[Infowarrior] - Amazon backtracks on Kindle deletions

[Richard Forno]

(Anyone care to bet when the next round of 'deletions' occurs for some  
other newfound licensing reason?  --rf)

Amazon Says It Will Stop Deleting Kindle Books

By deleting two unauthorized Orwell books from the Kindle devices of  
readers who had purchased them, Amazon highlighted how poorly real  
world expectations apply to the digital world.

By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
July 17, 2009 07:57 PM

http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/drm/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218501227

Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) on Thursday began e-mailing a few hundred owners  
of its Kindle reading device to explain that it had deleted electronic  
copies of the George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and "1984" and had  
refunded the $0.99 purchase price.
The company's virtual book burning has prompted howls of derision  
across the Internet and spurred impassioned discussion on Amazon's  
Kindle forums.

"This is precisely the functional equivalent of Barnes & Noble -- or  
Amazon itself for that matter -- using a crowbar or lock pick to break  
into your home or business, then stealing back a previous physical  
book purchase, replacing it with the equivalent value in cash," said  
privacy advocate Lauren Weinstein in an e-mail message posted to the  
Interesting People mailing list.
"The irony that the two books involved were 'Animal Farm' and '1984'  
is just too much," said Fred Von Lohmann, staff attorney for the  
Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The incident, he said, highlighted the gap in understanding about  
rights in the digital world and the real world. "There's an enormous  
difference between buying a book and buying a tethered media device.  
And this incident really underscores that fact. Consumers carry with  
them analog expectations."

Von Lohmann said that it's not clear from the Kindle license agreement  
that Amazon has the right delete purchased content. "I don't see that  
many loopholes," he said.

He notes that Kindle license agreement states, "Amazon grants you the  
non-exclusive right to keep a permanent copy of the applicable Digital  
Content and to view, use, and display such Digital Content an  
unlimited number of times..."

"They say you don't own it but they don't say they can take it away,"  
he said.

Amazon's grant of rights, however is made conditional on the company's  
authorization. And the qualification "applicable Digital Content"  
could arguably exclude digital content that Amazon isn't legally  
authorized to provide.

The contract also states, "Amazon reserves the right to modify,  
suspend, or discontinue the Service at any time, and Amazon will not  
be liable to you should it exercise such right." It defines "the  
Service" to include "provision of digital content."

Amazon says that that the books in question were added to its catalog  
using the company's self-service platform by a third-party who did not  
have the rights to the books. And it says it will no longer delete  
books in this manner.

"When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the  
illegal copies from our systems and from customers' devices, and  
refunded customers," the company said in an e-mailed statement. "We  
are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove  
books from customers' devices in these circumstances."

Von Lohmann believes the Federal Trade Commission may be interested in  
Amazon's actions. He said the government agency has been looking into  
situations in which people who bought music protected by a digital  
rights management system find themselves denied access to their music  
when the service shuts down.

If Kindle books are rentals, he said, they should be described that  
way. "The Kindle gives you the sense that you are buying the book," he  
said.