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Outlawed by Amazon DRM

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Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#421

Post by Kuiper »

tinco wrote: post #369
cletus wrote: post #335

The fact that Amazon can do this is obviously scary, particularly for those with extensive Kindle libraries. Personally I love the idea of ebooks but the publishers are doing their best to kill this market (eg Surface Detail in paperback is $6, as an ebook its $10 WTF?). Now I can't speak to the truth of these claims. I have no inside knowledge but I will say this: be skeptical of such stories. I have seen other stor…

You make it sound like releasing an ebook is somehow cheaper than releasing a paperback. I think in many cases this does not hold true. As long as ebooks represent a minority of all book sales producing paperbacks will be cheaper to produce than ebooks, just by law of mass production.

But ebooks don't represent a minority of book sales. On the contrary, Amazon sells more ebooks than print books (both hardbacks and paperbacks combined).

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19148146

Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#423

Post by jseliger »

elarkin wrote: post #357
Arjuna wrote: post #183

I am curious: could a story like this happen in the United States? According to my reading of the legal case (I am not a lawyer, but it would be interesting if any of you are could comment - grellas, perhaps) regarding Amazon's remote deletion of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm , the settlement involving that case appears to protect what happened in this story from happening to users in the United States. Of cou…

A co-worker of mine (US) lost his kindle library about a year ago. Amazon closed his account and refused to tell him why. It took several tech blogs and newspapers phoning up Amazon with the story for him to get it back. In other words, he got restitution because of articles like this one. He no longer buys kindle books.

Will you post links to some of the articles?

Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#425

Post by gliese1337 »

This is why I will not buy proprietary readers like Kindle, nor access to any digital media for which I do not get my very own copy of a file I can back up on my very own hard-drives. The story doesn't particularly make me hate Amazon- it's just one anecdote, and I've had great experiences with Amazon customer service myself- but it shows what can be done. No matter how much I might like Amazon's other services, I will never trust any company not to do anything that they are technically capable of doing. To keep them from screwing you over, don't give them the power to do so.

Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#426

Post by russell »

talaketu wrote: post #417
tinco wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make it sound like releasing an ebook is somehow cheaper than releasing a paperback. I think in many cases this does not hold true. As long as ebooks represent a minority of all book sales producing paperbacks will be cheaper to produce than ebooks, just by law of mass production.

I can't believe cost would be the dominant factor in the price difference. More likely, someone who has invested in a kindle will pay a higher price to obtain the convenience of the ebook and justify that investment. Publisher is just maximizing profit by setting price higher.

I am finding myself buying more and more remaindered hardbacks because they are cheaper than the kindle version.

Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#427

Post by ryanlbrown »

edanm wrote: post #380
maratd wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> be skeptical of such stories Don't be too skeptical. Most of the people on HN had some big company restrict/kill an account by some BigCo at some point. Microsoft, Google, eBay, PayPal, Amazon, Facebook, etc. handle millions of accounts. They have automated filters that trigger based on specified criteria that kill your account. Their default response when this happens? Talk to legal. Well, more like write to legal…

"Don't be too skeptical. Most of the people on HN had some big company restrict/kill an account by some BigCo at some point." Most ? That is a pretty serious statement, and I really doubt you can back it up. I don't have statistics on this and don't know where to look for them, but I would guess that the numbers of HN'ers that have had an account closed by a BigCo is actually much less than 1%, never mind more than 5…

I tried to make a purchase with PayPal a month or so ago and forgot I was on Tor. They blocked my account until I can verify my location. To verify my location they need to call the landline at my address. Too bad I don't have a landline at my address. There's probably another way to get my account back but I've sort of lost interest now.

Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#428

Post by icelancer »

omegaworks wrote: post #307
e40 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. When the first DVD burners came out HP had an exclusive period for sales of them. I really wanted one, so I ordered it online and got an email a few minutes later saying my order had been canceled. I called and ask why. The usual "we can't tell you, sorry" answer. I wouldn't let go. I asked for a manager and then spent a hour on the phone--I just wouldn't hang up--telling her I had made thousands of transacti…

>in this case they had the sole source of the item (for a time) And this my friends is why artificial monopolies (created by vendor lock-in, proprietary devices, patents, or other perversions of the legal system) are inherently detrimental. Adam Smith, in his foundational work on Capitalism: The Wealth of Nations, rails against the practices that make monopolies possible. This market is not a free market.

Oh, it's a free market for those small companies - if they fail, so what? But all of a sudden, you start doing $10+ million dollars in sales, you figure you need some backing by politicians...

People love the upside of capitalism. But when it comes to the self-correcting measures it brings... not so much.

Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#430

Post by lotharbot »

blake8086 wrote: post #419
edanm wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Don't be too skeptical. Most of the people on HN had some big company restrict/kill an account by some BigCo at some point." Most ? That is a pretty serious statement, and I really doubt you can back it up. I don't have statistics on this and don't know where to look for them, but I would guess that the numbers of HN'ers that have had an account closed by a BigCo is actually much less than 1%, never mind more than 5…

My eBay account was closed because someone disputed a purchase from a family member, and my previous address was the same as theirs. Now it would take 99 other HNers who haven't had accounts closed to cancel me out and keep the ratio at 1%.

On the other side of the same coin: HN gets 120k uniques per day (as of October 5, 2011 - http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html ). So it will take another 1,199 people who've had accounts closed to put the ratio at above 1%.

Of course, this is all incredibly blatant misuse of statistics. What we really need is a poll.

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