Quote:
Originally Posted by captcrouton
Ok, here's my (possibly incorrect) perspective on the matter.
When I buy a Kindle book, they're not selling me the book (according to their terms), their selling me the rights to read the book. The download is not the book, per se. I disagree in principle, but it is something I've agreed with upon ordering and I've never violated. Call me a sucker if you like.
|
I haven't read their license. And I'm not going to. But I will tell you, as a lawyer, that just because Amazon CLAIMS that it's not selling you the book doesn't mean that it is right about that. When a seller is in a powerful position as compared to a buyer, it doesn't get to set the rules. A judge will look at the contract, and the circumstances surrounding the contract, and the JUDGE will decide what, if anything, has been sold.
So, what will the judge see? He will see that you clicked a button that said "buy" on it, that your credit card was charged, that a file was downloaded to your Kindle or computer. It sure looks like Amazon sold you something.
And then he will see is that Amazon does not require you to give them the file back when you are through reading it. He will also see that the file does not self-destruct after X number of days, or after it has been read, once, twice or a thousand times. He will see that you can keep it forever (once you get it off your Kindle so Amazon can't unilaterally grab it back. And he will see that you don't have to leave it on your Kindle, but rather, you can move it to your computer.
At that point, he will look at Amazon and say, "what do you have to show that you didn't sell this guy the book?" And Amazon will say, "well, we have this here "agreement" and a bunch of words saying we aren't selling the book."
And then the judge will tell them their "agreement" is not an agreement, but what is called, in legal terms, a "contract of adhesion." Judges don't like enforcing those kind of "agreements" because there really isn't an agreement.
It's pretty clear to me that the judge will decide that Amazon sold you the book.