{"id":30754,"date":"2012-10-22T10:20:50","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T16:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/22\/amazon-works-great-until-it-fails-catastrophically.html"},"modified":"2012-10-23T09:05:46","modified_gmt":"2012-10-23T15:05:46","slug":"amazon-works-great-until-it-fails-catastrophically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/22\/amazon-works-great-until-it-fails-catastrophically.html","title":{"rendered":"Amazon works great until it fails catastrophically"},"content":{"rendered":"

Take the below case, where someone had their account canceled by Amazon, and inquiries got back frustratingly\u00a0vague messages that her account had been associated with another Bad Actor, and so was being canceled.<\/p>\n

Which would be an unpleasant circumstance, if it weren't that her Kindle account was\u00a0canceled, the Kindle\u00a0wiped, and all those books she'd "bought" were suddenly, permanently unavailable. Because, of course, you don't own<\/i> those books, and if the only way to get to them is though your account, which is now permanently cancelled.<\/p>\n

Lessons and observations to take from this:<\/p>\n

1. I can understand at one level why the messages were vague; if Amazon's conclusion was that the lady involved was actually a Bad Actor, then going into too much detail could give clues that could be used to circumvent Amazon's protections in the future. That said …<\/p>\n

2. Any mechanism or process that can take serious action against someone needs some sort of detailed, engaged appeal process. Because systems make mistakes, and systems that can't correct their mistakes are<\/i> bad systems.<\/i><\/p>\n

3. We are, of course, only getting one side of the story here (and that second-hand).<\/p>\n

4. DRMed digital properties are a horrible idea, because they let these sorts of draconian actions take place with such impact. \u00a0You don't really own that book, that movie, that song, as long as you rely on a vendor to accept and authenticate your license to used it each time you decide to. \u00a0This isn't just an Amazon issue, but, yes, it is an issue that includes Amazon.<\/p>\n

(Ironically, Amazon sells MP3 music tracks that don't have DRM. Unlike their books.)<\/p>\n

This is why many people take extra steps to strip the DRM off the books they buy from Amazon. Or \u00a0only buy books for their Kindle from third party vendors who don't include DRM. \u00a0Or download pirated ebooks. \u00a0Because they don't like the idea that their library is dependent on Amazon staying in business, supporting those devices (forever), or not mistaking them for Bad Actors.<\/p>\n

\n

Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOutlawed by Amazon DRM \u00ab Martin Bekkelund<\/a><\/p>\n

Google+:<\/strong> View post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Take the below case, where someone had their account canceled by Amazon, and inquiries got back frustratingly\u00a0vague messages that her account had been associated with another Bad Actor, and so was being canceled. Which would be an unpleasant circumstance, if it weren't that her Kindle account was\u00a0canceled, the Kindle\u00a0wiped, and all those books she'd "bought" … Continue reading “Amazon works great until it fails catastrophically”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,35,79,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-big-business","category-media-intellectual-property","category-my-mobile-pda"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24469,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/12\/just-1-click-away.html","url_meta":{"origin":30754,"position":0},"title":"Just 1 Click Away","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 12-Dec-11 1:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I have to confess I'm astonished that, if the article is accurate, there's no way to turn off 1-Click purchasing on a Fire aside from deregistering it from your Amazon account. That would give me serious pause about buying such a device, since it opens up your Amazon account to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15228,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/17\/why-i-wont-be-buying-a-kindle.html","url_meta":{"origin":30754,"position":1},"title":"Why I won’t be buying a Kindle","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 17-Jul-09 3:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I really want the Kindle to be as cool as it seems. Though I have doubts about whether it would fit into my reading lifestyle, the concept of having a library of books in one's hand remains awfully tempting ... all the more so whenever I see anyone with one.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17693,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/06\/30\/a-kindle-thought.html","url_meta":{"origin":30754,"position":2},"title":"A Kindle thought","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 30-Jun-10 7:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"There are definitely times (my recent business trip\/vacation) when a Kindle would be handy.\u00a0 But all the practical and pragmatic problems I have with the device and its utilization and DRM still remain. But ... what if Amazon instead also sold Kindle downloads of books as a surcharge to hardcopies.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Amazon-Kindle2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":30574,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/13\/now-theres-a-class-action-refundy-kind-of-thing-ill-actually-benefit-f.html","url_meta":{"origin":30754,"position":3},"title":"Now there's a class action refundy kind of thing I'll actually benefit f…","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 13-Oct-12 10:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Now there's a class action refundy kind of thing I'll actually benefit fromMoney back into my Amazon account for overcharged price fixing. \u00a0Awesome. \u00a0And the ironically best part is, those same publishers will probably get it back in future purchases.Reshared post from +Donald MclaughlinThere goes that evil government again... forcing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15249,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/19\/more-on-amazons-orwellian-erasure-of-orwell.html","url_meta":{"origin":30754,"position":4},"title":"More on Amazon’s Orwellian erasure of … Orwell","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 19-Jul-09 5:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So much discussion and kerfuffle over Amazon deleting from Kindle accounts\u00a0(with refund) some books which they'd sold to people (copies of 1984 and Animal Farm). People were rightly upset to discover that Amazon could just take away books that they \"owned.\" Amazon's explained itself a slight bit further, and is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20812,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/20\/kindle-report-page-3.html","url_meta":{"origin":30754,"position":5},"title":"Kindle Report! (Page 3)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 20-Apr-11 10:58am","format":false,"excerpt":"A few things to add beyond previous musings. I'm still quite happy with my device, with the usual caveats. Screen Savers First, I went ahead and hacked my Kindle to support my own set of screen savers.\u00a0 So far it hasn't burst into flames, and I'm happy with the new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}