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Amazon Pulls Already-Purchased Books from Kindle

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Christine

I'm a geek with a love for all things tech. I'm also an online business consultant with expertise in SEO, SMM, and digital marketing strategies.

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8 Comments

  1. 1

    Mike Cerm

    I’ve never like the Kindle, but this is a pretty shocking example of just how terrible the whole idea is. The Kindle is basically a DRM scheme. After successfully fighting off music-DRM, why would anyone want to support book-DRM, especially when this is the result?

  2. 2

    Dave W

    I do like my Kindle but these types of things I blame the publishers for – not the device manufacturer.

    The Kindle is not DRM’d itself – it’s the books purchased from Amazon that has DRM; and similar to previous iTunes DRM it’s the rights holders that require the DRM not the distribution system or the device manufacturers.

    I wonder if a backed up to PC version of 1984, purchased from Amazon, if put on the Kindle would also be removed. Are they constantly watching or only removing the synced version. If it isn’t in your purchased section on Amazon would it notice if it was put back on after the removal and then try to remove it again?

  3. 3

    Mike Cerm

    @Dave W: The Kindle is basically a device meant to implement Amazon’s DRM. It has almost no other function, apart from reading books that Amazon would like to sell you.

    Dont’ let Amazon off the hook for this. This is their system, designed and operated by Amazon themselves. They didn’t have to design features into the system that were so hostile to their intended customers, but they did.

    If a publisher wanted to do this, Amazon could have said, “That’s not something that we’re willing to do to our customers. If you want to reach those customers, you play by our rules.” Instead, Amazon is acting in a way that’s anti-consumer.

  4. 4

    Gideon

    It’s a bit more complicated than that. MobiReference (the publishers) did NOT have the license to sell the books – as they are not in the public domain. So it wasn’t “changed their mind” it was “the proper copyright holders were pissed.” It’s the same thing as what happens when someone puts a episode of 30 Rock on YouTube.. it’ll be taken down.

    Now, as to the reaching out to your Kindle and getting data off.. that’s creepy. But so far every tech blog is going with this story and doesn’t have a VERY basic fact straight regarding the fact that, more or less (as much as copied data is stealing), this was stolen property.

  5. 5

    jsl4980.myopenid.com/

    The problem is not who decided to remove the books, the problem is that you own nothing when you “buy” books for the Kindle. You rent books for as long as Amazon thinks it’s ok. And that is very dangerous for consumers.

  6. 6

    Marco

    I think you go to a book store, and you buy a book. Then the book was a stolen book, is not a customer problem, the problem is from the store. You as a costumer buy with good faith, and I think the costumers should’nt have problems with that.

    I think it isn’t the same problem like upload a 30 rock on youtube, in this case the customer buys a book from a store.

  7. 7

    chandi

    I have been having the irk to buy kindle off late, Thank you for making the decision simpler!!

  8. 8

    Marcello

    Isn’t it ironic that the books that were deleted were George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1948”… Source: http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/some-e-books-are-more-equal-than-others/

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