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Amazon turned off customer’s Kindle account, blocking her from her books (2012)

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Re: Amazon turned off customer’s Kindle account, blocking her from her books (2012)

#21

Post by ageofwant »

This is why I steal everything I want using http://libgen.rs/ and so should you.

If I find value in what I have stolen I will try and buy a DRM free copy of the work if it's available.

I have 22k books in my curated calibre library, of those I have read a small fraction of 1% and I have paid for far fewer.

This more or less matches the existing public library pattern.

Authors cannot complain about 'lost income' as I simply would not consume their content anyway if I could not acquire it this way.

Re: Amazon turned off customer’s Kindle account, blocking her from her books (2012)

#23

Post by gnud »

mcc1ane wrote: post #16
gnud wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gog also forces me to use their stupid launcher now, and tries to trick me into "connecting all my accounts". I don't see any compelling reason for me to prefer them over Steam, anymore.

How does it force you?

My single-player games all launch "gog galaxy" when I start them through the start menu.

Honestly, if I'm going to fight against my software, I might as well be pirating.

Re: Amazon turned off customer’s Kindle account, blocking her from her books (2012)

#24

Post by hyperman1 »

romwell wrote: post #13
Moru wrote: post #7

This is true not just for Kindle books. It's also your games library on Steam and all other similar stores. GOG.com is probably the only online game store where you realy own the stuff you "buy".

Yes, but with Kindle at least you can strip the DRM of your eBooks. There's a Calibre plugin[1] that does it. If you really care about ebooks that you purchase, I highly recommend installing this plugin. It automatically strips DRM off books you download and open with Calibre. And keep a back-up of the (DRM-free) books somewhere that's not Amazon / a cloud. Because a cloud is simply a computer that you do not own . […

Note how this is in most jurisdictions illegal. You are now pirating, except you paid for it.

Re: Amazon turned off customer’s Kindle account, blocking her from her books (2012)

#25

Post by neiman »

We don't purchase products anymore, at least not digital things. Instead we're always buying a service.

Buying includes a very short period of trust between you and the seller, where you give them money, and they give you the product in return. Sometimes there's also a long trust involved due to warranty, but more often than not those failed me in the past, so I stopped taking them into account when making a purchase.

But a service is a long term relationship between a customer and a service provider, and those ALWAYS failed me, if they existed for long enough.

Amazon does not sell books to Kindle, but instead provides a service of renting Kindle books. The cause of confusion here is them using a wrong term to describe what they do.

Re: Amazon turned off customer’s Kindle account, blocking her from her books (2012)

#26

Post by anuila »

javajosh wrote: post #2

Indeed, and this is why I still buy paper books, DVDs and CDs (and vinyl, when the mood strikes). Heck, I suspect that in the not-too-distant future, old software licenses and media will be valuable, perhaps extremely so if open-source tools are effectively blocked on the major platforms.

> if open-source tools are effectively blocked on the major platforms.

Come on, how can you have such a grim outlook? Nobody will “effectively block” open source tools. Consoles can afford to. Phones are being challenged. Everyone else won’t.

Re: Amazon turned off customer’s Kindle account, blocking her from her books (2012)

#27

Post by londons_explore »

underdeserver wrote: post #20

Honestly? I'm okay with this business model. I know it's not a popular opinion here - but as there's no reasonable way to prevent people from unrestrictedly distributing copies, the business model of licensing books sounds reasonable to me. What's not reasonable is the lack of transparency when you're suspected of abuse. I understand that there are many bad actors, but these companies are judge, jury and executioner…

I'd also be fine with the T&C's saying "For any reason, we can terminate the services we provide to you, and we will refund any money's paid with interest".

That way, the company can decide to keep the evidence to themselves and not need to go to court, but must forgo all revenue from your account.

Re: Amazon turned off customer’s Kindle account, blocking her from her books (2012)

#28

Post by vijayr02 »

gnud wrote: post #15
Moru wrote: post #7

This is true not just for Kindle books. It's also your games library on Steam and all other similar stores. GOG.com is probably the only online game store where you realy own the stuff you "buy".

Gog also forces me to use their stupid launcher now, and tries to trick me into "connecting all my accounts". I don't see any compelling reason for me to prefer them over Steam, anymore.

Genuine question: why do you consider the linked accounts a trick? I find the single launcher integration quite useful and don't see the privacy loss. Am I missing something?

Re: Amazon turned off customer’s Kindle account, blocking her from her books (2012)

#29

Post by ManlyBread »

malka wrote: post #22

Message is very clear. If you want to own something, pirate it.

My sentiments exactly, I see no reason to support a model where I pay for something and it turns out that I'm not even an owner because there's a mention of it somewhere deep in the 500 page EULA. Which totally mirrors the experience of going to the bookstore, picking a book paying for it and... that's it, you can do whatever you want with it. I'm sure someone will point out that I agreed to these terms but the last time I checked a "store" doesn't lend things, it sells them, so it's easy to claim I have been misled.

Re: Amazon turned off customer’s Kindle account, blocking her from her books (2012)

#30

Post by izacus »

Moru wrote: post #19
mcc1ane wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it force you?

Dark patterns most likely. They hide the downloads as much as possible. But to play some games multiplayer you need the gog launcher.

What are you talking about? The DRM-free downloads are right there under "Backups" tab?
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