[issybird]

It’s a puzzlement to me.

This post will tend to be Kindle-specific, but I think the principle applies across the board, hence posting in General.

There are always some active threads in the Kindle forum deploring how Amazon continues to make it harder and harder to download books and describing ever more torturous work-arounds. Here’s what I don’t get: Why don’t people who are infuriated by this stop buying Kindle books? Yeah, yeah, I know; they can be the only source for certain books. So why not read something else if you can’t make your peace with doing it Amazon’s way? There are a lot of books out there, more than anyone can read in a lifetime and I’d argue every bit as enjoyable. Books are pretty fungible at that. And by buying books elsewhere, you’d be denying Amazon their ill-gotten gains while helping to prop up a business whose practices are more in line with your preferences. Sounds like win/win to me.

And as a rider to this, when you buy Kindle books, you agree that you’re only buying a license which comes with restrictions. So why the outrage? If Amazon’s only trying to enforce the terms of sale?

As I said, I don’t get it. I mostly stopped buying Kindle books when Kobo became always a better value, but I’d buy from them if it were the cheapest/only option for something I wanted to read, but their Kindle sales practices don’t bother me so there’s no moral component. I’d buy, read it on a Kindle and move on.

TL;DR: Why do business with an entity whose practices you deplore? Books are not a life-saving drug.