Not Buying Another Kindle Book
I bought the Amazon Kindle 2 
In this day and age, companies are trying their best to take away ownership of media and forcing people to move to subscription-based models because that way they can make huge profits by not really giving you a product but mere access. In the “old days” I could take a music CD and lend it to my friend, listen to it myself, or use it as a coaster if I wanted. I paid for it, I owned the disc, and that was that. But with the proliferation of digital media, that has all changed.
I have no problems with digital media. In fact, I love digital media. The thing I can’t stand is the media companies trying to control it to the point that it makes the media almost useless. In my opinion, the biggest culprit is DRM (digital rights management). A LONG time ago I bought a couple of Depeche Mode songs from iTunes, and it was the last time I ever bought anything from them. They wanted me to jump through hoops so that I could play the same songs on multiple digital devices (my PSP, my phone, etc.). Why the hell can’t I listen to the song anyway I want if I paid for accessing it? Just give me the damn thing in MP3 format and let me listen to it however I want.
I believe the Kindle has taken this to an even further step. With iTunes at least I had a copy of the song and could’ve burnt it to a CD and then ripped it back as an MP3. But with the Kindle, all I get is a DRM-protected file on the Kindle that can’t be read by anything else. I can’t print it, I can’t read it with something else, and I can’t lend it to anyone. And as I rudely found out, they can just yank it from my Kindle without my permission and without my knowing, as they did with the George Orwell books (the ultimate Big Brother irony).
Since I don’t own any of the books that I buy for the Kindle, what happens if Amazon decides to scrap the Kindle service? Or when the device eventually becomes obsolete? I’ll either have to move to their “next” device to access my books or just lose complete access to them. So if you’re amassing a huge collection of Kindle books, you are putting your entire faith in Amazon and the existence of their services, something I’m not willing to do. The convenience is great, but from now on, I’m going back to my paper books, thank you.
Does this mean my Kindle is useless? Far from it. I still love my Kindle. I recently took a mini vacation to San Francisco with my wife and the Kindle was absolutely an awesome tool. I used its FREE wireless access to get bus schedules, send emails, find maps, etc (yes, you can do that on your cell phone too, but I’m not willing to pay $200/month for a cell phone plan). I also use my Kindle in conjunction with Google Reader to read my favorite news and blog sites. Also, I transfer a lot of my own documents to my Kindle for convenient reading.
I think the Kindle is a great device, but sadly it’s being crippled by DRM. The media industry just needs to do away with DRM altogether, because frankly, 99% of the time someone will wind up cracking the DRM anyway. I mean just look at BluRay. It was supposed to be the “uncrackable” format, yet you can already rip BluRay discs, and it hasn’t even become mainstream. The media industry needs to stop treating all their customers like thieves and pirates. Those who pirate software, music, books, etc. will continue to do it regardless. Protection schemes like DRM only hurt the average consumers who just want to easily access their media without having to worry about a million formats and what devices they work with.
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Tags: Amazon Kindle, DRM, Kindle 2
Electronics, Entertainment, Technology | Tamim | 
September 1, 2009 9:47 am
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