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Uncategorized Monday, October 22nd 2012 at 8:40 am

Amazon Wipes Woman’s Kindle, Closes Her Account, Won’t Explain Why When Asked

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Digital rights management, often referred to as simply DRM, is the all-encompassing term used for just about anything that’s meant to combat online piracy. Part of the greater DRM schema is the current business model that most digital distribution sales actually only license out their content. This can lead to some odd situations. For example, Amazon recently wiped a woman’s Kindle and closed her account, because the company had determined her account was “directly related” to an account that had been closed by the online retailer before. When asked to clarify, Amazon merely reiterated their stance.

Due to the way eBooks are handled by the company, it’s almost certain that they’re well within their rights to perform exactly this kind of action. It’s not something they’ve only now started doing, but it highlights the dangers of our overly vigilant technological society. Now that Amazon has associated this woman’s account with a previous violator, there’s no chance of her breaking past the veil of vaguely-worded explanations and apologies.

Martin Bekkelund‘s blog details the exact correspondence between the woman, named Linn, and an Amazon representative named Michael Murphy. Here’s the basic gist of what Murphy continues to say regardless of what Linn responds:

We have found your account is directly related to another which has been previously closed for abuse of our policies. As such, your Amazon.co.uk account has been closed and any open orders have been cancelled.

Any direct questions about how her account could have been associated with a violator’s are evaded, and Murphy’s perfectly happy to continue spouting the above aforementioned reason without any substantial differentiation. In some ways, this is understandable. Amazon’s not about to divulge how they decide which accounts to close. Even so, it’s not like there’s no such thing as a false positive.

This is the current state of things, though. Best hope that Amazon never finds “your account is directly related to another which has been previously closed,” or you might not like what happens next.

(Martin Bekkelund via reddit, image via Simply Bike)

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Felix-Polanski/621451541 Felix Polanski

    Reaffirming that ebooks have not become a viable replacement to books…wonderful…real…paper…books.

  • Brent Stewart

    THIS folks is a shining example of why I have yet to embrace eBooks and cloud music. When I buy a device it’s MINE. What I put on it is MY choice. No one has the right to remove anything I intentionally put on whether it’s an ebook, a movie, a song, or an app that someone behind a desk somewhere doesn’t think I should have. And no has the right to remove my access to content I already paid for over stupid crap like this. You can have the right to shut off my access to your services. But you can’t take back the content I already bought.

  • http://twitter.com/wonkydonky wonky donky.

    Yup. If you paid and the ‘check cleared’, then that’s it. Amazon does not get to re-interpret your constitutional right to own your own stuff.

  • Anonymous

    Just bought the Humble Bundle eBook collection. They were all provided DRM-free and available for download in multiple formats (PDF, Mobi, ePub). Now that’s excellent customer service. I realize Amazon could never use that system because of the potential piracy, but it would be nice for authors and publishers work towards something like that.

  • Anonymous

    I completely agree. I’m always afraid that I’ll lose my account, or that I’ll later want to use the service on a non-supported device. When I buy a song, I want it as a portable mp3 file (or AAC-encoded mp4). If it comes with DRM protection, it’s going take a lot of legally-gray work to get it working on my non-Apple mp3 player.

  • SOPA

    Actually with most media you might have a physical copy, but you are often just purchasing the right to use it as intended. Any deviation such as ‘backups’ is often considered a legal gray area and up for debate with some of the more pedantic companies. Amazon could of even ‘soft bricked’ the Kindle (if they could/wanted to) just because of suspected misuse of their products.

  • Anonymous

    The simple option is to not buy from Amazon. Buy from companies you trust, or even better are ones that don’t have the ability to do take-backsys. ebooks Are are viable replacement to books, but only to the discerning customer.

  • Anonymous

    I should mention that I don’t think physical books will ever cease to exist, but I do think that ebooks will overtake in popularity eventually, and I don’t mind that. I will buy physical copies of the books I can’t live without and ebooks of those that I likely won’t read again. It is even better if you can get those ebooks instantly from a library for free.

  • ZagnutZ

    Annoy yourself:
    Buy mp3 (or as the case is, AAC) from Apple. Put it in iTunes, back it up on a CD. Have the physical CD that you never wanted the hassle of owning but you now have because you have to have it in order to avoid having it taken away from the overbearing corporation from which you already purchased it. Welcome to the consumer paradox of the 21st century.

  • http://www.facebook.com/zeonchar Amanda M. Ramsey

    How did they wipe her Kindle? Did they do it remotely or had she sent it in for something?

  • http://twitter.com/Drackir Drackir

    Remotely I assume, I know when my kindle got stolen I reported it and they locked it remotely (If the person connected it to the internet that is)

  • Anonymous

    I back up to a drive and it works the same way without having the plethora of cd’s floating around.