Own Books on a Kindle

[gandor62]

Hi all. I have my finger over the order button for a International Kindle and a horrible though has just crossed my mind. I currently use my iPhone and Stanza to read and have had to modify a lot of books to get them to work. DRM, I'm talking about.

What I'm concerned about is if Amazon decides that I don't own whats on the kindle can they remove it at their leisure. Stories of 1984 come to mind. Id hate to get into an argument with them and having to prove ownership of everything I load onto the kindle.

Does anyone know if they can or do remove your own loaded stuff from the kindles memory.

[Connallmac]

Just back up everything on your hard drive. You can always transfer the files to your Kindle via USB and leave the Whispernet off.

[JMikeD]

Originally Posted by gandor62

What I'm concerned about is if Amazon decides that I don't own whats on the kindle

"Use of Digital Content. Upon your payment of the applicable fees set by Amazon, Amazon grants you the non-exclusive right to keep a permanent copy of the applicable Digital Content and to view, use, and display such Digital Content an unlimited number of times, solely on the Device or as authorized by Amazon as part of the Service and solely for your personal, non-commercial use. Digital Content will be deemed licensed to you by Amazon under this Agreement unless otherwise expressly provided by Amazon."

I read this to say that we don't own the content, we have a permanent license to keep a copy. Maybe a fine point, but it's not ownership, according the TOS.

As far as being able to remove items that the owner put on a Kindle, I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon had (or could have with minor programming changes on their end) the capability to delete those items, but I don't know why they would be interested in doing it.

I back up a my books, anyway.

[Sporadic]

Originally Posted by gandor62

What I'm concerned about is if Amazon decides that I don't own whats on the kindle can they remove it at their leisure. Stories of 1984 come to mind. Id hate to get into an argument with them and having to prove ownership of everything I load onto the kindle.

No.

If Amazon decides that somebody uploaded pirated material to their store, they have the right to pull it and issue a refund. Although they don't pull the material anymore, they just politely ask you to delete it.

They aren't searching Kindles and they don't give a shit what you send to yourself. Amazon is just trying to cover their ass when it comes to their store. If they left user uploaded pirated material up on the Kindle Store, they would be opening themselves up to a massive lawsuit and the publishers/authors pulling support.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by gandor62

Hi all. I have my finger over the order button for a International Kindle and a horrible though has just crossed my mind. I currently use my iPhone and Stanza to read and have had to modify a lot of books to get them to work. DRM, I'm talking about.

What I'm concerned about is if Amazon decides that I don't own whats on the kindle can they remove it at their leisure. Stories of 1984 come to mind. Id hate to get into an argument with them and having to prove ownership of everything I load onto the kindle.

Does anyone know if they can or do remove your own loaded stuff from the kindles memory.

They can and they already did at least once (with legally from Amazon purchased stuff, not with uploaded ones).
There has been a huge thread about this around 2 months ago.
They did compensate all buyers by generous credit notes. But still lots of people have been pissed, as their legally owned book had been pulled over night.
For me, the solution is quite simple: I've got the old, non-international, Kindles. In Germany, I can't use Whispernet, so no one can pull anything from my units.
If I'd have Whispernet, I wouldn't leave it on permanently, but just for downloading books and then turning off again. And of course: Backup, Backup, Backup.

As for your own stuff: As far as I know, because of privacy issues, they wouldn't be allowed to access your unit, check your content and then decide what to keep and what to delete. (Similar with Microsoft. They easily could check your PC for pirated software and delete it or even cripple your OS.)
For the stuff bought from Amazon, they seem to have the understanding, it's their right to change their mind later on. In their understanding, you don't buy the book, but only the right to use it. A right which can be revoked anytime.

[The Hooded Claw]

As mentioned, they can and they did. I doubt they'll ever pull purchased merchandise off of Kindles again, however (at least not for years) because of the stink over the one time they did it. They also settled a lawsuit for an impressive amount, I believe $150,000. Google to verify the exact amount if that is important to you.

[gandor62]

Thanks for the replies people. I feel much better now. I have been buying Ebooks for about 8 years from various sources in different formats with different DRM packets. Ive gone to the trouble of unprotecting it all and converted all to epub with that awesome program called Calibre (for the reformatting). In some countries like the USA, I think its quite illegal and so I was a bit nervous. But am good now.....Cheers