Quote:
Originally Posted by susieqt
Well Amazon CS has responded... have to say I am surprised - it seems a bit odd in this digital age that you only have a lifetime ownership and your digital asset evaporates on your death.
"Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk with your Kindle query.
In the event that the Kindle owner passes away and the new owner registers the Kindle to their own account they will not have access to the previously purchased kindle books. They will have to purchase the books again from Amazon.co.uk.
Thank you for your interest in the Amazon Kindle."
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I wonder about that here in the US...remember this will vary by country. I started a similar thread a while back and it will be interesting to compare responses from the same people as in this thread.
Remember one thing, just because the user agreement tries to threaten you into believing something is one way does not mean it's legal OR enforceable. Any contract is only as binding as the parties involved are willing to abide by the terms.
But as was my point in the past...if we book buyers are indeed being forced to give up the right to control the items we buy then we deserve compensation for that. And in this case compensation could reasonably be in the form of significantly lower prices. In the US for a contract to even be considered binding both parties must benefit in a reasonably equitable fashion, there are further criteria involving coercion and such but the meat of it is a contract agreement must be fair to both parties. And there is the argument...what is a reasonable benefit in this case? If the contract does not specially specify a limit of control to be the person's lifetime then certainly there is room for a legal argument. And then there is the issue of full disclosure prior to purchase and so on and so forth...problem is, at least as far as anyone has posted here, but there hasn't been a legal case to set a precedent yet. We all consider books as tangible good but publishers want them considered as something different with no inherent value.
Remember just because it is difficult to enforce control legitimate use over your product does mean the other party has to surrender reasonably assumed user rights to the product in order to protect your work> Protecting it is your problem not the buyer(s).