Re: [tlug] [OT] eBooks

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Godwin Stewart writes:

 > http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/02/kindle_pay_off/
 > 
 > What's to say they won't do it again?

Excuse me?  They were (very clumsily) trying to obey the law.  With
normal books, they'd just be pulled from bookstore shelves (the
purchasers of record) and destroyed; the lawyers probably did not
think about the implications that here the purchasers are individuals,
they just thought "destroy the copies".  Not only that, Amazon went
from snafu to restitution and a public apology in 10 weeks.  That
probably belongs in the Guinness Book of World Records in category
"Organizations with a Legal Budget Over $100,000/year."

Consider what happens now: if Amazon gets sued for distributing
something without a license, the plaintiff has the right to have
distributed copies returned or destroyed, since they are somethingn
like stolen property.  I would imagine that Amazon can be forced to
cough up purchase records, and the kid could have found himself in a
position where his Kindle was being impounded by the court without
recourse, instead of just losing his notes.

I'm not saying that this wasn't a major deal, but it was a snafu by
flunkies, not a corporate strategy.