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Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs

consumerist.com

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Re: Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs

#61

Post by agwa »

jordan0day wrote: post #6

I just received a Barnes & Noble "Nook SimpleTouch" (the basic, e-ink screen one), and while I like it, this sort of thing has me very worried about using most of its (limited set of) features. That is, while the Nook has something like 1 gb of internal storage for books, about 75% is reserved for content you have to purchase through Barnes & Noble. That leaves about 230 mb for your own files. (The Nook does feature…

I have a first-generation WiFi-only Nook. I have never registered it with B&N and have it permanently in airplane mode (i.e. WiFi disabled). For over a year I used it only for DRM-free EPUB (mainly O'Reilly e-books).

Last week I finally broke down and bought a DRM book from B&N's website. It let me download an encrypted EPUB file, which I transferred to my Nook over USB. Without having to enable WiFi or register my Nook, I was able to open and read the EPUB just by entering my name and the credit card number used to purchase the book. (By the way, I only had to do this once.)

It still sucks because it's DRM, but I'm reasonably confident that with this setup, B&N can't remotely kill my books, and it should keep working even if B&N goes bust. You might want to consider it.

Re: Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs

#62

Post by notahacker »

JonLim wrote: post #9
jordan0day wrote: post #6

I just received a Barnes & Noble "Nook SimpleTouch" (the basic, e-ink screen one), and while I like it, this sort of thing has me very worried about using most of its (limited set of) features. That is, while the Nook has something like 1 gb of internal storage for books, about 75% is reserved for content you have to purchase through Barnes & Noble. That leaves about 230 mb for your own files. (The Nook does feature…

To be 100% honest, I've bene nothing but very very happy with my Kindle. Purchased a book by accident? Refund instantly or done within 5 minutes. Switching devices? No problemo, pages are synced up to the last page you read. Wiping your device? All your books are online and available for download. This seems like a fringe case that I'm not too worried about. I have a full purchase history on Amazon.com and if anythin…

Kindle customer service was excellent to me too - bottom half of the screen died and Amazon sent out a replacement device immediately, then made arrangements to collect my broken one, at their own expense. Unlike the iTunes store I was able to get through to the right person by following the instructions provided.

Its not too difficult to imagine edge cases where communication between the person taking the phone call and the person able to resolve the situation breaks down; that can happen in any large company. But then getting things resolved also requires good faith on the part of the complainant; filing chargebacks against a reputable company within a month of the problem isn't the best indication of this.

Re: Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs

#63

Post by estel »

TillE wrote: post #47
estel wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No ebook license (or any other "virtual" good) will ever have a license that confers 'ownership'. A license can be more flexible and allow free transfer, copying and backup; but I don't think the law allows for a concept of the ownership of trivially duplicable data.

I'm not a lawyer, but I really don't see a fundamental difference here - photocopiers have existed for a long time. You can own a book. You just don't have the right to make copies of that book. Why can't you own an ebook?

The way I see it: you own the book itself, but don't own the writing and story - the information - contained within it. In my mind, ownership as a concept for non-physical goods is much closer to the idea of copyright.

Oddly enough, I suppose every book I own here has legalese in it saying that I don't have the right to lend, sell or "otherwise circulate" it without the publisher's consent.

Re: Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs

#65

Post by officemonkey »

estel wrote: post #38
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #8

This, of course, is the difference between ownership and permission-to-use.

No ebook license (or any other "virtual" good) will ever have a license that confers 'ownership'. A license can be more flexible and allow free transfer, copying and backup; but I don't think the law allows for a concept of the ownership of trivially duplicable data.

>No ebook license (or any other "virtual" good) will ever have a license that confers 'ownership'.

You've forgotten about the public domain.

Re: Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs

#66

Post by pavel_lishin »

jordan0day wrote: post #16
notatoad wrote: post #5

i feel like there's a part of this story that we're not hearing. given amazon's excellent customer service reputation (including my own experiences) it's hard for me to believe that this could happen without there being a reason.

Amazon is a sufficiently large organization such that I'm sure this sort of thing actually happens more often than you think. By the tone of your comment, I'm assuming the "part of the story we're not hearing" involves the customer doing something wrong, rather than Amazon? If that's the case, I can't really think of what that thing might be that would give Amazon the right to lock this guy out? Also, why would he br…

> I can't really think of what that thing might be that would give Amazon the right to lock this guy out?

I can easily imagine several scenarios; the one I'm having trouble imagining is one where they can't tell him why he's locked out.

Honestly, the only thing that is even remotely reasonable is an investigation by a three-letter agenchy.

Re: Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs

#67

Post by sliverstorm »

jordan0day wrote: post #16
notatoad wrote: post #5

i feel like there's a part of this story that we're not hearing. given amazon's excellent customer service reputation (including my own experiences) it's hard for me to believe that this could happen without there being a reason.

Amazon is a sufficiently large organization such that I'm sure this sort of thing actually happens more often than you think. By the tone of your comment, I'm assuming the "part of the story we're not hearing" involves the customer doing something wrong, rather than Amazon? If that's the case, I can't really think of what that thing might be that would give Amazon the right to lock this guy out? Also, why would he br…

Your parent has past (positive) experience with Amazon. He has never met or even spoken to the customer. Why should he immediately trust the customer over Amazon? Because Business Is Evil?

Re: Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs

#68

Post by xemoka »

zdw wrote: post #14
jordan0day wrote: post #6

I just received a Barnes & Noble "Nook SimpleTouch" (the basic, e-ink screen one), and while I like it, this sort of thing has me very worried about using most of its (limited set of) features. That is, while the Nook has something like 1 gb of internal storage for books, about 75% is reserved for content you have to purchase through Barnes & Noble. That leaves about 230 mb for your own files. (The Nook does feature…

Anyone know if the Kobo has similar issues? I've totally written off the Kindle because of similar 3rd party content issues - anyone have first hand experience with the Nook or Kobo when used with ePub (mainly) and PDF (rarely) files?

I've had a Kobo Touch for about 8 months now, absolutely love it. I have one DRM book downloaded through the Kobo book store and the rest of them were side loaded through Calibre. No problems, nice and smooth.

The device doesn't require Calibre for side-loading either as you can just drag the epub to the mounted device. Loading and using your own fonts is also a nice feature.

As for PDFs, if they are smaller page sizes it's pretty good, but the zooming and panning functions are kind of a pain--mainly because of e-ink, but partially due to UI.

I've only had one issue with the Kobo Touch when I had to reload my books, as for some reason the database became corrupted.

Re: Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs

#69

Post by xemoka »

zdw wrote: post #14
jordan0day wrote: post #6

I just received a Barnes & Noble "Nook SimpleTouch" (the basic, e-ink screen one), and while I like it, this sort of thing has me very worried about using most of its (limited set of) features. That is, while the Nook has something like 1 gb of internal storage for books, about 75% is reserved for content you have to purchase through Barnes & Noble. That leaves about 230 mb for your own files. (The Nook does feature…

Anyone know if the Kobo has similar issues? I've totally written off the Kindle because of similar 3rd party content issues - anyone have first hand experience with the Nook or Kobo when used with ePub (mainly) and PDF (rarely) files?

I've had a Kobo Touch for about 8 months now, absolutely love it. I have one DRM book downloaded through the Kobo book store and the rest of them were side loaded through Calibre. No problems, nice and smooth.

The device doesn't require Calibre for side-loading either as you can just drag the epub to the mounted device. Loading and using your own fonts is also a nice feature.

As for PDFs, if they are smaller page sizes it's pretty good, but the zooming and panning functions are kind of a pain--mainly because of e-ink, but partially due to UI.

I've only had one issue with the Kobo Touch when I had to reload my books, as for some reason the database became corrupted.

Re: Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs

#70

Post by jordan0day »

agwa wrote: post #61
jordan0day wrote: post #6

I just received a Barnes & Noble "Nook SimpleTouch" (the basic, e-ink screen one), and while I like it, this sort of thing has me very worried about using most of its (limited set of) features. That is, while the Nook has something like 1 gb of internal storage for books, about 75% is reserved for content you have to purchase through Barnes & Noble. That leaves about 230 mb for your own files. (The Nook does feature…

I have a first-generation WiFi-only Nook. I have never registered it with B&N and have it permanently in airplane mode (i.e. WiFi disabled). For over a year I used it only for DRM-free EPUB (mainly O'Reilly e-books). Last week I finally broke down and bought a DRM book from B&N's website. It let me download an encrypted EPUB file, which I transferred to my Nook over USB. Without having to enable WiFi or register my N…

So I guess one concern with that is, what about four years from now? Obviously by then you'll of course be using an iPad 5 or 6 or whatever, because it will simply be the Greatest Device Ever Until the Next One Is Released, and you no longer have the same credit card? Is that book lost forever? I'm not criticizing your decision to break down and buy a NookBook, I'm sure I'll do it too at some point -- I just can't help that little nagging voice saying "You'll be sorry!"

I mean, I'm not super-concerned with the prospect of wasting $15... it's the principle of the thing.

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