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Comment by krger | Hacker News Reader

>Amazon has no right to disable an account or services unilaterally like that with little recourse from the user.

Tell me you haven't read the TOS without telling me you haven't read the TOS.

Some Amazon employees certainly overreacted too quickly by disabling this guy's services, but Amazon certainly has the right to disable an account and discontinue service for any reason not expressly prohibited by law (and this isn't one of them).

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Tell me you don't understand the difference between morality and legality without... you know the drill.

The post you're replying to was making a moral statement about what Amazon should and should not be allowed to do - not what they legally can do. The current world of "shoot first and ask questions never" on the Internet is not socially acceptable at the level of control and ownership that large tech companies have over you.

But then again, tech companies operate on one proposition, to wit: that there are certain parties that the ToS protects but does not bind, and that there are certain parties that the ToS binds but does not protect.

You're right; but I meant that in a colloquial manner. What I'm saying is services like these that are becoming as indispensable as utilities should have a system in place for lodging complaints and disputes and mechanisms to resolve them. The city cannot cut my water just because I yell epithets at the mayor, whether they agree or disagree. Now, sure, this is more of a civil matter but due to the importance of the services, they should have proper mechanisms in place for these kinds of things, otherwise, it's he said, she said and both customers and employees can willy nilly accuse each other of transgressions and have services suspended or employment terminated, etc., unfairly and without evidence in many cases.

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