It's been clear for a long time now that if you use a Kindle you don't "own" the content you read on it. Very, very clear. Ironically I think it all started when an Orwell book was taken down. It's hard to feel sorry for Kindle buyers when this stuff has been known for a long time.
1) The Terms of Service for usage of Kindle devices are not relevant to a contract between Amazon and an author whose work is published through Kindle Unlimited.
2) Kindle Unlimited is a "all you can eat" subscription service. Users of the service explicitly do not own the books they download and read through it, just like you don't own the music you listen to on Spotify or whatnot.
No, but it's definitely relevant for Kindle users who purchased a book only to see it disappear from their devices!
Actually, no, that's even more irrelevant.
I feel like I'm repeating myself here, but: Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service. It is not the same as purchasing Kindle-formatted ebooks through the main Amazon web store, nor is it the same as a Kindle device. (Kindle Unlimited doesn't even require Kindle hardware; they're just both marketed under the same brand name.)
Amazon also removed an anime I purchased in 2019. For a while it said it wasn't available to watch in my location. As of today it's trying to sell it to me again!
This is a common problem with digital storefronts - people think they bought something from store X, but they actually got it from store Y or on a different account.
Amazon remembers every order you've ever placed - including digital ones. Check whether you can find the order in your order history - if you can see the order, but not the item, Amazon customer support will add it to your account again.
In the case of the anime, I have the order on Amazon and can follow the link to the item. I also know a bit about the production and release of this anime in different markets and can assure you I'm not mistaken.
It was amazing!
He tried to monitize by selling it digitally on Amazon music. Amazon figured out he was sneaking around Audible, and stopped it.
Now I can’t download those “songs” - in fact they don’t exist anywhere in Amazon’s system.
Users who buy a book in a foreign country have lost the book when they got home.
Amazon accused them of flouting jurisdictions and trying to buy something not for sale in their country.
In fairness, there’s an audiobook I really, really want that isn’t available in the US Audible store, but is available in foreign Audible stores.
I really really want this book - it’s a poem I really love recited by a voice actor I really love.
But if I purchase it on a trip, or use a VPN Amazon could kill my entire Kindle/Audible collection.
So I bought the audio cassette on eBay.
technically you don't own any music (aside from one you made on your own I guess), just own some kind of license to use it
The "1984" incident happened in 2009 - nearly 14 years ago.
Amazon modified their terms and conditions to make it difficult for them to do something like that again.
I'm not sure that one example means anything in 2023.
This whole book takedown thing is another dumb move that probably happened because someone thought it was a good idea to zealously enforce an exclusivity contract without realizing what would happen -- especially not realizing the possibility that third parties might put books on torrent sites in order to hurt the authors and get their books removed from Kindles.
When big companies do dumb things, people have a tendency to vastly overestimate the amount of thought and intention that went into it. This was probably a dumbass move by some mid-level person who thought they were helping.
In the mean time, though, I do feel like I'm doing the "right thing".
Clearly there are already ways to remove the DRM, and the lifespan of a Kindle is decades so they will not easily be able to add new DRM to the old hardware.
In my opinion, it's roughly analogous to Steam but it moves at a glacial pace.
The revenue gained from those devices is likely greater than the revenue lost from people pirating content who would actually pay for it.
There are blu-ray players which support Amazon video and they can not be updated by Amazon.
Not everyone reads tech news. As long as Amazon uses "buy" rather than "rent" or "subscribe" I don't think most people will notice.
This sounds like something some government somewhere could go after Amazon for, but I very much doubt that it'll happen any time soon.