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mattst · 03-14-2014, 11:27 AM

Hi,

I know this has been discussed and various advice given but I'm worried by the article (linked below) about a Norwegian woman who had her Kindle wiped remotely and her Amazon account closed.

http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/...by-amazon-drm/

Some background - I live in the UK but want to buy a couple of Kindle ebooks (to start with) from amazon.com. Why not just buy them in paperback? Well, I have a high level spinal cord injury with only limited arm movement, no finger movement at all but despite that I can operate my Kindle Paperwhite very effectively. Reading paper books is very hard for me to do and requires regular assistance from my personal care assistants and I can't read in bed at all (I like to read after going to bed and when I wake in the morning). So I'd like to get these books for my Kindle but they are only available for the Kindle on amazon.com and not on amazon.co.uk.

So there seem to me to be 2 sensible options:

Option 1) Find someone in the US who can buy the books for me and email them to me. I can then use Calibre to do anything necessary before copying them over USB to my Kindle. I would of course pay for the books in advance using PayPal (or similar). I would also be happy to reciprocate if there was someone out there who is in the US and who would like in return access to Kindle books available on amazon.co.uk but not on amazon.com.

Option 2) Ask for step-by-step advice on how to buy the books myself from amazon.com while in the UK. Various threads here state how to buy books from .com if you're in the UK or from .co.uk if you're in the US, but there is conflicting advice and the posts are several years old. Some mention the need to use a US VPN, others say that is not necessary. Some suggest paying by buying a .com gift certificate from a .co.uk account to get around the lack of a credit card registered to a US address. They say that you need to find a genuine US postal address and enter it as your amazon.com account's address, and which clearly you have no right to use. I could use one of my old Kindles (my Kindle Basic, or my Kindle Touch) after de-registering it first, to help during this process.

I must admit to being worried about option 2) because of what happened to the Norwegian woman in the article linked at the start of this post. Clearly Amazon are not averse to closing accounts if they smell abuse even if they believe so incorrectly - and option 2) seems to be genuine abuse, at the very least it would be a deliberate manipulation of their system to achieve something they don't want you to do and I can't see them being very forgiving. Due to my disability reading on a Kindle has been a godsend for me and I'm reading twice as much as I was before I had one, back up to the amount I was reading before my spinal injury. I don't really want to do something that could jeopardise this and conceivably result in my Amazon account being killed and my Kindle remotely wiped (I have a full backup but that won't allow me to buy any more books).

But if option 2) is safe and people are still doing it (the threads I found all seem to be at least 3 years old) and someone was willing to tell me how to do it in 2014, as opposed to how it was done successfully in 2010, then I might risk it.

Option 1) seems like my best bet, if I can find someone. Any takers?

All replies and advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks all,

Matt

P.S. The Norwegian woman did get her account back after the article at the top was published, see here:

http://boingboing.net/2012/10/22/kin...azon-dele.html

03-14-2014, 11:27 AM	#1
mattst Enthusiast Posts: 32 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: Kindle	Buying Amazon.com books from the UK. Hi, I know this has been discussed and various advice given but I'm worried by the article (linked below) about a Norwegian woman who had her Kindle wiped remotely and her Amazon account closed. http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/...by-amazon-drm/ Some background - I live in the UK but want to buy a couple of Kindle ebooks (to start with) from amazon.com. Why not just buy them in paperback? Well, I have a high level spinal cord injury with only limited arm movement, no finger movement at all but despite that I can operate my Kindle Paperwhite very effectively. Reading paper books is very hard for me to do and requires regular assistance from my personal care assistants and I can't read in bed at all (I like to read after going to bed and when I wake in the morning). So I'd like to get these books for my Kindle but they are only available for the Kindle on amazon.com and not on amazon.co.uk. So there seem to me to be 2 sensible options: Option 1) Find someone in the US who can buy the books for me and email them to me. I can then use Calibre to do anything necessary before copying them over USB to my Kindle. I would of course pay for the books in advance using PayPal (or similar). I would also be happy to reciprocate if there was someone out there who is in the US and who would like in return access to Kindle books available on amazon.co.uk but not on amazon.com. Option 2) Ask for step-by-step advice on how to buy the books myself from amazon.com while in the UK. Various threads here state how to buy books from .com if you're in the UK or from .co.uk if you're in the US, but there is conflicting advice and the posts are several years old. Some mention the need to use a US VPN, others say that is not necessary. Some suggest paying by buying a .com gift certificate from a .co.uk account to get around the lack of a credit card registered to a US address. They say that you need to find a genuine US postal address and enter it as your amazon.com account's address, and which clearly you have no right to use. I could use one of my old Kindles (my Kindle Basic, or my Kindle Touch) after de-registering it first, to help during this process. I must admit to being worried about option 2) because of what happened to the Norwegian woman in the article linked at the start of this post. Clearly Amazon are not averse to closing accounts if they smell abuse even if they believe so incorrectly - and option 2) seems to be genuine abuse, at the very least it would be a deliberate manipulation of their system to achieve something they don't want you to do and I can't see them being very forgiving. Due to my disability reading on a Kindle has been a godsend for me and I'm reading twice as much as I was before I had one, back up to the amount I was reading before my spinal injury. I don't really want to do something that could jeopardise this and conceivably result in my Amazon account being killed and my Kindle remotely wiped (I have a full backup but that won't allow me to buy any more books). But if option 2) is safe and people are still doing it (the threads I found all seem to be at least 3 years old) and someone was willing to tell me how to do it in 2014, as opposed to how it was done successfully in 2010, then I might risk it. Option 1) seems like my best bet, if I can find someone. Any takers? All replies and advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks all, Matt P.S. The Norwegian woman did get her account back after the article at the top was published, see here: http://boingboing.net/2012/10/22/kin...azon-dele.html