Amazon to Charge by Megabyte for Personal Docs

[catsittingstill]

Originally Posted by Sonist

"Amazon *does* reserve the right to do that in the future...." !!!!!

Hey, do you actually spend your day studying Amazon's Kindle documentation and updates?! This is some pretty intimate knowledge!

1) When splashing out 360$ on a new device it's a good idea to read up about it.

2) if you think a company is breaking its promises, it's a good idea to double check the promises before complaining.

So I think sirbruce did a very reasonable thing, in both cases.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by catsittingstill

1) When splashing out 360$ on a new device it's a good idea to read up about it....

At least sirbruce seems to have a sense of humor about it....

But if you read every paragraph of every warranty and every agreement for every gadget or appliance you ever buy, you'd be a really, really weird individual.

[catsittingstill]

Originally Posted by Sonist

At least sirbruce seems to have a sense of humor about it....

Oh, I was laughing.

Originally Posted by Sonist

But if you read every paragraph of every warranty and every agreement for every gadget or appliance you ever buy, you'd be a really, really weird individual.

(Shrug) if you say so.

So, are you interested in bridges?

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

Yes, well, I also happily use Google (monopoly on the web search market), Microsoft (monopoly on the PC OS market), etc. Ebooks were still on the path of obscurity before Amazon got involved; Windows 95 was key in making the Internet easily accessible to the masses; Google made it possible to actually grok the huge amount of information available on the web.

Google gained a 'monopoly' on search by being the best engine. MS has used monopolistic practices and been successfully sued, at least in Europe. Those are apples and oranges. Amazon's ebook practices are much closer to MS's than to Google's - so while I will 'happily' use Google, I only grudgingly use MS because Apples are overpriced and I'm not computer savvy enough to use Linux.

And if Amazon does succeed in monopolizing ebooks, I'll ditch the ebooks (even though I've been a long-time user and even a one-time publisher), because there's just plainly no need for them to do what they're doing.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Amazon's ebook practices are much closer to MS's than to Google's

On the whole I agree with this, but Amazon does have the best e-book distribution system. It is going to be interesting to see if others can copy it successfully. Stanza was trying to put in place a "shop where ever you want" alternative that had a real chance of succeeding, which I think is why Amazon snapped them up before this could gather steam (back to MS-like behaviour).

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by Sonist

At least sirbruce seems to have a sense of humor about it....

But if you read every paragraph of every warranty and every agreement for every gadget or appliance you ever buy, you'd be a really, really weird individual.

They mention the charge on the same page you quoted about no monthly wireless charges. It was just a few inches away. It's not burried in any fine print. I quoted this to you a couple pages back in this thread.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by Alisa

They mention the charge on the same page you quoted about no monthly wireless charges. It was just a few inches away. It's not burried in any fine print. I quoted this to you a couple pages back in this thread.

Yes you did, and I meant to acknowledge it, but never got around to it

I did acknowledge that sirbruce's explanation was correct and clear.

But my comment above referred to the my retort to the statement, that "[Amazon would] 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."

[sirbruce]

Just to clarify/reiterate what the agreement actually says:

"General. Amazon provides wireless connectivity free of charge to you for certain content shopping and downloading services on your device. You may be charged a fee for wireless connectivity for your use of other wireless services on your Device, such as Web browsing and downloading of personal files, should you elect to use those services. We will maintain a list of current fees for such services in the Kindle Store. Amazon reserves the right to discontinue wireless connectivity at any time or to otherwise change the terms for wireless connectivity at any time, including, but not limited to (a) limiting the number and size of data files that may be transferred using wireless connectivity and (b) changing the amount and terms applicable for wireless connectivity charges."

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

Just to clarify/reiterate what the agreement actually says:

"General. Amazon provides wireless connectivity free of charge to you for certain content shopping and downloading services on your device. You may be charged a fee for wireless connectivity for your use of other wireless services on your Device, such as Web browsing and downloading of personal files, should you elect to use those services...."

O.K., you:

(a) are weird, with a warranties and agreements fetish; or

(b) have a girlfriend/boyfriend, who is the attorney writing these things for Amazon, and feeds you the information during "pillow talk," or

(c) are the attorney writing these things for Amazon.

[sirbruce]

I probably could have been a lawyer in another life; I've got the mind for it. Analyzing words, fitting them together, and deriving conclusions from them is fun! It's like math with letters.

[forkyfork]

So has anyone actually sent documents to themselves yet to be converted to see if they charge?

If I send an .azw document to my kindle, is there a charge?

[Slow_hand]

I sent a document to myself today and have not seen a receipt for a charge (weird - it was a guide to pandemic response from work).

[whitearrow]

I wouldn't be surprised if they are still using some minimum threshold (e.g, $3) before putting a charge through. Charging $.15 to a credit card is a losing proposition for Amazon, given the merchant fees.