Oh, Amazon. Just a couple weeks after the
Authors Guild's overzealous copyright-maximalist stance forced the bookseller to
modify the Kindle 2's text to speech feature, the company's lawyers have had a fit of irony and sent out a DMCA takedown request to MobileRead, claiming that the site's links to a Python script that enables Kindle owners to shop at Mobipocket-format ebook sites constitutes circumvention of the Kindle's DRM. There's all kinds of corporate-lawyer idiocy at play here: MobileRead was just linking out to another site hosting the script, which can't actually be used to break Kindle DRM, and the only people using it are the people who want to
buy more books -- not exactly the sort of customers you'd want to piss off. Amazon's sole motivation here seems to be the fear that people might buy Kindle content from somewhere besides Amazon, and it appears to be using copyright law to try and prevent that. Another corporation driven mad with DRM power? Say it ain't so.
[Via
TechDirt]
posted March 13th 2009 4:48PM
This is publicity for the circumvent software.
Most people would of never known the software existed, now that they are making a fuss, everyone is going to know to look for it.
And we all know once something hits the internet, you can never truely get it off 100%.
Interesting that the firm that sent that letter was blacked out, embarrassed to represent amazon?
I doubt that the language of the letter comes from a ignorance but suspect that it is to provoke fear of exaggerated claims against mobileread and also to present a better public image. It certainly puts mobileread on the defensive. Claiming "you are screwing us and content owners over" seems much more appealing that saying "your taking business away from us"
Fuck amazone