Lendle: Amazon has revoked Lendle's API access

kjk · 03-21-2011, 05:59 PM

https://twitter.com/#!/lendleapp/sta...19939456409601

Quote:

Amazon has revoked Lendle's API access. This is why the site is down. It's sad and unfortunate that Amazon is shutting down Lending sites.

Bummer.

HarryT · 03-21-2011, 06:05 PM

What exactly is it that Amazon has done to shut down this site? What does "revoked their API access" mean?

kjk · 03-21-2011, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

What exactly is it that Amazon has done to shut down this site? What does "revoked their API access" mean?

http://jeffcroft.com/blog/2011/feb/1...entry-continue

Quote:

For those interested in some technical details: Predictably, the whole project was built using Django and Python, and is hosted at Rackspace Cloud. The stack is pretty typical for Django projects: Python, Memcached, Apache, nginx, MySQL, Django 1.3, etc. The site makes very heavy use of the Amazon Product Advertising API.

DiapDealer · 03-21-2011, 06:11 PM

Quote:

What does "revoked their API access" mean?

They had no "API access". It was just one of a million new lending sites that users join so they can lend each other books. They could continue to do this without any sort of API requirements from Amazon, so if they were indeed shut down... they must have been doing something shady.

EDIT: They used Amazon's Advertising API. That has nothing to do with the lending technology and tracking their users borrowing/lending ratio.

HarryT · 03-21-2011, 06:14 PM

That's what I thought: I don't see how any involvement from Amazon is necessary for this. I wonder if they were perhaps a "front" for exchanging illegal material?

DiapDealer · 03-21-2011, 06:19 PM

Quote:

I wonder if they were perhaps a "front" for exchanging illegal material?

This has been my main concern with these lending clubs. How does the hosting site know their users are only exchanging copies of ebooks whose DRM will cause them to expire after a certain amount of time?

anijh · 03-21-2011, 06:24 PM

Wow. This is terrible news. I enjoyed using Lendle.

alsaan · 03-21-2011, 07:24 PM

I had just signed up for Lendle a few days ago. The website used the API to retrieve information about ebooks sold by Amazon (e.g title, author, cover image, whether it is lendable or not, ...). It'll be pretty difficult for them to resume operations without access to this data, they essentially will have to maintain their own separate database of ebooks.

As for the piracy concerns: Lendle was just a match-up service; the actual ebook exchange was performed by use of the official mechanism provided by Amazon, with all its associated restrictions. Still, you can see how the publishers fear a loss of revenue from this kind of sites (then again, they have the option of revoking the lendable status of their titles at any time).

DiapDealer · 03-21-2011, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alsaan

As for the piracy concerns: Lendle was just a match-up service; the actual ebook exchange was performed by use of the official mechanism provided by Amazon, with all its associated restrictions.

But that's exactly what I mean! The official Amazon mechanism starts with knowing the email address of the person you want to lend the book to. Once you've built a giant database of; "I Have/I Want, You Have/You want... and here's my email address", there's nothing stopping those people from forgetting about Amazon mechanisms completely and emailing each other books that have had the drm stripped from them -- like one big happy pirate mailing-list. With Lendle keeping track of who wants what.

Surely I'm not the only one that recognizes this?

Penforhire · 03-21-2011, 08:34 PM

I suppose but such networks already exist. Building a network around legal lending with the same 'I have, I want' listings you mention makes perfect sense to me.

abookreader · 03-21-2011, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

This has been my main concern with these lending clubs. How does the hosting site know their users are only exchanging copies of ebooks whose DRM will cause them to expire after a certain amount of time?

I suppose also. The site I've participated in (see below) we just PM each other the email address to send the book to. But really - how does any site know those things? For that matter, how does MobileRead know you and I haven't been PMing each other with links to pirated books?

Is it really the function of any internet site/message board to police the entire lives of their users?

DiapDealer · 03-21-2011, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Is it really the function of any internet site/message board to police the entire lives of their users?

Certainly not. But I don't think it's outrageous that the owner(s) of a book-lending, email address sharing, facilitation type of online social network be held accountable for what their members are doing under the auspices of their provided services, either.

Keep the lending casual... unorganized. Otherwise... everything that publishers feared about ebook lending will have come true. Piracy's going to happen... it can't be stopped, but we don't have to build the pirates a brand new ship and give them a crew to sail her with.

wyndslash · 03-21-2011, 09:06 PM

*sigh* the more people push the limits, the more we will get restricted.

i'm quite happy with casual lending. if people strip the drm of the books, does that mean the borrower can keep them?

abookreader · 03-21-2011, 09:11 PM

Well from what I remember of Lendle (it's down now and I can't check) I don't think there was any sort of member list or PM function. Basically you put in the name of the book you wanted to borrow. There was some sort of algorithm thing on how good of a "Lendler" you were --- how many books you had listed and how many you had loaned out --- that would give you a priority number.
When your number was at the top and a book became available, the site would contact the person who owned the book requesting them to lend it to a specific email address.

So there really wasn't a whole lot of behind the scenes member contact to swap unauthorized books. You'd have to do it through email, off boards and that would be after you'd already had an exchange.

At least that is the way I remember it.

Kali Yuga · 03-21-2011, 09:47 PM

I don't think that Amazon is worried about people using this to strip the DRM and share the books. They just don't want total strangers using websites to lend each other books.

CNet claims they railed 2 other sites as well, but didn't specify which ones: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20045633-93.html

I'm not surprised this got shut down -- in fact I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier.

03-21-2011, 07:24 PM	#8
alsaan Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 2000 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Kindle 2 & Kindle 3	I had just signed up for Lendle a few days ago. The website used the API to retrieve information about ebooks sold by Amazon (e.g title, author, cover image, whether it is lendable or not, ...). It'll be pretty difficult for them to resume operations without access to this data, they essentially will have to maintain their own separate database of ebooks. As for the piracy concerns: Lendle was just a match-up service; the actual ebook exchange was performed by use of the official mechanism provided by Amazon, with all its associated restrictions. Still, you can see how the publishers fear a loss of revenue from this kind of sites (then again, they have the option of revoking the lendable status of their titles at any time). Last edited by alsaan; 03-21-2011 at 07:33 PM.

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03-21-2011, 06:05 PM	#2
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,560 Karma: 93980341 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	What exactly is it that Amazon has done to shut down this site? What does "revoked their API access" mean?

03-21-2011, 06:14 PM	#5
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,560 Karma: 93980341 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	That's what I thought: I don't see how any involvement from Amazon is necessary for this. I wonder if they were perhaps a "front" for exchanging illegal material?

03-21-2011, 06:24 PM	#7
anijh Connoisseur Posts: 52 Karma: 2126 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: South Florida Device: Nook 1e, Kindle Fire, and multiple iDevices	Wow. This is terrible news. I enjoyed using Lendle.

03-21-2011, 08:34 PM	#10
Penforhire Wizard Posts: 2,230 Karma: 7145404 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Southern California Device: Kindle Voyage & iPhone 7+	I suppose but such networks already exist. Building a network around legal lending with the same 'I have, I want' listings you mention makes perfect sense to me.

03-21-2011, 09:06 PM	#13
wyndslash Wizard Posts: 2,951 Karma: 3000001 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Kindle 3 wifi, Kindle Fire	sigh the more people push the limits, the more we will get restricted. i'm quite happy with casual lending. if people strip the drm of the books, does that mean the borrower can keep them?

03-21-2011, 09:11 PM	#14
abookreader Wizard Posts: 1,516 Karma: 2567610 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: Kindles - Keyboard, Fire, 2-US, iPhone, iPAD	Well from what I remember of Lendle (it's down now and I can't check) I don't think there was any sort of member list or PM function. Basically you put in the name of the book you wanted to borrow. There was some sort of algorithm thing on how good of a "Lendler" you were --- how many books you had listed and how many you had loaned out --- that would give you a priority number. When your number was at the top and a book became available, the site would contact the person who owned the book requesting them to lend it to a specific email address. So there really wasn't a whole lot of behind the scenes member contact to swap unauthorized books. You'd have to do it through email, off boards and that would be after you'd already had an exchange. At least that is the way I remember it.

03-21-2011, 09:47 PM	#15
Kali Yuga Professional Contrarian Posts: 2,045 Karma: 3289631 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Kindle 4 No Touchie	I don't think that Amazon is worried about people using this to strip the DRM and share the books. They just don't want total strangers using websites to lend each other books. CNet claims they railed 2 other sites as well, but didn't specify which ones: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20045633-93.html I'm not surprised this got shut down -- in fact I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier.

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