[Infowarrior] - Kindle readers beware - big Amazon is watching you read 1984

[Richard Forno]

(nothing really new, but bears repeating ... ---rf)

Kindle readers beware - big Amazon is watching you read 1984
The ebook reader may have advantages over unwieldy printed tomes, but  
it has unexpected drawbacks

John Naughton
The Observer,	 Sunday 8 November 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/08/amazon-kindle-licence-orwell
CHRISTMAS IS coming and you're wondering what to put on your wish  
list. How about an Amazon Kindle – the gizmo that enables you to  
download books, magazines and newspapers and read them on the move?

According to the publicity blurb, this cool device "can hold 1,500  
books and be read for up to two weeks on a single charge. Its  
electronic-ink display looks and reads like real paper and has no  
glare, even in bright sunshine". Sounds good, doesn't it? No more  
worrying about whether the piles of hardbacks you want to bring to  
Provence/Tuscany will fit within the miserly Ryanair baggage  
allowance. And if you ever find yourself stuck for something to read  
in the train, you can wirelessly order a book from the Amazon store  
and be reading the opening paragraph in just over a minute. And all  
for just under £170.

At Amazon.co.uk you find that the Kindle is now available in the UK.  
If you order today, you can have it in a couple of days. Hooray! Add  
it to your basket and head on over to checkout.

You're just about to click the "Place my order" button when a small,  
niggling thought pops up. Wasn't there something about Amazon and  
George Orwell a few months ago? Some kind of a row about consumer  
rights?

Google those words and the first result is a Guardian story headlined  
"Amazon Kindle users surprised by 'Big Brother' move". Ah, yes: now  
you remember. The report reads: "Owners of Amazon's Kindle electronic  
book reader have received a nasty surprise, after discovering that  
copies of books by George Orwell had been deleted from their gadgets  
without their knowledge. The books – downloaded from Amazon.com by  
American Kindle users – were remotely deleted after what the US  
company now says was a rights issue regarding the publisher,  
MobileReference.com." It seems that Amazon refunded the cost of the  
books, but told affected customers they could no longer read the books  
and that the titles were no longer available.

Here's the translation: you go to Waterstone's, buy a copy of Orwell's  
1984 and take it home. Two days later you get up and find that agents  
of Waterstone's have entered the house during the night and removed  
the offending volume. They've left a terse note explaining what  
they've done and enclosing a credit note for the cost of the book.  
Enraged, you phone the manager of Waterstone's, who explains that  
everything is in accordance with the service agreement you accepted  
when you bought the book.

You don't have to be a lawyer to know that this would not be tolerated  
in the real world of physical objects.Yet it's commonplace – indeed  
universal – in the world of information goods. And what makes it  
possible is the "End User Licence Agreement" (EULA) that most of us  
click to accept when we first use hardware, software or online services.

The Kindle EULA is a good example. Section 3, which deals with  
"Digital Content" (such as downloaded books), says that "Unless  
specifically indicated otherwise, you may not sell, rent, lease,  
distribute, broadcast, sublicense or otherwise assign any rights to  
the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party, and you  
may not remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Digital  
Content." In other words, you are forbidden to lend or sell the book  
you've just "bought". In real-world terms, you can't lend your copy of  
1984 to a friend or donate it to the school jumble sale.

Under the subsection on "Use of Digital Content', the Kindle EULA  
says: "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, solely on the  
Device or as authorized by Amazon as part of the Service and solely  
for your personal, non-commercial use."

Translation: you can't back up your electronic books on to any other  
device – which means that if your Kindle packs up, or if Amazon moves  
on to another technical standard, you're screwed: your entire digital  
library has effectively been vaporised. Then you look round your house  
and note the number of electronic devices that no longer work.

I could go on, but you get the point. Verily, technology giveth, but  
also it taketh away. And sometimes we don't realise until it's too  
late. Caveat emptor.