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Jeff Bezos Offers Apology For Erasing 1984
levicivita writes "From the down-but-not-out NYT comes an article (warning: login may be required) about user backlash against Kindle's embedded DRM: 'Last week, Jeffrey P. Bezos, chief executive of Amazon, offered an apparently heartfelt and anguished mea culpa to customers whose digital editions of George Orwell's "1984" were remotely deleted from their Kindle reading devices. Though copies of the books were sold by a bookseller that did not have legal rights to the novel, Mr. Bezos wrote on a company forum that Amazon's "'solution' to the problem was stupid, thoughtless and painfully out of line with our principles."' Bezos's post is here."
Just got a lot cooler with a hot gadget like the Kindle.
... until they can convince me beyond reasonable doubt that they removed the ability to delete books on their customer's devices.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
I would be beyond fucking annoyed -- I would call it what it fucking is: tresspassing. In U.S. Law - if someone ships you an item, on purpose or by accident, they can't demand it back (only unless a contract was signed beforehand hand and purchase doesnt fulfill it). It could be a thousand dollar ring, shipped to you by accident, doesn't matter. It's yours.
Amazon shipped the item. You, as the user of the device, purchased it, with your consent, and it went on the device. And then when Amazon found out it shouldn't have done that, did they pay the consequences to the copyright holder? No, without notice, they trespassed on your device to steal it back.
That's what it was. I don't care if it's covered by some unsigned EULA and just because it's on the digital world. The corporates made plenty sure that Congress covered their ass with computer laws. We as private citizens should have the same rights.
This is hacking and trespassing in it's most basic fucking form.
[quote]The apology posted from Mr. Bezos sounds heartfelt indeed.[/quote]
If Gandhi had #1 product on Amazon get a slew of hundreds of 1 star ratings in days, a good 10% of the ratings that were already posted over months, killing sales, he too would be able to do some convincing crocodile tears.
Talk is cheap, and it costs nothing to apologise. Clearly, this is an attempt to mollify angry customers, and nothing more. This is rather typical of Amazon's contempt for their customers. They've demonstrated through their actions -- imposing odious DRM on their paying customers, and setting a dangerous precedent for Big Content to rape their customers at will -- that they cannot be trusted.
Trust is very hard to build and very easy to destroy. I will not spend a red cent with Amazon again.
Interestingly, beyond Jeff's cheap talk, they seem to be showing very little remorse. All my enquiries to their "customer" "service" contact either get a form letter, or are ignored entirely. Likewise, my requests to them to close my account have been ignored.
Amazon doesn't deserve your business. Don't shop with Amazon, and spend your money with book retailers who show their customers at least a token amount of respect.
one word: library
I created this account just so I could comment on this story
Is this why amazon offers DRM-free MP3s to its customers at lower prices than DRM-laden itunes (something like $0.75 per song on big albums)? Apparently knee-jerk business bashing earns +4 insightful these days; I suppose being a successful company and screwing up once in a while is the best way to earn hate on slashdot. Are you really comparing AT&T to Amazon?
You don't seem to understand, breaching a computer system, unauthorized access to a computer through a network is a felony. I doubt any of the Kindle owners ever signed an Eula (at purchase????) and authorized Amazon to take the book off. Maybe I'm wrong, and at the purchase of every book there is an Eula that says they get to fuck you in the ass and have the resulting baby from it too.
All I know is if a private person were to do the same, they'd be headed to jail if caught.
I'm sure the flash drive has definite traces, unless they took care to explicitly overwrite the memmory it occupied(which I doubt).
A simpler solution would be to negotiate with the publishers. Perhaps not to have distribution rights in the future, but retroactive distribution rights. Offer them 100% of the money paid for the Kindle versions out there, or 110% or something. What publisher is really going to stand their ground in the face of a nice check without giving away any future rights? Then nobody knows anything happened, except the book is no longer available for purchase. Instead, this bad PR could cost them quite a bit of Kindle purchases and Kindle book purchases.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
>>>For me, the "apology" doesn't sound heartfelt at all.
Amazon's been going downhill rapidly. The whole "we can erase your books" philosophy is why I never bought a Kindle. I like to keep my books indefinitely, read them at least once, and then resell them to somebody else. A Kindle doesn't let you do the first or the last.
Of course the other possibility is that I'm biased against amazon. I was a seller on amazon for three years - nothing special - just selling my old books, games, or videos. I had a 100% rating until I made a mistake and violated a rule by selling a Zenith DTV Converter box (for some reason this is not allowed). They suspended my account, I apologized, and then was reinstated. I was careful to obey the rules but they suspended my account again saying, "You issued a $200 refund which exceeds our new selling standards." Well yeah. A guy bought a $200 air conditioner, then he changed his mind, so I politely and happily refunded the money. That's what you're supposed to do.
Long-story short they refused to listen and just kept saying refunding $200 is a lot of money an unacceptable. Now they are holding almost $500 of my money earned off previous sales, and won't return it to me. I can understand a temporary hold but almost half-a-year has passed.
Amazon is rapidly following the path to destruction that Ebay followed last year when it alienated its sellers.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
And do you have *proof* that they can't reach in and delete your non-DRM media? Amazon is stonewalling all attempts from all journalists trying to figure out the actual boundaries the Kindle has. Given what they've shown they can do so far, I'd be very surprised if they were unable to delete an arbitrary file from an arbitrary Kindle, but the fact is, we don't know because they won't say. Seem you're a lot safer just avoiding the Kindle until they start answering some questions or making some changes.
I would be beyond fucking annoyed -- I would call it what it fucking is: tresspassing. In U.S. Law - if someone ships you an item, on purpose or by accident, they can't demand it back (only unless a contract was signed beforehand hand and purchase doesnt fulfill it). It could be a thousand dollar ring, shipped to you by accident, doesn't matter. It's yours.
Coincidentally, Amazon has tried similar shenanigans in the past. A minor error on their website turned a DVD promotion of buy 1, get the next one 50% off to buy 1, get the next one free. They corrected the error on their website but still shipped orders up to three days later.
A month or so goes by and they threatened everyone that received shipment with an ultimatum - return it or pay what amazon thinks you should have paid. They even went so far as to actually charge some people's credit cards for the extra fee and people had to dispute the charge - a big hassle for a handful of people who had banks that were not willing to back them up in the dispute. Anyone who had paid for their year-long express shipping service "amazon prime" essentially had that service held hostage - if they did not comply with amazon's demands then amazon would no longer do any business with them and would not refund a pro-rated amount for their Amazon Prime fees.
Amazon's got a good rep, but it is undeserved. When the shit hits the fan, they seem to always take the anti-consumer choice. (Another general example of Amazon being anti-consumer, if your website gets amazon referrals, you are forbidden from allowing any discussion of amazon coupon codes on your website.)
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Up until the point where they - either "rightfully" or by accident - deny you accident to any game you bought on steam EVER. Or the company goes bankrupt or whatever else could happen.
Seriously, let's go as far and say you cheated in a multiplayer game once. They can suddenly take all the games you ever bought for good money away from you. It's just gone. Poof.
While it may have been wrong for you to cheat, should they really hold the power to take all the games you ever bought away from you with the flip of a byte?
Allowing you to redownload your games from your account can be done without DRM as well. Yes right now they are only willing to do it with DRM, but it could be done without. DRM is not a benefit, people need to learn this.
And before somebody complains - I buy all the games that I play (unless I quickly decide it's not for me - but then I stop playing). I just want to have control over my own games that I bought with my money. If I can't have that, I won't buy it.
Yeah, it can hurt to admit, but for example by using DRM, Apple was able to get iTunes such huge market share that they could:
a) demonstrate to the music industry that online distribution was possible and profitable
b) after (a), force the industry's hand into getting them to remove the DRM, due to customer complaints and (maybe more importantly) customer's and apples' willingness to increase prices for the non-DRM versions of the songs
Likewise Valve has jump-started PC game digital distribution with Steam, making more products available online. And unlike iTunes, Steam carries with it various advantages over retail distribution, such as being able to download and play your games without a CD. Not that this is impossible without DRM, but the DRM enabled Steam to offer these features for games.
I purchased 1984 on my Kindle back in March, and I always leave wireless turned off except for when I want to purchase another book. As ErikZ mentioned, it extends the battery life for weeks. I fully expected 1984 to be deleted from my Kindle once I turned wireless back on and purchased another book, but it's still there (I reopened it to make sure it was still readable as well), and I received a refund for the purchase as well. The book is also still there on my iPhone Kindle app. So maybe leaving your wireless turned off can prevent Amazon from remotely deleting your purchases? Doesn't seem likely that they would have left that kind of hole in their kill switch, but it did the trick this time.