[governance] Amazon Allegedly Deletes Customer's Kindle; Incident Triggers Discussion About Ebooks, DRM

[Deirdre Williams]

I am still very confused by Amazon's attitude towards the IP address I am
using at any point in time.
Last year I was given a Kindle which was probably purchased locally (in
Saint Lucia, West Indies) or in the United States. Initially I made
purchases for it from my existing Amazon.uk account, but then was
re-directed to Amazon.com. Amazon.com lists different books, and anyway
they don't like my credit card (issued in Barbados) so I declined to go.
That Kindle was stolen, but obligingly blocked for further use through my
Amazon UK account.
In April I was in England where I was given a new Kindle, this time bought
in the UK
Using the Internet in the house where I was staying in London I discovered
with joy that I could retrieve all of the content from the stolen Kindle -
through my Amazon UK account. I bought several books as well as some other
things - through my Amazon UK account and was, as they say, happy as Larry
- until I got home to Saint Lucia and found myself redirected to Amazon.com
for things to do with my Kindle.
The single thing that varies is the IP address I am working from, and I ask
again - is that IP address any business of Amazon? Have I somehow become my
IP address? Is it of more importance than everything else - including the
billing address for my credit card? Where does my personal privacy stand in
this context?
I have asked the question before - also from Amazon - but I'm still not
convinced by the answers.
Can anyone un-confuse me please?
Deirdre.


On 23 October 2012 08:11, Riaz K Tayob <riaz.tayob at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>  Amazon Allegedly Deletes Customer's Kindle; Incident Triggers Discussion
> About Ebooks, DRM
>
>  Posted: 10/22/2012 4:36 pm EDT Updated: 10/22/2012 4:41 pm
>
> Linn's story, which appeared on Bekkelund's blog on Monday, has already
> triggered a heated discussion<http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/11vz4g/amazon_closes_womans_account_and_wipes_her_kindle/>about ebooks and digital rights management (DRM), with some calling this
> Amazon incident an example of DRM at its worst.
>
> "[The incident] highlights the power [DRM] offers blue-chip companies<http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/oct/22/amazon-wipes-customers-kindle-deletes-account>.
> DRM is used by hardware manufacturers and publishers to limit the use of
> digital content once it has been purchased by consumers; in Amazon's case,
> it means the company can prevent you from reading content you have bought
> at the Kindle store on a rival device," the Guardian writes.
>
> This is not the first time that Amazon has remotely erased Kindle content.
>
> As Andy Boxall of Digital Trends<http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/amazon-account-ban-reminds-us-drm-content-is-only-rented/>notes, the company deleted
> copies of "Animal Farm" and "1984"<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html>in 2009. It also occured in 2010, "when
> more dubious titles were removed too."<http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/amazon-removes-incest-related-erotica-titles-from-store-kindle-archive/>
>
> "Amazon should not be able to erase content that has already been
> downloaded<http://consumerist.com/2012/10/22/amazon-erases-customers-kindle-wishes-her-luck-in-finding-somewhere-else-to-shop/>.
> If the company wants to close your account, fine; refuse future downloads.
> But unless it has proof that the books on that Kindle had been fraudulently
> downloaded, we don’t see how the company can justify erasing content that
> had been paid for by a customer," the Consumerist notes, adding that Amazon
> had yet to respond to a request for comment.
>
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-- 
“The fundamental cure for poverty is not money but knowledge" Sir William
Arthur Lewis, Nobel Prize Economics, 1979
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