TL:DR version: Lady has her kindle remotely wiped and her account closed from Amazon. She contacts support and gets nowhere when asking why as they give her the run-around saying she had a previously closed account.

http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/

There's some more info here: http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2012/10/rights-you-have-no-right-to-your-ebooks/index.htm

Apparently, the files were not remotely wiped. Her kindle broke, and Amazon revoked access to her account at the same time, so she can't access her books anymore.

He also has theory of what may be the issue. She has a second hand kindle, and the previous owner may be the one support found to be closed (note that this is just a theory).

It's sad that companies can now say "you have no rights", and do whatever they want. This wouldn't fly on the "real world". Why are they allowed to do it with digital goods?

You know a lot of these cases turn out to be a case of a lack of proper communication between the client and the provider. Heck the number of times I've seen people raging at Steam about being closed out of their account only to admit a few pages later (in the mammoth I hate steam thread they made) that they were using the wrong account details and that they had a second/third steam account that they forgot about.


It only gets worse when the "net media" get involved and the story ends up repeated 50 times each time changing a little and when many media sites only actually bother putting that much research into their articles.


Amazon seriously don't want to wipe your account info nor your kindle and chances are I suspect this situation has just spiralled out of control or the user didn't get a response fast enough and are trying to pressure amazon in to faster action by spreading bad rep.

There's got to be more, unless the European branch of Amazon is really really piss poor at customer service. I've never heard of Amazon closing accounts for no reason.

If this is all true, I feel very badly for the woman.

Me too, I'm actually an Amazon fan, but I could never defend this kind of behavior. My initial guess is we're not getting the whole story or someone fucked up royally. It's not like Amazon never has douche bag policies, they sometimes do, but they really don't have much but their reputation when selling goods, especially of the virtual variety, it kind of seems a bit at odds that this would happen.

After all, they came out and fell right on their swords over the 1984 thing, iirc, but I wasn't affected so I could be recalling it a bit rosier than it was.

I own a used kindle and Amazon doesn't tie the device to one owner, if you are a new owner you literally just register it to your account by logging in and it's yours after that. The account is what's important, the device is just an incidental channel you use to get your content as far as Amazon cares.

I see that she has account abuse accusations, Amazon is pretty lenient, but people who make multiple accounts to get free Prime over and over again, or abuse the fuck out of extremely lenient return policies, do get banned. I sort of wonder if she's actually just a douche trying to shame Amazon into letting her get away with being a douche...

I haven't either, but OTOH, there was that whole 1984 thing where they removed all those copies at that time nobody had heard of Amazon doing that either.

I'd wait to see what the resolution is before making any decisions. But, honestly, it's Amazon Kindle, anybody that has something bad happens deserves it for buying from the only major ebook store with vendor lock in. Having something like this happen is one of the possible problems.

I'm curious on what would be the strategy on withholding information on the previous offenses found? Why can't they say your previous account with the name XXXX was closed due to breach of the user agreement, section 3, paragraph 4 which states…

The lack of information and no possibility of defense is really aggravating when there's a false positive caught.

I agree, I'm just very familiar with people associating with Amazon for the opposite reason of what the OP linked to, aside from the whole vendor lock :)

I had a first edition Nook and I'll be getting a Nook Glow to replace the one that had gotten smashed. I can still get bitten by DRM, but I at least can buy from most if not all of the other book shops out there.

I'm surprised that people still buy Kindles because for a while they had some pretty astonishingly low customer satisfaction ratings on it. I like the product page for the Nook I'm getting. The first feature No Ads. Power adapter included. a subtle dig at Amazon for having ads on it's lowest priced model and no longer including a power adapter.

My used Kindle Keyboard still rocks, honestly, not a single device isn't rootable, if you want (and you don't have to be a huge Linux wiz, though it helps), I can send any content I want to my Kindle, only ePUB is a no go, if there really isn't a DRM free MOBI version I can always use Calibre which could be easier, but hey, it's free.

I'm not sure why people say "vendor lock in" are people so eager to buy DRMed digital files from one overpriced vendor than another? If you're buying DRM free than it literally doesn't matter who you buy from.

Also, if anyone doesn't know, if you have an ad supported version and it pisses you off, you can always pay the 20 USD to make them go away forever. I wouldn't probably do it, personally, but I can see it bugging people enough that 20 bucks is small change (I've paid more to try and get ad free TV, it simply didn't work).

Ad supported Kindles must be a US thing - UK side the only "AD" on a kindle that I'm aware of is their pre-installed screensavers (one of which appears asking for feedback --- to which I say let me choose my own screensaver!)


That said I wonder if the person might not simply be having a problem that their local Amazon department hasn't got a proper support network for Kindle problems? It's not retailed in her country so it could be that Amazon could be messing up their support lines at their end of things.

As for details on the former account that is an iffy area. Amazon might be (oddly) linking the kindle to the old account it was bought under; and then being unable to tell the person more about that account because they don't claim ownership of that account (and giving away details of someone elses account details can land you in hot water as a company).

They added them to an 80 dollar eReader, I'm not sure there was another eInk screen at that price point, honestly, ad supported is one way to do it I guess. Most people misunderstand how they work, though perhaps you don't, when the Kindle sleeps it just puts up an ad for laundry detergent or a book. That's it, you don't have to watch them while you're actually using it. With a Kindle cover flipped closed you'd never see the ads, really.

My library has Overdrive, I haven't tried it yet, but I understand it works pretty well. I'm not sure what the selection is. Prime members can read a free book per month right from Amazon, I think I checked, there was 35,000 or so just in Sci-Fi (maybe I'm way off, I just recall it being way more than I'd ever scroll through without narrowing it down). I know the free lending library includes shit like Harry Potter and the like, so you can get through several popular series for free that way.

I looked at the other products and determined they were all inferior (including most of the newer Kindles), they went with glossy screens (wtf?) or weren't eInk. I'm paying for a black and white screen for eInk and I'll be damned if I'm not getting it!

I don't buy .mobi versions of books, but when I buy DRM'ed ePubs, they get that nonsense stripped right out of them in seconds.

If I had .mobi books I'd just have to add another plugin to Calibre, drag... drop.

Overdirve is the usual one, but when I used to look at the Kindle selection it wasn't as large. That may have changed, but the books require special effort to add. Now, once they're added I'm sure they're as easy to use, but in the past the selection has been less than stellar.

Yes, the ads are there only when the device is asleep, but they continue long past the point where Amazon has recouped the subsidy that they've provided, unless you pay the fee. Which to me seems tacky. I'd rather hold off on buying books until I've saved the equivalent of $20 which isn't really that long than put up with perpetual ads on the screen.

B&N and Amazon and the rest all have Tablet lines now, B&N started with Nook Color and I think the latest has just come out. But, the e-ink readers are still available for sale. The only difference is that they use touch screens now rather than keyboard and you can get them with integrated light. B&N has Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch Glow, I know Amazon has something roughly equivalent to both. But, the screen is the same basically as they were when the first ones came out, just better technology and more responsive.

But yeah, after that whole 1984 thing, they would have had to release a pretty damn irreplaceable product before I'd buy an Amazon ereader.