice of books to have this occur to) realized that it had been removed overnight without their notification. They were reimbursed for the money, but the point remains that the book they had paid for was taken from them.