Kindle book lending - cheating

[timpearson26]

So I was just thinking about book lending and had an idea.

So if you want to lend a book to someone they would probably be your friend right, and hopefully you trust your friends. And when you read a book you just read one at a time right? So when you want to lend a book, what if you just gave your friend your amazon account info. Then he could sync his kindle to your account and then he could download the book for free. Then when finished he could just switch his kindle back to his own account.

The only problem I see with this is I don't know if amazon puts restrictions on how often you can switch your kindle accounts around.

Think this would work?

Btw, not a kindle owner yet, just thinking if this would be a way around one of the major drawbacks of the kindle.

Tim

[RainingLemur]

Not 100% sure on that, as I've never researched it. But, I don't have many friends (if any) that I'd trust with access to my billing information to make unauthorized purchases.

[TimW]

De-registering from your own account and allowing your friend to register your Kindle to their account would give you access to their archives to download whatever books you wanted. Upon re-registering to your own account, the books would remain. It would be in violation of your terms of service and I imagine it would be noticed if it happened a lot.

[abookreader]

I've been doing it for years with my Mom and it's never been noticed and we've never been told to stop. I know several people here do it also. My Kindle actually has visited several accounts.

My own account
My Mom's
A reading group I belong to
My son with a Canadian Address

Not that I've ever actually combed through the Terms of Service, but I've really never seen anything that forbids moving a Kindle between accounts.

[lestatar]

^ Hmmm, interesting. Maybe its possible you have slipped through the digital cracks? Or perhaps the actual number of people who do this is quite small?

<food for thought for me though...>

[abookreader]

Well - I'm sure that in the vast number of millions of Kindle owners, the number of people who do it is probably infinitesimal. Just like DRM removal, it is common among here but in the vast scheme that is Amazon we are statistically irrelevant. Most people couldn't even tell you exactly what DRM is, much less remove it.

I've seen account hopping talked about on various boards often... here, the Amazon boards etc etc and I've never seen anybody say Amazon has told them to knock it off.

[NdB]

Originally Posted by timpearson26

The only problem I see with this is I don't know if amazon puts restrictions on how often you can switch your kindle accounts around.


Tim

I don't think there's a restriction on that, although as others have said it might get 'noticed'.

There is however (as far as I'm aware) a restriction on the number of devices you can download a book to as part of your 'license' when you purchase it (6 I think) and I believe that includes Kindle 4 PC, Kindle 4 iPhone etc.
NdB

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by TimW

De-registering from your own account and allowing your friend to register your Kindle to their account .... would be in violation of your terms of service and I imagine it would be noticed if it happened a lot.

I've just read the "terms of service", both for the US and the UK. I can't see any restrictions on de-registering and re-registering.

See http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...deId=200506200

[TimW]

Originally Posted by Mike L

I've just read the "terms of service", both for the US and the UK. I can't see any restrictions on de-registering and re-registering.

See http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...deId=200506200

Appendix B (product information) of the Kindle User Guide, p. 112:

"Limitations. 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 or modify any proprietary notices or labels on the Digital Content. In addition, you may not bypass, modify, defeat, or circumvent security
features that protect the Digital Content."

[abookreader]

Originally Posted by TimW

Appendix B (product information) of the Kindle User Guide, p. 112:

"Limitations. 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 or modify any proprietary notices or labels on the Digital Content. In addition, you may not bypass, modify, defeat, or circumvent security
features that protect the Digital Content."

Well, we all blow the heck out of that with our Calibre add-ons - but I don't see where that says a Kindle can only be registered to one account.

[Tome Keeper]

It may or may not be against the T&C but how many friends would you really trust with your billing information?

[DiapDealer]

but how many friends would you really trust with your billing information?

You wouldn't have to. If you register someone's Kindle to your account, they don't automatically have access to your billing information—unless you're unwise enough to give them your account login. They might be able to charge a bunch of ebooks on your credit card directly from their Kindle (1-click) while they're registered to your account, but they won't have access to your personal details. All you're doing is de-registering and registering Kindles by exchanging serial numbers so you have access to each others archives.

[Sonny Blount]

My family do this all the time.

We have over a dozen devices (I think 7 are Kindles), that hop around between 3 libraries, one for the kids, one for the guys, and one for the gals. We don't have any credit card details on them, we use gift cards. I use my personal amazon account when a cc is required.

We have changed accounts hundreds of times, it is never a problem. But I still use Amazons lending feature for friends rather than allow them to log into our Amazon libraries.

[rcdc]

It would be a lot easier and no less ethical to stip the drm & lend the mobi to your friend. You can even email it to their kindle.

If you care about your ebook collection you should strip the drm anyway.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by rcdc

It would be a lot easier and no less ethical to stip the drm & lend the mobi to your friend. You can even email it to their kindle.

If you care about your ebook collection you should strip the drm anyway.

First, let me be clear. I strip the DRM from every book that I get. Even when I download directly from Amazon, at the earliest opportunity I liberate the book and reload it back onto the Kindle. So I have no personal issues with DRM removal whatsoever.

However, that being said, I do have issues with removing DRM and then giving the book to someone. Now you have committed theft, pure and simple. This is not the same as registering their Kindle and downloading the book to it. I think that is theft as well, but it is, at least, controlled to only those you'd clearly be willing to give your account to.

If you use the official way to lend a book to someone, you lose access to it while they have it. Just as with a physical book. If you give them a DRM-stripped book, there are no limits. You still have the book, they can keep it forever, and they can give it to anyone else without restriction. To me, that's crossed the line and you're stealing from the author, pure and simple.

As anyone who reads these forums knows, I don't like DRM and do everything I can to circumvent it and encourage others to do so as well. Not as a way to steal, but as a way to liberate books from silly format restrictions and as a way to protect your use of the product you bought.