So I bought a blacklisted Kindle off Craigslist

[kermalou]

Originally Posted by clintbradford

Is this thread still alive?

An idiot bought a piece of electronics gear off of Craigslist - thinking to himself that he "saved" twenty bucks off the price of a NEW, WARRANTEED unit and is surprised that it's a stolen unit?

And ANYONE here is sympathetic?

Man .. If I ran this message service, this thread would have been killed LONG ago ...

thanks clint, that means alot calling someone an idiot over the internet.

Once again, I didn't ask for anyone here to give me moral advice nor sympathy nor pity. If I did, I would have found a moral/sympathy forums somewhere and posted there. This is a KINDLE forum last time I checked and I had a simple Kindle question or so I thought.

I just had one question about the benefits of registering the damn thing.

I put the CL information in there so as to maybe warn other people out there that these things happen.

Maybe you and jswinden should go and open up your own forum so you can have zero people to moderate.

[soyrod]

Don't bother, pal. People here has some kind of police-syndrome that is disgusting.

[J. Strnad]

Well, it did spin off into a more interesting conversation. And you did get your answer: you can still download some stuff.

There is talk here about replacing the Amazon operating system with something else, something that would read epub books. Maybe turning it into an epub reader would be the way to go.

[Exer]

I find some of the outrage here sadly amusing. This is the very forum after all that I first discovered information on font hacking a kindle, screensaver hacking a kindle, removing DRM from paid books for "backup" purposes, etc.

Discussions that all still take place in one form or another.

I admit I don't know the legality these things, but I can assume some of that stuff isn't supposed to be done. Some of us do it anyway regardless of morals or laws, and we justify it to ourselves in whatever way that makes us feel the best.

I'm not religious at all, but I still find a lot of value in this quote:

"If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone ... "

[volwrath]

Originally Posted by Exer

I find some of the outrage here sadly amusing. This is the very forum after all that I first discovered information on font hacking a kindle, screensaver hacking a kindle, removing DRM from paid books for "backup" purposes, etc.

Discussions that all still take place in one form or another.

I admit I don't know the legality these things, but I can assume some of that stuff isn't supposed to be done. Some of us do it anyway regardless of morals or laws, and we justify it to ourselves in whatever way that makes us feel the best.

I'm not religious at all, but I still find a lot of value in this quote:

"If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone ... "

Jesus you throw first!!

[ficbot]

I have to admit, I still don't see why everyone is so mad at the OP. Amazon doesn't want him to send it back, so what is he supposed to do?

I think if they don't expect him to return it, they should let him activate it. But as others have pointed out, he CAN still use it. He can even buy from Amazon and then sideload off the PC. The only thing he can't do is buy ON the device.

[softshell]

Originally Posted by ficbot

he CAN still use it. He can even buy from Amazon and then sideload off the PC. The only thing he can't do is buy ON the device.

??? are you serious ??? lol i had no idea it was still fully functioning and the only thing not working was the wi-fi/3g purchasing ability. this isn't even an issue then in my opinion! honestly, when are you ever in such a rush that you need to buy a book instantly on the spot directly? load it up with 20 or 30 (or 3500) books, uploaded via PC and be on your way!

[wesleyer]

Originally Posted by ficbot

I think if they don't expect him to return it, they should let him activate it. But as others have pointed out, he CAN still use it. He can even buy from Amazon and then sideload off the PC. The only thing he can't do is buy ON the device.

Not really. If he buys a book from the PC to later transfer it to Kindle, he would still have to indicate which device will be used to read the book, and obviously the blacklisted Kindle would not be a possible choice.
Unless you are talking about removing the DRM of the books.

[kalex]

Thats exactly what he would do. Buy kindle book, strip the DRM and load it on his kindle.

This thread is hilarious with all the self righteousness policing

[kermalou]

Originally Posted by kalex

Thats exactly what he would do. Buy kindle book, strip the DRM and load it on his kindle.

This thread is hilarious with all the self righteousness policing

Bingo My Man/Woman!

I have since discovered Calibre and am loving it. I can get the book from Amazon, use dropbox to put it in the "cloud" and use wi-fi to transfer the book to the device. Poof. Granted I can't purchase books off the device, but I think I have enough books from Gutenberg and some from Amazon to last me a while.

[fairy_dreams]

*confusion*

Does dropbox strip the DRM or did you strip it yourself before putting it in the cloud?

[wesleyer]

Originally Posted by kalex

Thats exactly what he would do. Buy kindle book, strip the DRM and load it on his kindle.

This thread is hilarious with all the self righteousness policing

I'm not sure if you are referring to me when you say "self righteousness policing", but in case you are, let me clarify: I don't have anything against removing DRM. I was just trying to clarify what seems to be a misunderstanding of ficbot/softshell.

As for the subject of the thread itself, I believe the OP did what could be reasonably expected: contacted Amazon and tried to contact the seller. Since Amazon did not request the device to be returned to them, I think the OP has the right to keep it.

[nremondelli]

I'm so late to the game here, but this is one ridiculous thread. Thanks for amusing me with self-rightous bs, guys.

[giuliano.rigon]

in Italy the law goes this way. If you bought in good faith and find out the thing is stolen, you hand it to the police. if not, there is a sprcific crime called non cautious purchase that will get you a sentence. a judge then determines ownership.

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by kermalou

Saw on craigslist yesterday some guy selling a Kindle 3 for $120 new in box yesterday, met up with him last night and bought the sucker............blacklisted and reported as lost/stolen.........I gotta return the thing to the seller or have him contact amazon to get this thing off the blacklist. ................... I'm trying to get a hold of the guy but he isn't picking up my calls at the moment and after reading around here a bit was wondering.

Interesting discussion. I'll put in my 2 cents.

In the Netherlands: if you've bought it in good faith; g.e. for a reasonable price and from a ' thrustworthy' person; the article is yours. If it turned out to be stolen and the buyer could prove his/hers good faith; than the rightful owner wouldn't have much chance of getting the article back.

With the price of $120 one can assume to have bought something in good faith, for a reasonable price.
And the good faith: there are limits to the foreknowledge a buyer is supposed to have when buying an ereader. One cannot assume him to know that a Kindle is registred at the time of purchase by name or as a gift, and that it can be returned within 30 days; that's too much research to expect from a potential buyer. If he had known it he wouldn't have bought it for $120, but bought a new one for $139. And he tried to recontact the seller.

Perhaps it was a bit naïve buy, but I would say, give him the benefit of the doubt. Amazon is right about not reregistering that Kindle though.