The second apology from Jeff Bezos: The one I WISH he’d write in favor of genuine ownership of books
Come on, Jeff. You can do it! That is—write the second apology below. – D.R.
The Orwellian embarrassment isn’t all. While I’m at it, I also want to apologize for our DRM in general, as well as our eBabel.
Effective immediately, Amazon will encourage publishers not to “protect” their books since DRM makes it impossible to own books for real. Furthermore, we’ll alert customers when stubborn publishers don’t wise up about DRM.
DRM is a consumer fraud, a loathsome white-collar crime in the moral sense at the least—just a fancier equivalent of stealing a pair of boots. You are only renting, not “buying,” despite what our ads may say or imply. On our site, therefore, we’ll follow the example of Fictionwise as shown in the above image. That is, we’ll spell out the rights that you have or don’t have in your use of books that publishers force us to DRM. Why should we cover up for them? Here’s to informed consumers!
ePub shunning: Mea Culpa!
In this second apology, I’d also like to pledge our respect for the ePub format. We recently promised that Kindles would be more open machines, and now I truly mean it. Customers will get ePub for real, without any proprietary extensions now or in the future.
We may or may not be able to upgrade existing Kindles, but we’ll do our best, and all future devices will be able to read render ePub natively. Kindles will still be able to read our proprietary format, for the benefit of early adopters, but you can bet that ePub will be the future.
Coming next week: The ePub Store
Between the lack of DRM and the use of a long-term e-book standard, our much-valued customers finally will be able to own e-books for real.
In our new ePub Store opening next week, we’ll showcase the titles that allow you genuine ownership. This will be the e-book equivalent of our MP3 Store, which correctly points out that nonDRMed content can more easily be used on multiple devices.
I apologize, apologize, apologize for the harm that DRM and proprietary formats have done to our customers and shareholders alike. The Orwellian incident just shows what happens when retailers and publishers act as control freaks. I’ve learned my lesson. Customers and profits ahead of stupid egos—whether mine or publishers’! From now on, via our ePub Store, we’ll reward our partners who truly respect the right to own books.
Jeff Bezos
July 24th, 2009 at 10:35 am
That’s what I like about you David, you dream BIG!
July 24th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Yep, John–try it, you’ll like it.:-) The OpenReader initiative by Jon Noring and me prodded the IDPF to do ePub, lest we preempt ‘em.
Still dreamin’,
David
July 24th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
love that gutsy Jeff (for real).