Amazon encountered some bad press for its heavy handed approach yesterday after a Norwegian customer wrote a blog claiming the etail giant had deleted her account, including all her Kindle books, without providing a reason.
While the move was widely condemned on Twitter, there’s not a great deal consumers can do about it. Shoppers, although they may not realise it, don’t actually own the products on electronic devices such as Kindles and iPods. Their hands are tied when it comes to controlling the content they have paid for and think they own.
And while Amazon’s terms and conditions will have made it clear, it is unlikely that many shoppers will have combed through T&Cs when they’re racing to get their hands on the latest 50 Shades release.
Planet Retail analyst Lisa Byfield-Green says it is likely that in this particular case there was a problem over rights – the Norwegian customer may have been using a UK address to buy books Amazon didn’t have the rights to sell in Norway, for instance.
There is already pressure from consumer groups on content owners such as Amazon to get rid of DRM – digital rights management. It allows rights owners, such as Amazon and Apple, to set the terms on which its intellectual property can be used, and it means, for instance, that they are allowed to wipe your account if they suspect you of trying to copy content on to other devices. It is this control over rights that seems to have led Amazon to wipe the Norwegian customer’s Kindle.
It’s a potential issue for retailers selling content in the cloud. As awareness grows, shoppers may behave differently, and even think twice before buying cloud-based products.
Byfield-Green says Amazon could become unstuck if the pressure grows to get rid of DRM. She says it is possible that competition committees might wake up to the issue and make it impossible for retailers to tie their cloud content to one device. If governments decide that it’s unfair that Amazon is able to randomly wipe accounts they may act to prevent this, and reduce the power Amazon holds over content.
Questions have already been asked of the etail giant’s pricing structure in the United States, and as the ebook market grows, legislation will need to develop in line with it.
For now though, shoppers who want to make sure they’ll always have a copy of their favourite book would be well advised to buy a paperback.
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