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Comment by WalterBright | Hacker News Reader

I've repeatedly asked for the lock screen to be the last page read. Then you can use it to display a reference page, or your daily schedule, or whatever.

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You crazy bastard. As if that device is actually yours. What’s next, actual ownership of the files within?

To be fair the Kindle is the cheapest e-reader you can find. Amazon needs to recoup the cost somehow.

Why should we be fair to Amazon? I consistently read on this site about how bad they are as an employer, company, and a web store.

And then you went and bought their product?

I think it’s fair to complain about a company whose product you bought. I have both android phones and iphones and complain about the parent companies all the time. Same thing with Nike, P&G, J&J, and a handful of the other oversized American conglomerates.

We shouldn't. And ethical problems aside, a bad product is a bad product.

> and a web store

Weird. On of the reasons I use a kindle is how the web store is better and has more content and sales than alternatives like Indigo (who sells Kobo)

Amazon's desire to sell a device for less than it costs to make is not our problem. Computational disenfranchisement is wrong, and technical measures to create disenfranchisement should be considered contrary to the public good the same way as many other abusive relationships are.

Doesn’t Amazon make money on every single book purchased on the kindle?

I mean Amazon's model for the kindle is the equivalent of the maxim, "give away the razors so you can sell the blades".

A nice follow-up would then be to remove the “battery dead” screen. So if it dies, it’s at least stuck showing something useful forever.

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