Dear Amazon,
I would like to buy more books from you. In order to be able to give you more money for more books I need:
- A Kindle reader for my G1 Android phone. If I could read my Kindle books on my phone, I would buy many more books from you.
- Kill Kindle DRM or at least make it possible for other ebook readers to display Kindle books. (This is really to solve problem #1, reading books on my G1. But this is the best solution to that problem. It would also enable me to read books on my Linux desktop, netbook, etc.)
I have no desire to break the law, I simply want to read more of the books you sell in electronic format. I'm willing to pay you for that privilege as long as you make it easy for me to read those electronic books on the device of my choice. This could be done without any extra work on your part if you would enable others to work with you.
Please help me to spend more money at Amazon.
Sincerely,
Stormy Peters
P.S. This will be followed up with "Dear Publisher" letters to ask them not to give Amazon exclusive deals to their electronic books as it means that a large number of people that would like to read their books will not be able too. Something that Amazon could prevent.
P.S. II. I like the Kindle. I own one. I recommend it to my friends. But I would still read more Kindle books if I could read them on other devices.
P.S. III. Many of my friends are free software supporters and anti-DRM believers. They are usually also the people most willing to invest in new technology. They would be more likely to buy a Kindle if you fixed this issue.
P.S. IV. While we are at it, I would also like to be able to easily download and play Audible books on my Linux system and my G1. Again, you could enable people to do this for you if you would make the format available to others who produce hardware and music players.
Today's world is one of cooperation. Others could help you succeed in your business if you help them succeed in their business and their lives. Like your Amazon Affiliates program. Now please apply that to Kindle and Audible.
Thanks, I look forward to working with you and buying more of your products as soon as they work on all my devices.
Well, the Amazon DRM has been cracked. You own the books so just remove the DRM and convert them.
Tom, well, she said she didn’t want to break the law, which she would be doing under the DMCA if she did that.
Stormy.. the obstructionist in this situation is probably not Amazon, it’s the publishers. They are currently much worse than the RIAA was 10 years ago in trying to keep a strangle-hold on distribution of their content in ways they approve of.
Eventually the Kindle and Audible may become popular enough that Amazon can do for books what Apple did with music. Force the content industries to realize that locking down their content only punishes their legitimate customers.
Stormy, have you tried Aldiko for Android? It’s amazing.
I live in Brazil, so letting me read Kindle books in other devices is necessary for me to read Kindle books at all. Plus, this DRM stuff is horrible. It stops honest people from using media correctly but doesn’t prevents illegal copies at all.
Thanks, ethana2! Aldiko has a pretty good selection of good books. (No recent best sellers though – Amazon has that market.)
While they’re at it, they should open up e-book sales to other countries. I know this is more of a “publisher” thing, but I can buy paper books from Amazon, why not electronic books?
Local e-book stores have very limited selections in English-language books 🙁
The Kindle International version is very tempting, and the DRM issue is the main thing holding me back from investing in a Kindle or Amazon ebooks in general. I already read un-DRMed ebooks on other devices but I can’t buy these from Amazon. So I buy them elsewhere.