I love my Amazon Kindle. I love reading with it, I love how light it is, and I love the battery life. I also love the fact that it automatically syncs with the Amazon Kindle application on my iPhone and iPod touch. That means any book will open to the last page read regardless of the device last used. it is an amazing bit of technology that makes reading books across multiple platforms beyond simple.
It’s a perfect situation — right? Well, it’s an almost perfect situation. This afternoon I discovered a huge Achilles heel in the whole Amazon Kindle environment.
Perhaps the best way for me to explain the problem is by simply recounting the events that led to the discovery.
Two days ago I upgraded my iPod touch to iPhone OS version 3.0. Today my new iPhone came. That means two new handhelds in a three-day period. I loaded all of my primary apps onto both and began the process of entering my credentials for each app that requires them. (I decided it was best to start off with a clean slate rather than attempting to restore from a prior backup.)
When I got the Amazon Kindle app I knew there was one particular book I needed to download to both devices immediately. It’s a reference book that I wanted to make sure that I had on my device as the weekend began. But when I opened the app it only showed me a small subset of my books. “What?” I wondered. I went into that digital download portion of Amazon store and there I saw a list of all the books that I have purchased for my Kindle. “Great,” I thought “I’ll just choose the books that I want and click the ‘ download/send it to…’ Button next to the item.” I clicked and a few books gave back the message “successfully sent to”. A number of the books, however, including the one I was looking for, gave back the message that they were unable to be sent to my iPhone. I tried to download it to my iPod touch and received the same message.
Figuring that the store might not be recognizing the two new devices I removed all of my handheld devices from my account and added both my iPhone and my touch back. I went back in, clicked “download/send to” and received exactly the same message. I was starting to get frustrated.
At this point I decided that I’d spent enough time trying to hassle with this and, since I must doing something very simple wrong, my best alternative was to simply call customer service. I did and that’s when I got the surprise.
The customer rep asked me to send every one of the books in my Amazon library to my iPhone. Most of them gave the message that they were sent but a number of them returned the message “Cannot be sent to selected device”.
“Oh that’s the problem,” he said “if some of the books will download and the others won’t it means that you’ve reached the maximum number of times you can download the book.”
I asked him what that meant since the books I needed to download weren’t currently on any device because I had wiped those devices clean and simply wanted to reinstall. He proceeded to tell me that there is always a limit to the number of times you can download a given book. Sometimes, he said, it’s five or six times but at other times it may only be once or twice. And, here’s the kicker folks, once you reach the cap you need to repurchase the book if you want to download it again.
Quick aside — all of the books that are in my Fictionwise bookshelf having been downloaded numerous times and although I have to go through the pain of unlocking them each and every time, I’m able to download them to any iPhone or iPod touch I’m using without a problem. It’s the reason that I’ve been using Stanza, now owned by Amazon, a fair bit these days as I read through some of the books remaining in my account.
It gets worse.
I asked the customer representative where this information was available and he told me that it’s in the fine print of the legalese agreement documentation. “It’s not right that they are in bold print when you buy a book?” I asked. “No, I don’t believe so. You can have to look for it.”
We’re not done- it gets even worse.
“How do I find out how many times I can download any given book?” I asked. He replied, “I don’t think you can. That’s entirely up to the publisher and I don’t think we always know.”
I pressed — “You mean when you go to buy the book it doesn’t say ‘this book can be downloaded this number of times’ even though that limitation is there?” To which he replied, “No, I’m very sorry it doesn’t.”
Here is the major problem with this scenario.
First, it’s not clear that this is the policy.
Second, there’s no way to find out in advance how many times a book is able to be downloaded. You can buy a book and it can only be downloaded numerous times or you can buy a book and only then discover that it can be downloaded only once. (The rep even put it this way!) There is no way to know.
In the meantime, Amazon wants us to upgrade our Kindles every year or two. Apple wants us to upgrade our iPhone or iPod touch every year or two. This means that although the books remain in your Kindle library online you may not be able to download them once you upgrade your hardware. And there is no way to know — at least according to what the customer service rep told me.
This doesn’t bother me tremendously with a fiction book which I will likely buy, read and be done with. (I know some people reread books or love passing them around to family. I’m not one of them.) But it doesn’t work for me at all with regard to reference books. I want to know that I can buy a reference book and legitimately access it on the Kindle and the iPhone I own today and the Kindle 3 and iPhone 3G Q I own next year.
I checked the site and could find no indication of download limits in the information on any of the numerous books I looked at. Therefore I will assume the rep gave me accurate, honest information. That being the case… this entire thing is ridiculous!!!!
No, I should not be able to send my books to anyone I feel like sending them to, but in this day and age I should be able to redownload the books I HAVE BOUGHT after I upgrade my hardware! (It’s not like I can backup my Amazon Kindle books the way I back up my iTunes library. Amazon is my library backup! Or so I thought.)
At a minimum Amazon should be absolutely upfront about this policy and Amazon should NOT be using the argument that the number of times you can download the book is up to the publisher and they have no way of controlling it or EVEN KNOWING where the ceiling is. It should say right up front, before you purchase the book,
“If you purchase this book you’ll be able to download it a total of X number of times. After that you may be required to repurchase it.”
Oh, and while I’m at it, how about adding this line to their promo material…
Own an iPhone? The iPhone is a perfect companion for your Kindle. To read Kindle books on your iPhone or iPod touch, simply download our free Kindle for iPhone application. Our new Whispersync technology saves and synchronizes your reading location across your Kindle(s) and your iPhone. That is, assuming you are able to download the book again in the first place. Now you can read a few pages on your iPhone and pick up right where you left off when you return to your Kindle. (Bold is added.)
At least that way we would know upfront what we are getting ourselves into when we buy a book.
This entire episode makes me question whether or not I will purchase any additional books from Amazon. I never wanted to get on the “DRM-Complaint Bandwagon”.
Tonight I’m not just riding the wagon, I’m driving the damn thing.
The Second Part Of This Saga Can Be Found In This Post.
Inconsistent publisher DRM restrictions on Kindle downloads limit Amazon's reach into mobile apps market. – http://bit.ly/2emFO
This blog was very helpful in making those who want to buy a Kindle more informed consumers. As I was looking into the Kindle, the concerns raised on this blog post were helpful in making me ask questions that ultimately led me to purchase a Kindle. I figure that I owe it to the community to post the responses to the questions that I had.
1.)How many devices can I share each book on?
While the standard is six, publishers have the right to restrict the DRM to fewer than six devices.
2. How do I know if the DRM is fewer than six?
On the Amazon Kindle page when you are purchasing a book, if the publisher has restricted the book to fewer than six devices then you’ll see the message “Simultaneous Device usage: Up to X simultaneous devices, per publisher limits” on the website detail page. – this is per Kindle customer service.
3. What if I need to upgrade one of my devices?
-You would need to delete your books off of one of the devices and then deactivate it from your Amazon Kindle account. This should free up your DRM to put it on another device.
4. Can I lend my Kindle books?
As of December 31, 2010, you can now lend your books to people with some restrictions.
Ultimately, I chose the Kindle because Amazon was the only place that had the titles that I needed. Experience with device on day 2 has been very good and I feel this is a major improvement from paper.
Hi I’m ready your old article. I wonder if the download limitation still applies after buying the book …. wel this year of 2011?
I have not run into similar issues in the past year but tat doesn’t mean limits don’t still exist on some books.
Sent from one iOS device or another
I was very disturbed by your experience, so I called Amazon support, and the support agent explained the policy AND sent me the e-mail pasted below that stated the same thing. I would use this e-mail to challenge Amazon to give you back access to your book downloads. I wonder if you merely forgot to DE-REGISTER some old devices? [email protected] .
Hello,
We store all your purchases from the Kindle Store on
Amazon.com so you can access your books and other content from multiple
Kindles and Kindle applications, as long as the Kindles and Kindle
applications are registered to the same account.
There is no
limit on the number of times Kindle content can be downloaded to a
registered device, but there may be limits on the number of devices
(usually six) that can simultaneously have a single book or Kindle
active content title. You can manage your existing Kindle library and
change your subscription delivery options through the Manage Your Kindle
page at:
http://www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle
You can also download your content wirelessly from your Kindle or Kindle reading application through Archived Items.
The options for transferring content, and instructions for each option, are available in our Help pages here:
http://www.amazon.com/kindletransfer
Thanks for using Kindle.
Thank you for your recent inquiry. Did I solve your problem?
If yes, please click here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/survey?p=A3L4E5LINYX3N4&k=hy
If no, please click here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/survey?p=A3L4E5LINYX3N4&k=hn
Dan,
I was quite alarmed by your post. Alarmed!!! So I was quite relieved to see the response that Thom Ives received from Amazon.
i am noob in this but can u transfer ur books to the pc and save it there? or vise versa? and wht if u had an old books that u didnt buy from amazon can u transfer it too?
There is no limit on the number of times Kindle content can be
downloaded to a registered device up to 6 different ones because each
device has its own serial number so does not matter how many times you
redownload your books. Aamazon knows that it is you and the device
belong to you so you can do this to up to 6 devices that could be
include smartphone, tablet and computer with kindle app or kindle
software installed. Things you can not share is a single book, Kindle
active content title or subscriptions. But you can manage your existing
Kindle library and change your subscription delivery options to
different device through the Manage Your Kindle if you upgrade or change
device.
The most important things is meaning of devices, does not mean current
number of devices that you register on account because device could be
deregistered and reregister unlimited.
For example, I have 6 people in our family and each person own kindle or
kindle app or software installed devices and they all love to read
books. And all the devices has been register through one account (Not
that you do not have to but why not since one paid book could be share
by everyone up to 6 devices) Let’s say, I purchased a book titled “How
to kindle” from kindle store and all 6 people download and read book
with their own 6 individual devices. So if I removed the book from my
device for more space to put more book or simply reset the device, I
could redownload the same book without the problem but if I deregister
my kindle and bought new one and register on amazon to download the same
book, I can not do it. Because deregister does not mean all the books
in that device has been removed. You still can read and keep all the
books from the kindle or device that has been deregisted unless you
remove the books manually yourself. That is reason amazon limit the
number of devices to protect the copy right. If amazon does not have
this policy, some people could let other people to download the same
book from your account unlimited.
Most time this problem does not happen unless you have a big family who
loves to read or too many devices registered which is difficult to
manage. I hope in future amazon will upgrade their website so we can see
all the detail and transaction of each book to minimize this
confusions.
Now you have freedom to carry and read couple thousands books in anytime
and anywhere with tiny device. Let’s manage well to enjoy fullest.
I’ve been searching the internet researching buying an e-Reader. Your page is the last of a long list where people tell me how authors and publishers get shafted, how companies capriciously remove books your in the middle of reading, how sellers fleece you, and how many people seem to spend vast amounts of time they could be spending reading buggering around with control panel. So I’m not going to buy one. I’m going to carry on reading book-books.
Kaet44-
It’s not that terrible, though I agree that the negatives tend to get publicized far more than the positives. Honestly though, many of the issues that exist that are not DRM related are pretty much entirely because the publishing industry has failed to adjust to the modern world, not because of DRM.
Before you give up on ebooks entirely, I will throw one thought out there:
You can pick up a NOOK Simple Touch (or Kobo reader if you are not in the USA) and use it to solely read public domain and un-protected ePUB titles. Plenty of classics and self-published books do not have DRM, and you could still enjoy the benefits of an ebook reader without using the drm-laden ecosystem.