Monday, November 9, 2009

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.
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2 comments:

  1. Rohit BothraNovember 17, 2009 at 11:14 AM

    I do not believe that it is fair for the people who are paying to "purchase" these books should be restricted in anyway. People who want to "illegally" share still find ways to get around these restrictions and find ways to share through P2P/torrents. These restrictions are annoying/ harassing the common person who only uses these books for himself. If this business model does not change, Amazon is going to lose business to a competitor that make its books/product more assessable.

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  2. TONovember 30, 2009 at 1:46 PM

    This sounds like an imperative problem for Amazon to overcome if it wishes to gain a larger share through e-books of the book market. Until the full rights of ownership (as seen with physical books) are entitled to owners of e-books, the e-book market and Amazon alike will be unlikely to prosper.

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