Have You Wasted Hundreds of Dollars on Kindle books?


You Do Not Own Your Kindle ebooks!

Ok, so I can be a tab bit behind the times with current news and political views. I’ll be the first to admit this. So, please don’t laugh at me as you read on.

I just found out that the 210 ebooks I’ve bought since owning a Kindle are not really mine. I do not own them!

How did I come by this realization?

Well, it sure wasn’t from the user agreement I did not read before I clicked “accept” all those years ago.

No, it was this story that finally clued me in, “You Don’t Own Your Own Kindle Books” written by Joel Johnson from NBCNews. The article was posted on October 24, 2012 so it’s safe to say I’m late learning about this but really I’m even more so because apparently it clearly states in Amazon’s user agreement that when purchasing an ebook you are not buying it but leasing it long term.

Even overlooking the fact that I should really start reading those user agreements, I should have realized something was up when I found out I can’t just lend whatever ebook I have to just anyone.

It makes me sick to my stomach and ticked off that I’ve spent $15 and more on books that I don’t actually own. I just assumed that when I clicked “BUY Now with 1 Click” I was buying and therefore owning that digital copy. Silly me!!

Can you imagine one day not being able to access your ebook library on any device because Amazon has suspended your account for reason’s they don’t feel the need to share?! Don’t pretend like that will never happened because it did to the woman mentioned in the article, Linn Jordet Nygaard, and who knows how many others.

Now, I can sort of understand why you can’t “own” it because it’s much easier to make replicas of a digital copy that it is of a physical book therefore this cuts down on book piracy but the moment I read that article I immediately felt cheated and can’t imagine myself ever purchasing another pricey ebook again. Why waste the money when I could just spend a few extra dollars more and own the actual book that can’t be taken back!

The worst part about all of this is that it’s opened my eyes. We aren’t just talking about ebooks but anything bought in digital form (books, music, apps, computer programs, movies etc…)

I am a huge ebook fan. Matter of fact I’ve only bought 1 physical book this year! I love the convenience of not having to lug around a bag full of books whenever I go on a trip. Plus, with an ebook there’s the added bonus of no one seeing the erotic images strewn over the front cover while you are reading out in public. There’s no way I can see myself pulling out a racy romance book with half naked people groping each other when there is a kid somewhere near by.Therefore, I don’t think I could give up my ebooks all together BUT I’ll be damned if I shell out a ton of money for a digital file again.

Maybe in the long run this will help bookstores from going extinct lol

In a negative way this could also scale back the self published ebook movement we are currently in and well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve stumbled across some really great authors that chose to self publish and I would have never known about them if they hadn’t been able to self publish in an ebook format.

Here’s an idea: Why don’t books take a page from DVD’s. When we purchase a physical copy of the book there can be a code inside that when entered online will give us access to a digital copy of it. So therefore we can have our ebooks while still owning the actual book. Sounds like a win/win situation to me!

Did you realize you didn’t actually own your ebooks or any digital file bought over the internet?

Have you already heard and read about this article? Did it change how many ebooks you bought afterwards or how much you were willing to pay for one?

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About Darla G. Denton, Writer

I am a Contemporary Romance Writer for Curvy women and the men who love them.
This entry was posted in Book Industry News and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

8 Responses to Have You Wasted Hundreds of Dollars on Kindle books?

  1. Harliqueen says:

    An interesting article, I didn’t know this. Though I have to admit, I back up my copies of e-books by taking them off the kindle onto my PC, so I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t like that! 😀

    Like

    • I never even thought of backing up my ebooks. I’ve just been going along with my head in the sand for years regarding this lol It just never occurred to me that I might not be able to access my kindle library one day.

      Like

  2. nightowlinil says:

    I don’t think it matters if you back-up your e-books on your computer – you still have to be able to open them via Kindle (unless you’ve gone to a lot of trouble to transfer them into a different format), so if your Amazon account associated with that Kindle account gets suspended or closed, then you won’t be able to access any e-books. And if Amazon decides to “ban” a book that you may have already ‘leased’ it will disappear.

    There is a way to protect your e-books from being deleted or inaccessible, but as stated in the following article, it may or may not be legal: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/10/drm-be-damned-how-to-protect-your-amazon-e-books-from-being-deleted/

    Like

    • Thanks for the added info nightowlinil. Extra knowledge and opinions are always welcome here 🙂

      Like

    • Adobe has a program that collects all of your ebooks to their dashboard and allows you to read a multitude of formats. Then you don’t need a Kindle.

      Interesting article. Ebooks are getting expensive so before I purchase, I compare with print price. Sometimes that’s cheaper. Prime, I get free shipping.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Thank you Jacqui for letting me know about the Abode program 🙂 I will definitely check that out.

        I feel Ebooks are getting expensive too. I find more often then not I will read the book through either rentals or loans and then if I like it I will go out and buy it for my personal library.

        Thanks for stoping by and leaving a comment! Come back soon to chat some more 🙂

        Like

      • nightowlinil says:

        I know one main reason that when you buy a paperback book that there is no code inside to get the e-book version of it free is because authors make the least amount of money on paperbacks. They make the most from e-books. Plus, where would such a code be that people couldn’t use it who hadn’t bought the paperback, and who would be providing the free e-book? The author or a seller site? Why would a seller site do that? I suppose you’d have to buy the paperback from a seller site (perhaps the author’s website) and get the free e-book (if ever offered) at the time of the print version sale, or wait for it to be mailed to you with the code inside to get such a free matching e-book.
        If you can buy pdf versions of e-books, then you won’t lose them from your computer until (or if) your computer crashes (this is a reason to have them backed up on thumb-drives or the cloud).
        I just have the free version of Adobe, so I wouldn’t be able to use it as Jacqui suggests. (In any case, I’m a die-hard paperback fan.)

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Pingback: Top 10 Most Popular Blog Posts for Avid Readers | Darla G. Denton

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