Sunday, July 19, 2009
Kindling the privacy debate
The arrival of my Kindle 2 (an unexpected but welcome gift) coincided with Amazon's action to act as Big Bother and remotely delete copies of George Orwell?s books on users' devices. Oh dear me. It really couldn't have been a worse choice of books to zap remotely via its Whispernet mobile network.
Although technically-speaking, Amazon did the right thing, their execution was terrible. At least, that's how the story started gathering momentum: with outraged Kindle users complaining that the Orwell classics 1984 and Animal Farm had simply been zapped from their devices.
This is a great example of how to alienate your customers, and a less than auspicious start for my Kindle ownership. Wireless was enabled, out of the box, so by the time I'd worked out how to turn it off, no doubt it had found and been rejected by one of the local GSM networks and Amazon was therefore already aware that I'm not currently located in the US. Thanks to our wet summer, the device hasn't been switched on while outside yet ? so maybe the built-in GPS device hasn't managed to get a lock on any satellites, although I don't expect it will be too long before it manages to get a sniff of a signal.
Being outside the US means that I'm effectively handcuffed when it comes to adding up-to-date content to the Kindle, whom I shall call Winston. There are tens of thousands of out-of-copyright classics available as a DRM-free, Winston-format download, but until I get myself within the borders of the lower 48 states, there ain't no way that Amazon is going to let Winston have any current content, even if I want to pay for it.
Believe me, I tried. I followed blogger Nerdgirl's excellent advice and registered a new Amazon.com account, using a .com email address, entering a bona-fide US billing address and then adding a $50 gift voucher to my account. My mistake was using a valid but non-US issue credit card ? even though I did not authorize Amazon to debit anything. By the time I came to the final step in the transaction process, hoping to be able to download the DRM-laden file straight to Winston, who'd shown up as a 1.4gb capacity network drive, Amazon's Thought Police had detected that I'm not in the US ? and kyboshed the deal.
I tried again via a Terminal Server machine that thinks it's in Oregon. No deal. So I shot a quick email to a friend in Chicago. He logged in with my user:pass and was doing great until the final screen, where he learned that we were busted ? and that an irregularity had occurred. Yes, I'd logged out of my Amazon.com account so it wasn't the multiple logins but the trusty credit card. Aargh. I've got $50 on my new Amazon.com ? which was happy to take my money for the voucher ? and I can't use it.
This has given me valuable think time on the question of whether I want to invest US $9.99 in Kindle downloads of current paperbacks. Once I've read 'em, then what? The DRM means I cannot resell them. In my home office there's currently a pile of read and for sale paperbacks ? most from Amazon ? that I'm now reselling ? via Amazon.
Maybe I'll spend the $50 on gifts for friends ? within the US of course. I'll keep looking for sources of free ebooks and perhaps catch up on some classics while waiting for Amazon to launch in Europe.The company has gained a foothold by opening for business in the UK, so who knows what Winston will do when I take him on a business trip to London later this week. Watch this space.*
And keep away from the Thought Police!
*Footnote: I've since learned that Amazon has NOT launched Kindle in the UK yet, but that an announcement with an MVNO is imminent.
Although technically-speaking, Amazon did the right thing, their execution was terrible. At least, that's how the story started gathering momentum: with outraged Kindle users complaining that the Orwell classics 1984 and Animal Farm had simply been zapped from their devices.
This is a great example of how to alienate your customers, and a less than auspicious start for my Kindle ownership. Wireless was enabled, out of the box, so by the time I'd worked out how to turn it off, no doubt it had found and been rejected by one of the local GSM networks and Amazon was therefore already aware that I'm not currently located in the US. Thanks to our wet summer, the device hasn't been switched on while outside yet ? so maybe the built-in GPS device hasn't managed to get a lock on any satellites, although I don't expect it will be too long before it manages to get a sniff of a signal.
Being outside the US means that I'm effectively handcuffed when it comes to adding up-to-date content to the Kindle, whom I shall call Winston. There are tens of thousands of out-of-copyright classics available as a DRM-free, Winston-format download, but until I get myself within the borders of the lower 48 states, there ain't no way that Amazon is going to let Winston have any current content, even if I want to pay for it.
Believe me, I tried. I followed blogger Nerdgirl's excellent advice and registered a new Amazon.com account, using a .com email address, entering a bona-fide US billing address and then adding a $50 gift voucher to my account. My mistake was using a valid but non-US issue credit card ? even though I did not authorize Amazon to debit anything. By the time I came to the final step in the transaction process, hoping to be able to download the DRM-laden file straight to Winston, who'd shown up as a 1.4gb capacity network drive, Amazon's Thought Police had detected that I'm not in the US ? and kyboshed the deal.
I tried again via a Terminal Server machine that thinks it's in Oregon. No deal. So I shot a quick email to a friend in Chicago. He logged in with my user:pass and was doing great until the final screen, where he learned that we were busted ? and that an irregularity had occurred. Yes, I'd logged out of my Amazon.com account so it wasn't the multiple logins but the trusty credit card. Aargh. I've got $50 on my new Amazon.com ? which was happy to take my money for the voucher ? and I can't use it.
This has given me valuable think time on the question of whether I want to invest US $9.99 in Kindle downloads of current paperbacks. Once I've read 'em, then what? The DRM means I cannot resell them. In my home office there's currently a pile of read and for sale paperbacks ? most from Amazon ? that I'm now reselling ? via Amazon.
Maybe I'll spend the $50 on gifts for friends ? within the US of course. I'll keep looking for sources of free ebooks and perhaps catch up on some classics while waiting for Amazon to launch in Europe.
And keep away from the Thought Police!
*Footnote: I've since learned that Amazon has NOT launched Kindle in the UK yet, but that an announcement with an MVNO is imminent.
# posted by Nesjo : 15:55
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