Quote:
Originally Posted by sirbruce
They'd have to charge for all web traffic if they start doing that, since you can't really tell an ebook from any other data stream reliably. And Amazon *does* reserve the right to do that in the future, but they aren't yet even via this latest announcement.
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Since all traffic goes thru the proxy servers, watching for, logging (and charging) for "books" or other documents via the web services is a simple programming excercise.
I really don't have much problem with their charges (and at least you have to authorize the senders, unlike the per-msg text message "plans" that most carriers force you to get by default, forcing you to pay for spam and "wrong" numbers that have "interesting" proposals).
For those that asked, yes all emails will count as personal docs, since technically they convert the MOBI and PRC files to AZW (and add metadata to indicate it is a personal document). Baen and Fictionwise would both be affected.
However, for books, it's not much of a charge (most are under 15 cents, some might be thirty, few above that). It's the RSS feeds daily that would hurt (USA Today plus the Washington Post would be 45 cents a day). The monthly charge for that, one weekly and one monthly email is almost at the $15/month that Sprint charges for an unlimited data plan. I'd prefer the option to add my Kindle to my Sprint bill and not worry about the small charges (especially since I get a 23% discount). Those who use the service very little (or never, as some simply are not in whispernet range) could continue with the small charges per doc/mb.
Instead, I'll use the USB cable (or read on my new netbook) and let books pile up until I want to transfer them myself, rather than being lazy and sending them via email. For now, I'll quit using Instapaper (it already didn't handle some web pages and it won't let you send your daily feed to the free kindle address, only the pay address).