You Don’t Own the Books on Your Kindle

[Libra Monkee]

This is why I have trouble with going full digital and downloading my media from content sellers like iTunes, Amazon, and Sony PSN. It seems like the all are trying to change what the word "ownership" means and what it means to "buy" something.

To them you you didn't "buy" the product. You just purchased a long-term rental which can be rescinded at any time determined by the content seller without warning to the consumer.

Per our Conditions of Use which state in part: Amazon.co.uk and its affiliates reserve the right to refuse service, terminate accounts, remove or edit content, or cancel orders at their sole discretion.

Please know that any attempt to open a new account will meet with the same action.

An excerpt from Intellectual Property attorney Seth Greenstein's email to NBC News about online retailers.

All sales through Apple and other online retailers are subject to terms of use that set forth the conditions of sale. You may buy a track from the iTunes Store that can be used on a certain number of devices, or a copy of an e-book that comes with restrictions as to the ability to lend or the devices on which it is viewable — a “sale” with “conditions.” The “conditions” apply only to the person who entered into the agreement; they do not necessarily bind a third party.

This is why if I want to watch a movie I'll go out and buy a physical copy. At most I'll "rent" the movie from Vudu, Apple, or where ever.

Gizmodo

NBC News

[Sabre]

This is the problem with digital media. I agree like you, physcial copies I think are the way to go. That said, I LOVE Steam for games. If people payed attention, then they might stop buying from retailers with these sort of conditions, but people don't do that. I would love to see some legislation to fix some of this, but then again, I dislike government getting involved in this sort of thing.

[chicken n waffles]

The idea of an e-reader always seemed a little funny to me. Guess I'm starting to get old.

"Hey, let's reinvent reading!!"

[complacent]

i'll take a chance.

<- happy ebook reader.

it's incredibly difficult to poo-poo the possibility that an entire school's worth of books can be loaded onto a single e-reader and shipped off to a school that otherwise wouldn't have access to said books. purchase your books drm free and you're good. i've got a roughly 10:1 ratio of ebooks without drm to kindle books with drm... on my kindle. you can side load them from a computer.

guess it depends on where you shop. :shrug:


edit: GET ERRRF MAH LAWN!!!

[Libra Monkee]

For those books WITH DRM, Ars points out that you can run them through Calibre and convert them to iBook or epub format and maintain your ownership should Amazon, B&N, Sony, etc. get a wild hair and decide to yoink everything back.

DRM be damned: how to protect your Amazon e-books from being deleted