Farhad Manjoo of Slate Magazine covers here the recent deletion of certain book titles from the Kindle by Amazon without prior consultation with the owners of the gadgets. To my mind, this shows an exceptionally broad remit that Amazon retains for itself regarding a gadget that it sells expensively and which I have written exuberantly on this blog. While Amazon has explained that the deletion of the books from the Kindle gadgets was occasioned by the fact that digital titles had been mistakenly published and may have been in breach of intellectual property rights, I am truly amazed at this degree of brazenness.
As a person who is seriously considering the purchase of the Kindle 2, I am taken aback by the enormous power that Amazon not only had but which it has unilaterally wielded against its own customers. This reminds me of the behaviour of firms that tried to impose unrealistic Digital Rights Management systems on purchasers of CDs. The bigger question in my mind though is on who really owns the Kindle devices and the digital books that are read on them. As the article under reference states, the service contract suggests that Amazon interprets this as its property.
Well, Amazon is entirely entitled to its interpretation but I think that when I eventually purchase a Kindle 2, I will continue to fully assume and claim property rights to the titles that I have paid for just as I am convinced of my ownership of the number of books that I have bought from the Amazon store. Nobody should sneak into my library and take away titles from my shelf just because the titles were mistakenly sold to me. I would fully appreciate a note perhaps reminding me that the title was sold to me erroneously and that I should consider adherence to the law by returning it for a full refund. That's just sound etiquette and one that Amazon should consider before acting with stealth like it did. This is the first regulatory issue regarding the rights of Kindle users.
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