When will these guys get it through their heads? Unlike a hardcopy book that can be taken anywhere, an electronic copy is worthless without a device to display it on.

And with phones, PCs, etc going obsolete after a few years, obviously there will be a need to move them to new equipment. Having any kind of download limit is ridiculous. Same thing goes for music, movies, etc.

I think we agree. The customer service run around was bad, and it’s annoying that there’s no automatic reset. It’s just that the headline of this article was a little misleading, IMHO, because the secret number isn’t the number of downloads, it’s the number of devices you can have it on simultaneously. I’m no Amazon apologist, but it’s a different issue. (And after all, you can’t have a physical book in more than one place at one time.)

Also, I do have the kindle for the iphone software, but luckily I haven’t downloaded anything onto it yet.

Tonight, I’m sleeping well in my Kindle and iTunes Store free home. I think I’ll have a glass of wine and one of these fine, dead-tree edition books before bed.

Deal?

Earl

That, and drop the prices to something reasonable.

Oh well.

However, everyone I know who has one (4 people now) absolutely love it.

So, haters, go and design and build you own. It’s the American way, at least it used to be, before whining took over.

DRM is a contract and given the nature of people to take what they want when they think they won’t be caught, it create a barrier to doing just this.

However, just like a place of business that wants to be able to search me, they need to have signs up. I have a Sams Club membership and I trade a little privacy for the price knowingly, but if I walk into a walmart, they have no right to expect me to let them examine the good I paid for (and nearly got into it with an off duty police office / guard for this…I handed him my attorneys card and let him know I will sue him personally if he violated my civil rights without cause).

And the analogy is the same for DRM…are you willing to give up some privacy for convenience? I strongly prefer dead tree books, but I am a graduate researcher and sometimes I really don’t care to carry a stack around with me.

The sad fact is, if people respected copyright (and by people, I mean BOTH sides of the fight), we wouldn’t need it.

If Amazon would give clear rights as to what is going on, I wouldn’t have a problem with this. I might choose to buy elsewhere, but I wouldn’t care. The contract needs to be upfront for DRM to work…and if it isn’t, that is giving the other side the right to push their agenda even further.

Well off to order more dead trees…

I have been looking at getting an ebook reader recently and the Kindle was high on the list. Now it isn’t on the list at all. For the moment I am sticking with paper and pc.

What I got from this answer is that Amazon has not settled this issue at this time and that they are probably leaning towards legally tying all Kindle downloads to the Kindle product line.

I also asked about the limited number of download times in a different call, and the girl I spoke with explicitly denied that any such limit exists (when downloading to registered Kindles). I asked her to send me an email with that statement in writing. Her email, however, neglected to mention the “unlimited” aspect of the question. She replied only that I can indeed download my books onto other registered Kindles, but she did not address any limitations (or lack thereof) to the number of times this may be done, even though I made it very clear in my phone call that that’s what I was asking about.

Between these two phone calls, I am very strongly considering canceling my Kindle order. I don’t like the idea of having undefined rights to content I might purchase.

Any book can be downloaded as many times as you want to the same device. For the last time: The limitation is on the number of SIMULTANEOUS LICENSES, which is completely independent from the number of downloads. The headline confuses the two concepts, which is the problem. I suspect that this is not unintentional, as perhaps Cory is trying to make some kind of statement against DRM. It’s his blog. So be it.

But this misinformation is making the rounds and is confusing people (obviously), which is what I was attempting to assuage (unsuccessfully).

Time to move on…

Earl

The only reason I’ve even been considering the Kindle is that as a happy Amazon customer for a dozen years, I trust them not to do all of the oligopoly bullshit the movie industry has pulled off with their DRMed wares.

Now, not only am I unlikely to buy a Kindle, but Amazon has blown a lot of their credibility with me.

I have tested this by downloading one of my books 14 times without any problems.

I hate DRM as much as the next guy, but let’s be careful not to disseminate inaccurate information such as the headline. Hopefully, Cory will fix it ASAP.

Earl

you never have to redownload them “SIMPLES”.
If you lose/damage your dead tree book bookstores dont just give you a replacement, they sell you one.
So the fact you can download multiple times really is a bonus if you think of it.
Like any physical copy look after your digital copy, so the download cap is really a non-issue.

That’s why you have a USB cable included with your kindle, it’s not just for charging.

I agree that Amazon SHOULD disclose any capped download info, but should they be responsible for the negligence and lethargy of users who simply cannot be bothered to backup their purchased data?

Can I share content with other Kindles?
Books can be shared between Kindles, Kindle for PC, or iPhones that are registered to the same account. There may be limits on the number of devices (usually 6) that can simultaneously use a single book. Subscriptions to newspapers or periodicals cannot be shared on multiple devices.