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Originally Posted by BoldlyDubious
I just updated the thread title, and put the news at the bottom of the first post.
I'm relieved to know that Amazon did not perform remote deletion of books. Of course this is a very limited relief: Amazon retains the power to do such things (and what else? Read and/or delete content from Kindles even if it was not sourced from Amazon? We don't know...) whenever they want. Moreover, it seems to be confirmed that Amazon can decide at any time to terminate your account without giving you neither an explanation nor the possibility to prove that they're wrong. And I can't see how you can get back the books you "purchased" from Amazon if you don't have an Amazon account anymore...
I think it's unhealthy that such an unlimited power over their customers is allowed to companies; especially those that deal with important things (for society) like culture.
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Sony, Kobo, and Nook can do the same thing. Any ereader with WiFi is at risk. This seems to pop up once every six months with Amazon. It is normally connected to an account that has been stolen or is connected to an account that has been used fraudulently. 90% of the time the "victim" suddenly remembers that they did all these things, normally abusing the return policy, and works it out with Amazon. I have yet to read of one of these cases were the "victim" was in the clear.
Amazon needs to handle these better but in the long run the likelihood of anyones account being closed maliciously or accidentily is pretty small. If it was happening a ton we would read about it with a great deal more frequency.
And because there is that small probability, I strip the drm and back up my books.