Technoglitch
Core Member
The Amazon thing shouldn’t strike anyone as a surprise — we’ve all seen Brazil. But the emails from Amazon are so ludicrous that if you had told me they were written as a parody of such things, I would have laughed and laughed. As it turned out, I laughed anyway, because the best parody isn’t intentional. At any rate, this kind of minor disaster is the kind with legs, the kind that catches consumers’ attention because it’s crazy but in then end causes them to doubt whether they really trust Amazon.
Once it hits the morning shows, and the office lunches, and the family reunions, that Amazon did this amazing thing (this time or the next), there will be two outcomes: Amazon will revise the policy, and people will move to take control of their data. Admittedly folks are not always quick to apprehend systematic abuses of their rights and privileges like EULAs, but the clear and present danger of having perhaps $50 worth of their money thrown down the memory hole will trigger the pecuniary instinct which is so reliable in America.
The ease with which users will soon be able to secure their purchases will make this possible. Want to make some money (or what is better than money: notoriety)? Create a web syncing app that quietly (perhaps wirelessly) tunnels into a Kindle and disables the DRM on the books, while somehow simultaneously snaking between licensing issues, leaving the user’s contract with Amazon intact.
It’s a chore right now, relatively speaking, to hack your Kindle or convert your library, and as long as that’s the case, convenience will trump principle (or what passes for it). But startups these days seem to be hell-bent on turning minor inconveniences into multi-million dollar businesses, so I’d say this particular chore will be automated to a sufficient degree within a year, if it isn’t already and I’m just not aware.
Even if that occurs, there’s still a valuable lesson to be learned for consumers: you own your devices, and you can keep your data, but the services you use — they belong to someone else, and as long as you use them, your device and your data might too. You have to be okay with a power-sharing agreement: you control the vertical, they control the horizontal. As long as everyone stays on their side of the fence, things will be okay
More:
Once it hits the morning shows, and the office lunches, and the family reunions, that Amazon did this amazing thing (this time or the next), there will be two outcomes: Amazon will revise the policy, and people will move to take control of their data. Admittedly folks are not always quick to apprehend systematic abuses of their rights and privileges like EULAs, but the clear and present danger of having perhaps $50 worth of their money thrown down the memory hole will trigger the pecuniary instinct which is so reliable in America.
The ease with which users will soon be able to secure their purchases will make this possible. Want to make some money (or what is better than money: notoriety)? Create a web syncing app that quietly (perhaps wirelessly) tunnels into a Kindle and disables the DRM on the books, while somehow simultaneously snaking between licensing issues, leaving the user’s contract with Amazon intact.
It’s a chore right now, relatively speaking, to hack your Kindle or convert your library, and as long as that’s the case, convenience will trump principle (or what passes for it). But startups these days seem to be hell-bent on turning minor inconveniences into multi-million dollar businesses, so I’d say this particular chore will be automated to a sufficient degree within a year, if it isn’t already and I’m just not aware.
Even if that occurs, there’s still a valuable lesson to be learned for consumers: you own your devices, and you can keep your data, but the services you use — they belong to someone else, and as long as you use them, your device and your data might too. You have to be okay with a power-sharing agreement: you control the vertical, they control the horizontal. As long as everyone stays on their side of the fence, things will be okay
More: