Kindle user says Amazon remotely wiped her whole library [UPDATED: see first post]

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

Because when a US publisher buys the right to publish a book, they might only have the right to sell it "in the US." Other publishers bought the rights to sell that book in other countries. I honestly have no idea how Amazon works in other countries, that's why I ask. When you log in to Amazon.com (is that what you do?), you can see all the books, or only the ones available to you?

Amazon only shows the books with buy buttons that publishers have made available in the specific country (unless you tell them you're somewhere you're not).

[Zzyzx]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

Because when a US publisher buys the right to publish a book, they might only have the right to sell it "in the US." Other publishers bought the rights to sell that book in other countries. I honestly have no idea how Amazon works in other countries, that's why I ask. When you log in to Amazon.com (is that what you do?), you can see all the books, or only the ones available to you?

eP

I don't know if we can see all of them. I log in with my Norwegian account (on Amazon.com) so I would guess that I can only see the ones I can actually buy. This is generally not a big problem, though. One example of books where I know that a Norwegian publisher has the right to sell them in Norway, is A Song of Ice and Fire, which are available to me from Amazon. Obviously, the Norwegian publisher does not have exclusive rights in Norway.

I have not yet wanted to buy a book that Amazon will not deliver to my Kindle.

Norwegian publishers don't really sell or even care about e-books, though. That may be why there are so few restrictions on Amazon.

[banjobama]

Originally Posted by Apache

Every book I buy is stripped and backed up on multiple drives. If they want my books they will have to pry them from my cold dead hands.
Apache

Same here!

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by BoldlyDubious

In my view, the problem is not where she lives or what she did or did not. It lies in the fact that what happened -assuming the link tells the story correctly, of course- illustrates the absolute power that the providers of DRM'd media have over their users.
The stated reason for Amazon's action was that the user's account was "related" to another one that had been blocked for unspecified reasons. When the user asked Amazon

" Is it correct that you cannot give me any information about
1. How my account is linked to the blocked account
2. The name/id of the related blocked account
3. What policy that was violated"

she got no response.

This is what upsets me too. Amazon did not give her a fair response. They should have explained themselves and allowed her a chance to explain herself to them.

BTW. Amazon is not the only company to act in this way.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

And this is why Apprentice Alf and his bunch are your friends. Trusting any corporation with your data is...unwise

Clouds are good. Local backups are better.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by Apache

Every book I buy is stripped and backed up on multiple drives. If they want my books they will have to pry them from my cold dead hands.
Apache

Same here

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by chilady1

I love my Kindle and I don't have a major issue with my Kindle and access, however, having said that, I don't turn on my WiFi all the time and to Apache's comment: Ditto and Amen!

I paid for these books in whatever format, they are mine so if today it is Kindle and tomorrow something else, my library stays with me.

[Kumabjorn]

Those e-mails look like boilerplate. When closing down an account and wiping out all downloads the least they can do is provide a reasonable explanation. This Linn, or someone using her account, has obviously done something that is in gross violation of Amazon's ToS, but what and how I guess we will never know.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Then you'd have absolutely zero trouble if you followed the very same practices with Amazon purchases.

I guess I don't quite understand why anyone would feel any safer purchasing, de-DRMing, and backing up non-Amazon ebooks than they would purchasing, de-DRMing and backing-up Amazon content. If you're going to take a proactive stance on de-DRMing and backing up your own purchases, surely where you get your content from is of very little consequence?

This is true. I do 'liberate' and backup all my books. I think what bothers me about this whole thing is that, if the story is true and as the user stated them, that Amazon will not give a full explanation to her. They will not budge and give her a chance to respond to charges. That and the fact that they removed books she already bought and paid for.

And Amazon is not the only company that has this type of attitude.

[Joy736]

I read about this on an other forum and they were also speculating that she used an illegal vpn-connection to purchase books that she wasn't allowed to purchase from Norway. But we'll probably never know.

[Quexos]

I never trusted the cloud and certainly never will. It's bad enough that this generation has cataloged itself willingly on Facebook without adding to it the hassle of letting its digital goods in remote places like the cloud, at the mercy and good will of private corporations (and governments ?) which at any time can see, change or delete people's lives

Per our Conditions of Use which state in part: Amazon.co.uk and its affiliates reserve the right to refuse service, terminate accounts, remove or edit content, or cancel orders at their sole discretion.

[Zzyzx]

Originally Posted by Joy736

I read about this on an other forum and they were also speculating that she used an illegal vpn-connection to purchase books that she wasn't allowed to purchase from Norway. But we'll probably never know.

No point in that as most books on Amazon are available to us.

Not that I'm saying that she didn't do anything wrong. Just that the VPN theory is not very plausible.

[BoldlyDubious]

Originally Posted by Joy736

I read about this on an other forum and they were also speculating that she used an illegal vpn-connection to purchase books that she wasn't allowed to purchase from Norway. But we'll probably never know.

(bold is mine)
This is really the worst part: the one that speaks of absolute power.
Not only providers of DRM'd content (Amazon, in this case) can close your account and delete your purchases because you appear to them to have done something wrong; also, their power over you is so absolute that they are not even required (nor feel the need) to tell you why they are doing this.
This is too reminiscent of totalitarian regimes, where the secret police can get you and put you in prison at any time, never telling you what you were accused of :-(

[AnemicOak]

It would be nice to know the why, assuming she doesn't know and just isn't sharing the reason. Also why can't they close the account to new purchases, but leave current content accessible?

[EowynCarter]

That's why i un-drm my books. Shops might close, DRM being software, it can suffer bugs... So many things can go wrong even if no one means harm.
And then there is the very practical issue or reading books with linux.