Day 16: The Kindle Swindle

The Amazon kindle provides convenience, but at the cost of freedom. When you purchase a kindle, you must agree to use the Digital Restriction Management (DRM) system. Since all of the Kindle ebooks you purchase from Amazon are in their proprietary DRM format, you are also promising to not share them with friends. And, because you promise to not circumvent the DRM, there is no way to move them to another device or a computer. You are locked into the Kindle and you are locked into Amazon. If you try to move them to a new ebook reader or a computer, Amazon can end your service and remove access to the books you have already purchased.

Jeff Bezos (the clown), CEO of Amazon.com - Photo by O'Reilly at Flickr

If you haven't done so already, read the blog post to find out more about the Kindle and DRM.

Help us let Amazon shoppers know what a Swindle the Kindle is by tagging it and Kindle ebooks with the phrase kindle swindle:

Amazon.com, perhaps the largest internet retailer, has a system of "tagging" products on its US site. You can look at a product and add a tag that describes it. As products get tagged over and over again with a particular tag, that tag surfaces to the top of the list, and displays in larger text in some views. There is also a page for pictures and discussions of the tag.