Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
They already have the courts permission, by way of settled law.
The only part of the Amazon scenario I'm curious about is the deleting of files off the device remotely (a la the 1984 incident).
I'm surprised that's allowed. They can certainly deny ACCESS to the content...change the DRM key, etc, and they can certainly prevent you from accessing their systems again, but I'm surprised they're allowed to delete the actually data off a hardware device that you do in fact own, regardless of TOS.
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Well, they are allowed to until someone stops them. Their TOS is not the
final word, but it is the
first word, and hence the
operativeword so long as no one takes them to court or the legislature doesn't act to prevent them.
Personally, I think that their so-called license is, legally, a sale. But the instances in which Amazon acts to delete material must be extremely rare, and I suspect normally involves situations where the customer does not himself have "clean hands." Such customers aren't likely to resort to the courts.
If I recall correctly, in the 1984 instance Amazon made the customers whole by refunding what they paid. So that was a situation in which, while Amazon was in my view, acting illegally, the damage to the customer is hard to quantify. Without damage, there's no lawsuit.
The likelihood of an innocent customer being screwed by Amazon and then being willing to incur the trouble & expense to take the matter to court seems pretty remote.