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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
09/09/09
09/09/09
M$? Who's tha- ohhh, wait, I get it! It's Microsoft! Because they... have a lot of money...
Good one.
09/09/09
You mean like Apple does?
09/09/09
09/09/09
09/09/09
09/09/09
09/09/09
Does it matter? The timing is horrible. 73.8% to 1.1% market share. Which story do you think the news will pick up?
09/09/09
Does it really matter? Is anybody deciding right this second which music player they're getting that didn't already have their mind made up? Ah, ok. Just checking.
09/09/09
09/09/09
09/09/09
07/23/09
Someone at Amazon must therefore have sat down and wrote a procedure for what would happen in that event. Including the objectionable part of this, deleting every purchased copy of the book from user's devices.
How stupid did that person have to be to not anticipate this response? It's all very predictable, including the eventual apology.
Kindle sales must have tanked in the last 24 hours. If nothing else, maybe that will keep it from happening again.
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
Now yes, there is an onus on Amazon to make sure that the goods they sell are legit (You don't see wal-mart buying speakers that fell off the back of kmart's truck). And in this regard, they do deserve criticism. However, I don't think that this incident has any Orwellian overtones outside of the books in question. Amazon did what they were legally required to do.
07/23/09
(I still love your product and use it daily)
07/23/09
07/23/09
What would that have cost them? $10,000? $50,000? A drop in the bucket compared to the loss of goodwill and horrible PR they just went through.
They also could have e-mailed the consumer begging forgiveness FIRST.
Basic customer service principle - don't punish your best customers.
07/23/09
I'm sure they did pursue settling it with the publisher, but could not reach an agreement. Like Apple and the Beatles.
Side note - The rights to the Beatles were owned by Michael Jackson, correct? So any chance now that he's a goner we get them in the store?
07/23/09
07/23/09
Any lawsuit would have revealed the fact that this mechanism to recall the books existed, and in addition to having to pay a hefty fine or settlement, they undoubtedly would have been ordered to recall the books anyway.
Amazon is still primarily a book company and as such they need to stay in good graces with the publishers and authors who give them their product. Clearly they could have handled this better by communicating with their customers, but any solution would have involved taking the books back.
To me, this underscores why I would never purchase such a device which you pay a substantial sum for, but do not control. I'm glad the issue came up to shine light on why it is foolish to buy a product that is full of DRM and constantly phoning home over a cellular connection.
07/23/09
We have become so coddled in this society, and so litigious, that we think we deserve to be compensated for every infraction and indignity. If a company makes a mistake when they print a sale price, we insist they honor it even though ethically there us no reason they need to; an honest mistake should be forgiven if there is no harm. So when Amazon catches someone selling something that isn't theirs - the equivalent of stolen property, we expect Amazon to make amends not just by refunding the money, which they did, but by giving consumers even more for that vague feeling of violation that they suffered when they found out the stolen property they bought had to be returned. That seems absurd to me. Sure, Amazon could have handles things better and been more direct with the affected customers, but I think we should not expect them to absorb all the cost and blame for this event, nor should we expect that every affected customer should get a free copy of 1984 and a fruit basket. This has been an unfortunate mess for everyone involved, but I think consumers need to understand the financial and legal implications before they go spouting off about all the hurt they suffered when their illegitimate copy of 1984 was rescinded.
07/23/09
Amazon's choice to surreptitiously voluntarily remove purchased books was so egregious, the cost of avoiding it would have been worth it. Forced removal and settlement is a fig leaf Amazon could have used for both customers and publishers (along with some new safeguards for IP owners).
Publishers protect their IP, but most have also read "1984," and grok the symbolism of sneaking into people's gadgets in the dark of night and removing words on Wednesday that were there on Tuesday.
07/24/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
And I will always think of that event when someone says that phrase.
03/04/09
Reflective paper-like screens = readable for extended periods
03/04/09
@LittleJon:
I find it's great if you set the background to black, and text to something less than pure white - I like a half-bright aqua color for indoor reading since I used to read books on my Handspring Visor which used the old indigo LCD backlight.
03/04/09
03/04/09
There is a free converter to put pdf files onto the kindle, by making them .prc files.
I picked one up for myself for my birthday earlier this month, I love it.
03/04/09
The last reason to buy a kindle just went out the window haha
03/04/09
03/04/09
No, no it didn't.
03/04/09
03/04/09
and there is no way im gonna spend that much just to read books.
Books are full of facts, and therefor have their own agenda.
03/04/09