What happens to my books if Amazon goes belly-up?

4790 Views 54 Replies 39 Participants Last post by Lursa (aka 9MMare), Jul 2, 2011

Lursa (aka 9MMare)

Discussion Starter · Jun 25, 2011

OK, I realize that's not likely to happen, but they do control our books, period. (Correct?)

I went to the Amazon Kindle pages, there's no info on this that I could find (under FAQ, registry, warrantees, terms and conditions, etc). Nor on this site.

If Amazon goes bankrupt or taken over by another corporation, or decides to get out of the e-book business, do they have any written policies regarding the content that we paid for and that they store for us? I realize that such policies may be nullified by bankruptcy or whatever but I'd like to know their position.

I am paying about the same $$ as I would for real books that I would have in my possession. Do I or do I not possess the e-books that I buy (didnt see that explained anywhere either).

(If they got out of the e-book biz, they'd likely sell it to someone else....and we'd have no control over those terms and conditions either).

It's just something I'd like to know more about. It is something that makes me reconsider which books, and how many, I would purchase this way.

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KBoards Admin

· #2 · Jun 25, 2011

I think there's no certain answer to that question.

The reassuring thing about it, for me, is that Amazon has been incredibly consistent over the years about giving great customer service. So I believe that, if the unthinkable happened and the company dissolved or changed strategies, it would go to great lengths to ensure that our purchases remain in our hands.

J.R.Mooneyham

· #3 · Jun 25, 2011

In a worst case scenario I believe another company would buy much or all of Amazon and its assets, and most Amazon operations would continue, in one way or another. At least that's what usually happens when once substantial companies go under.

Whoever bought all this would wish to continue deriving revenues from sales, as well as keep the good will of past customers (assuming the new bosses are rational), and so be unlikely to change terms and conditions already established by Amazon, except where such prevented a suitable transition, or weren't feasible for cost reasons.

As data storage and processing get cheaper all the time, it's unlikely cost issues would cause the new owners to fiddle much with the existing libraries of customers.

Besides all that, it's also possible if the new buyers considered doing anything too draconian, the resulting uproar could nudge Congress into legally stopping them. Then there's the hackers, who could step in with utilities to convert your libraries to something else to rescue them, if necessary (but there already exists software for that too, I believe).

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Elk

· #4 · Jun 25, 2011

I'm with Harvey; I believe we are pretty safe.

If concerned, you can back-up your collection with Calibre. You will always have it then, as safe and as sound as you care to make it.

Lursa (aka 9MMare)

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jun 25, 2011

Elk said:
I'm with Harvey; I believe we are pretty safe.

If concerned, you can back-up your collection with Calibre. You will always have it then, as safe and as sound as you care to make it.

Thanks for this.

Their website isnt working very well tho...few pages come up. But I want to find out more, so will keep digging.

Bob Mayer

· #6 · Jun 25, 2011

Amazon will probably be selling houses soon and body parts in a few years. I went to a meeting of their sales forces in Seattle and I don't think you have to worry about them going belly up. You have to worry about them financing coups and taking over the world.

JRTomlin

· #7 · Jun 25, 2011

Bob Mayer said:
Amazon will probably be selling houses soon and body parts in a few years. I went to a meeting of their sales forces in Seattle and I don't think you have to worry about them going belly up. You have to worry about them financing coups and taking over the world.

^This.

kindlegrl81

· #8 · Jun 25, 2011

Push come to shove, if it was announced Amazon was going under or getting out of the ebook business, you could remove the DRM from your books and then they could be converted to whatever device you wanted.

NightGoat

· #9 · Jun 25, 2011

I keep the WiFi turned off most of the time, so IF something did happen I would hope to hear about it first before the mother-ship could send the self-destruct codes to my Kindle.

jonathanmoeller

· #10 · Jun 25, 2011

Amazon will probably be selling houses soon and body parts in a few years. I went to a meeting of their sales forces in Seattle and I don't think you have to worry about them going belly up. You have to worry about them financing coups and taking over the world.

Click to expand...

Yeah. Amazon kind of reminds me of the Ferengi from Star Trek. If life is discovered on Mars, Amazon will have its amazon.co.mars page up the very next day.

Lursa (aka 9MMare)

Discussion Starter · #11 · Jun 26, 2011

Bob Mayer said:
Amazon will probably be selling houses soon and body parts in a few years. I went to a meeting of their sales forces in Seattle and I don't think you have to worry about them going belly up. You have to worry about them financing coups and taking over the world.

It's more of a control issue really, that I'm interested in. The other responses refer to removing the DRM and turning off wireless. But my books are not stored on the Kindle are they? Not all of them (if I had lots).

I need to learn more about the format and DRM. The Calibre site mentions it but like I said, it's barely working.

hamerfan

· #12 · Jun 26, 2011

9MMare said:
But my books are not stored on the Kindle are they? Not all of them (if I had lots).

Good question. I assumed that by downloading the purchased books from Amazon to my Kindle, that I actually have the book (in file format) on my Kindle. And with the Kindle app on my home computer, that I have a backup copy of each book on my computer as well. This is true, isn't it?

Elk

· #13 · Jun 26, 2011

hamerfan said:
I assumed that by downloading the purchased books from Amazon to my Kindle, that I actually have the book (in file format) on my Kindle.

Yep, it is on your Kindle.

kempton.mooney

· #14 · Jun 26, 2011

While I don't think we have to worry about Amazon going under (the company seems to be the most stable around, though if you have any friends in the financial industry, they may say that doesn't mean much), the point about Calibre made by Elk is a good one, but it still raises a question.

While you do have the kindle file and can use Calibre (a great application), there is a legal question. Unlike a physical book purchase where you are buying an object, when you buy an ebook, you are actually purchasing a license to use to use the content with certain restrictions on what you can and cannot do. An obvious example is that the license does not include the right to sell the content to multiple other consumers. I bring this up because, to be honest, I do not know what the full limitations of the kindle license are, and while you may technically be able to back up the files to another device, I don't know if you are legally able to. So if Amazon goes under and the kindle is no longer supported, you might have to break the law in order to maintain access to the content you have purchased.

So does anyone know what a kindle owner is legally allowed to do with the content they have purchased?

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Mike D. aka jmiked

· #15 · Jun 26, 2011

So if Amazon goes under and the kindle is no longer supported, you might have to break the law in order to maintain access to the content you have purchased.
[/quote]

As I recall from a ruling last year by some government body, if you have unsupported formats, you are legally allowed to remove the DRM to access it/them.

Mike

stevene9

· #16 · Jun 26, 2011

If Amazon goes broke I suspect that most of us will be too preoccupied trying to find dog food to eat and a cardboard box to live in to worry about our book collection. Could you afford the electricity to recharge your Kindle?

elakkljakldf

· #17 · Jun 26, 2011

stevene9 said:
If Amazon goes broke I suspect that most of us will be too preoccupied trying to find dog food to eat and a cardboard box to live in to worry about our book collection.

Heehee.

MichelleR

· #18 · Jun 26, 2011

stevene9 said:
If Amazon goes broke I suspect that most of us will be too preoccupied trying to find dog food to eat and a cardboard box to live in to worry about our book collection. Could you afford the electricity to recharge your Kindle?

That was almost exactly my thought.

cfrock

· #19 · Jun 26, 2011

I'll add that Amazon is probably the least likely of the 'book sellers' to go under.

maries

· #20 · Jun 26, 2011

cfrock said:
I'll add that Amazon is probably the least likely of the 'book sellers' to go under.

I agree. I do my best to keep them solvent!

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