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Originally Posted by CommonReader
Perhaps it's a cultural thing but why would kids have a problem to ask their parents to pay for the books they have chosen? Such a conflict will only arise if parents believe that they have to monitor their kids' reading choices very strictly.
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Kids often want to read things they don't want to directly discuss with their parents, even if their parents are fine with it. And there's a difference between "parents can monitor their books" (certainly, I had no secret hidden bookshelves for most of my teen years) and "child must ask parent, at time of purchase, for every book." Since Fictionwise eliminated micropay, it's very difficult--maybe impossible--to tell a kid, "here's $50; buy books with it when you find ones you like."
And of course, in most stores, the kid can't legally have their own account at all. The parent either has to let them access everything the parent has bought, or set up a separate account, and tell the child, "just ignore the part of the TOS about age." Which leads to them thinking, what other parts are okay to ignore?
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Once they are old enough that their reading choice may be too risque for their parents' liking they probably know where to get the books for free on some sharing site or on an USB stick from some friends at school anyway.
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Delightful response... "when they want to read controversial material, they should just pirate it. No problem."
Most kids, of course, will never think of any of this. They'll sign up for accounts without reading the TOS; they'll pester their parents to pay when they've picked out something they like. But much more often, they'll go the easier route of typing the name of the book + free download into a google search, and be reading inside of two minutes, rather than "search through store listings, sign up for account, install special software, call parent to computer, wait while parent enters credit card number, physical address & phone number (!!); confirm that software is properly configured, download book."
A sixteen-year-old can be handed $50 and sent to B&N to pick up "some nice books to read during the summer." The same child can't be sent to Amazon to pick up "some nice books to load on your Kindle"--unless someone is violating the TOS.
And hey, if it's okay to violate the part about "Amazon does sell products for children, but it sells them to adults, who can purchase with a credit card or other permitted payment method. If you are under 18, you may use Amazon.com only with involvement of a parent or guardian," why wouldn't it be okay to violate the part about "you may not bypass, modify, defeat, or circumvent security features that protect the Digital Content?"
What makes one part of the TOS morally important to follow, but not another part?