Kindle Tips: Kindle 9.7" E-Ink DX-Graphite now $189 for a ltd time...Amazon matches eligible Kindlebooks w/ more discounted Audiobooks ('Matchmaker')...KindleFire-specific app development encouraged by new 'Select' program offering added exposure...iFixit Teardown: Yr2013 Kindle Fire HD 7"...A Don't Miss book excerpt by Brad Stone on Jeff Bezos, with info from former employees and friends (fascinating).

CNET's Lance Whitney Amazon's new "Matchmaker" Audible book bundling feature.  The image here is of an Audible audio-book that Amazon presented to Whitney as matching a Kindle book he owns, available at a Matchmaker discount price.

' The retailer's new Matchmaker page scans your Kindle library to see which e-books have a corresponding audio version.  The audio versions then pop up with discounted price tags. Simply click on the upgrade button for a specific book to make your payment.  You can also listen to an audio preview of any book before you buy it. '

You'll need the Audible app on your mobile device.  With Whispersync, you can listen to the book "and then switch to the e-book version where you left off."

The ones presented to me at the Matchmaker page were of NON-public domain books and I was surprised they were available on Audible.

He points out that ""The Wizard of Oz" could be had for 99 cents, down from $14.95. And "Gulliver's Travels," as read by actor David Hyde Pierce, was free."


E-Ink Kindle DX Graphite (DXG) - $50 off until Oct. 15 at 11:59 pm
This 9.7" e-Ink Kindle, with more text on a 'page' and larger fonts that look as if they are etched onto the screen, made a re-appearance on Amazon's e-Ink family header in May 2013, at $299 (formerly $379).

  A couple of months ago, the price was lowered to $239 and as of last night, when I saw that it became $189 for "a limited time", the specific time given in an Amazon email notice I received this morning.

  That price is good until almost midnight on October 15.  You can see information on what this device is like in the blog article for May 31.

  Alert: The current e-Ink family header with the discounted DXG price has an oddity on it, at least for now: The 3G Kindle Paperwhite is linking to the previous Paperwhite model at $179 rather than to the current 3G Paperwhite that is $189.  If you click on that, note that it's the older model for some reason.


Meaty excerpt from Brad Stone's book about Jeff Bezos
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (release date Oct. 15).

  The long excerpt really is a fascinating read.  Considering the often eye-opening descriptions of Jeff Bezos by those who are former employees or friends (as well as current ones), the following paragraph probably describes the working atmosphere well:

' The people who do well at Amazon are often those who thrive in an adversarial atmosphere with almost constant friction.  Bezos abhors what he calls “social cohesion,” the natural impulse to seek consensus.  He’d rather his minions battle it out backed by numbers and passion, and he has codified this approach in one of Amazon’s 14 leadership principles—the company’s highly prized values that are often discussed and inculcated into new hires:

"Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting.  Leaders have conviction and are tenacious.  They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion.  Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly." '

  And of course there can be sudden limits to that idea when the person whose ideas or reactions you're challenging is Jeff Bezos.

  As a result of this article and book, I suspect that his longtime email address will be flooded and, even though staff would open most of it while he reads at least some of it, the latter will be considerably more difficult soon.  One thing remains clear; the customer is royalty, with limits, though the latter seem fewer than normally encountered.  Even clearer is how essential Bezos the man is to Amazon as the consumer-trusted company it is.

  Outside of some not totally surprising confrontational styles, there is one unexpected parallel with Steve Jobs in that JB has never (past the age of 3, with no memory of it) met his biological father (T. Jorgensen), while having a supportive adopted father from earliest years.  These are examples of apples falling quite far from the trees.

  And, ironically, now Brad Stone has met Jorgenson, who had never heard of Jeff Bezos.  "Is he still alive?"  While this may seem idle gossip, the similarities with S. Jobs's situation is remarkable.  And the story is a poignant one.

  I was going to quote a startled reaction by one of Jorgenson's grandchildren, but since it ends the Businessweek excerpt, it's fairer for you to read it there.  I think I know what book will be in the Top 10 in Amazon charts for awhile :-) (I just ordered mine.)


Digital Trend's Trevor Mogg reports on Amazon's new incentives for Android app developers to optimize apps for the Kindle Fire line (with tight standards), making the developers eligible for more exposure or 'discovery' and more revenue and growing the appstore.

Free Android app of the day - 10/10/13 - Entertainment category
Supermarket Management - a game in Time Management with focus on managing, well, a supermarket - gets good ratings

Updated Skype app soon
"Skype improves Android application, adds better video quality"
The Mobile Indian's Rahul Gupta reports on an updated Skype for Android, to be available on Kindle "later this month."


ifixit.com's "Teardown" of the 7" Kindle Fire HD 2013 (the $139 model)
Intro and highlights
The pictures and details are on scrolling pages -- with an option to see it all on a single page

Am glad they clarify for readers what Amazon's Kindle naming hasn't made very clear (described by me earlier).
  "Let us break it down for you: This HD is really the new Kindle Fire and the Kindle Fire HDX will be the new Kindle Fire HD. Confused yet?"

So, again, comparison of the Yr 2013 7" HD model vs last year's model should be by looking at last year's NON-HD basic model, since this year's basic model was upgraded to an HD display and, as before, does not have a camera or HDMI-out but does have a faster processor in addition, although the super-budget $139 model has only GB of memory as an option.  My recommendation is that people wanting the basic model buy the 16GB version ($169) as most will want to have more apps and probably a video on the device and that additional 8GB will save users some frustration with needing to swap out apps or other content due to limited storage space.  The $139 model is for those who want to save the money and can deal with using the Cloud to swap content in and out.

- A couple of findings (besides identifying all the parts)
"Not only does your tablet have virtual surround sound, but it has clarity-optimized sound, with or without headphone."

"The few components that might fail can be easily, inexpensively replaced."


Opportunities increase for authors in e-book Singles marketplace
(Tweeted earlier for authors interested in the growing "Singles" book market)
article by Howard Polskin for Huffington Post


Wow, they are really tough in Guyana!
"Jailed three years for stealing Kindle" - Only a part of the story is available as the rest of it is for subscribers.

---

Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links.

US: New Kindle Fire HD 7" 2nd Gen - $139/169 Kindle Fire HDX 7" 16-64GB - $229/269/309 Kindle Fire HDX 8.9" 16-64GB - $379/429/479 - with 4G added: $479/529/579 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 16GB - 1st Gen $229 - 32GB w/ no special-offers: $314 Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $69/$89 Kindle Touch WiFi - $99 Kindle Paperwhite 2, WiFi - $119/$139 Kindle Paperwhite 2, WiFi+3G - $189 Kindle Keybd 3G - $139/$159, Free web Kindle DX - $379 $239 (but   $189 until 11:59pm Oct 15

UK: Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £69 Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - ~£89 Refurb'd Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB Kindle Paperwhite 2, WiFi - £109 Kindle Paperwhite2 3G, UK - £169 Kindle Fire 2, UK -  £129 Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB, UK - £159/199 Canada - Kindlestore, CDN-$ Kindle Basic, NoTouch - $79 Kindle Paperwhite 2 - $139 Kindle Paperwhite 2, 3G - $209 KFire HD 7" $214,  8.9" $284

*OTHER Int'l pages* Kindle NoTouch Basic - $89 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB Paperwhite WiFi $139, 3G/Wifi $209 KFire HD 7" $214,  8.9" $284 France Boutique Kindle Deutschland - Kindle Store Italia - Kindle Store Spain - Tienda Kindle Brazil - Amazon Brazil China - Amazon China [?] Japan - Amazon Japan

---

Check often: Temporarily-free recently published Kindle books
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

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Kindle News: Kindle TV? Likely. Apple + Android (Kindle too) market share changes, smartphones and tablets.

Kindle TV ?

The news on my TV this Tuesday morning brought speculation about Amazon's apparently coming Kindle TV (that's Bloomberg News's name, not Amazons), to go up against Apple TV, and Roku 3 streaming TV boxes this year.

  And iTechPost's Jordan Mammo, whose Kindle Fire combo-graphic is used here, points us to the Bloomberg story by Brad Stone, about Amazon's "plans to release a television set-top box that would stream video over the internet into customer's homes," according to people "with knowledge of the matter."  This hasn't been confirmed by Amazon and it's not their style to do that ahead of time.

  It brought to mind that (though not the same thing) I can stream video from my Kindle Fire HDs, including Amazon Instant Prime and any webpages I vist now, by just hooking up the HDMI cable to an HDTV.
 But this kind of thing is more easily done via a box like an Apple TV or a Roku 3.
 Mammo also mentions rumors of an Xbox Mini for streaming of video content.

  The Kindle TV would likely prioritize Amazon's own services and allow it to highlight more of its own content although such a device would not be of general interest unless it streamed almost everything the other boxes offer.  People would expect the usual competitive pricing.

  Stone's source article says that the device is due later this year and is being developed by Amazon's Lab 126, which is not new to the technology.

  Stone adds that Amazon "has climbed 7.2 percent this year through yesterday, compared with a 24 percent decline for Apple" (subject of next topic here).

  Amazon has been very aggressive in the streaming television area, as shown in the TV pilots they're producing and offering for free viewing with customer feedback requested, and the payments "to secure exclusive streaming rights to hit shows" like "Downton Abbey."

  Wired's Roberto Baldwin would like a couple of extras:
1. Place a cable-card slot in the Kindle TV, "Amazon could market the device as an all-in-one media center"
2. Add a cloud-based DVR




Apple's sudden perception problem

Besides the news that its stock gave back 40% of its gains over the last 10 years and the several stories a few days ago that the iPhone was losing marketshare rather heavily to Samsung, Forbes's story by contributor Todd Hixon says "iPhone lost the smart phone market share war two years ago, and Android is now well in the lead.

See also:
  . Washington Post on this.
  . The more colorful Daily Mail Online, UK

  Other stories show market share in tablets decreasing too, but Apple is still far in the lead when it comes to tablets, and while they are losing market share in that area too, their sales of these have gone up.

  Added problem if sources for the situation are correct:
  TGDaily reports that "According to Chinese media, Apple returned as many as five million iPhones to Foxconn due to various technical problems" and that "the total number of returned phones may be as high as eight million."

  I see stories that Samsung is having problems with production because the demand is so high.

  Apple's problems are relevant here for a few reasons.  Amazon's Kindle ecosystem is one reason for a decrease in the tablets area.  Although Amazon's market share of tablets is still very small, it's growing.  They're also getting into the smartphone area, and you know that they'll keep pricing low on that and probably make deals for competitive first-year data plans.

---

Check often: Temporarily-free recently published Kindle books
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button


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Amazon plays hardball to keep lower pricing option

NY Times's Motoko Rich and Brad Stone or their editor wrote a rather black-hat title for their column on the latest stage of the hardball battle between Amazon and Apple's "guidance" of the Big 6 publishers toward higher prices (Random House, to its credit, is not following, however).  So, we see "Amazon Threatens Publishers as Apple Looms."  Very dramatic.

  One might say the publishers have "threatened" to force Amazon to follow the Apple-Agency plan of higher pricing for book customers and if Amazon balks, the publishers would not provide a Kindle book for new or NY Times Bestseller books.  Do we ever see that described as 'threatening' Amazon?

Traditional Wholesale Agreements - and Authors' revenue basis
  Bear in mind that the traditional wholesale arrangement Amazon has used does NOT affect the author as the publishers seem to like to get their authors to write on the forums.

  Amazon has always paid the publishers an agreed percentage based on the Publisher-Set LIST price.  Don't be fooled by the mantra "Let the publisher set the price" because they always have.

  Again, if Amazon pays the publisher 50% of $25 (traditionally), Amazon pays the publisher $12.50.  Period.  It doesn't matter, for the author (except for pride of an expensive book maybe), that the bestseller might be sold at $10 by Amazon.  The publisher (who pays the author) GETS the full $12.50, from which the author is paid.

Amazon manages to do well with loss leaders while selling some 'cooled' e-books at higher rates.

  The low pricing does not mean less money for the author, unless the publisher decides the author should get a lower percentage.

Trouble-making, Non-physical E-Books Available for Less
  Large, long-time book publishers worry about Kindle books selling too well "causing" e-book consumers to not buy their hardcover books (as the publishers have said).  They should wake up and realize that most e-reader buyers are NOT going to go get new hardcover fiction books after buying e-readers.

  It's a new world, and most will wait and then probably decide not to get the book at all if book reviews are not great or if the book is Old News by the time it's released.  The latter is already happening.

  Publishers are refusing money being offered them for e-titles, preferring to attempt to artificially inflate the attractiveness of hard-cover books in a new digital age.  The audience has changed.  Whether they know it or not, publishers will do better following the Amazon pricing, because most I know will not be running to hardcovers.  There is just too much we want and can buy to read now.  People are also discovering why the classics (free) are classics :-)

The Genesis and Evolution of the Push for Higher E-Book Prices
  All right, back to the NY Times article and the drama going on between Amazon and the publishers, and Apple's part in it.

For background, see the genesis of all this unnecessary, forced raising of prices.

  Adding another layer of normal business manipulations was the discovery that Apple is inserting language into the Agency plan that insists that THEY be able to sell "hottest" books or bestsellers at $10 if they want (!)  I'd love to see the publisher reactions to that, but the last I read they were still "in negotiations" on that.

Rich and Stone write that Amazon.com has "threatened to stop directly selling the books of some publishers online unless they agree to a detailed list of concessions regarding the sale of electronic books, according to two industry executives with direct knowledge of the discussions."

 In other words, the tone of the reports is colored by those IN publishing and unhappy that Amazon has not agreed to their demands.  They don't like the concessions wanted to get their way, so what are those awful concessions?

 Reading on ...

' "An Amazon spokesman, Craig Berman, declined to comment on any talks with publishers."   [Wise man.]

Five of the country’s six largest publishers — Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins and Penguin — have already reached deals with Apple to sell their books through its iBookstore, which will be featured on the iPad. (The holdout is Random House.)

Under those agreements, the publishers will set consumer prices for each book, and Apple will serve as an agent and take a 30 percent commission.  E-book editions of most newly released adult general fiction and nonfiction will cost $12.99 to $14.99.

Amazon has agreed in principle that the major publishers would be able to set prices in its Kindle store as well.  But it is also demanding that they lock into three-year contracts and guarantee that no other competitor will get lower prices or better terms. '

  Well, that demand for a guarantee when agreeing to raise prices to Apple iBookstore standards is certainly rude of Amazon, isn't it?  All emphases in the quoted areas are mine.  Back to the NYT article

' Apple, for its part, is requiring that publishers not permit other retailers to sell any e-books for less than what is listed in the iBookstore. '

Oh, I see.  Apple is not 'threatening' or 'demanding' -- they are just 'requiring' that the publishers not permit other online bookstores to sell anything for less than what Apple has decided for its own iBookstore.

Who's In Charge of Making and Maintaining Fixed Pricing, U.S. wide?
 And if the publishers refuse? What? Would Apple 'threaten' to do something unpleasant?

  This reporting of Apple's "requirement" for publishers is different, for Rich, from Amazon's "demanding" a similar guarantee for AGREEING TO Apple's publisher-plan.  Good grief.

  Notice who's in charge in this battle?  Notice who all have to follow whatever Apple (Steve Jobs?) ever decides is right for the customer in the way of book pricing?  Do we get black headlines about how Apple is threatening publishers with not signing contracts to sell their books?

Who is Threatening to Remove Buy Buttons
  The publishers are threatening to remove from access, Kindle editions of bestseller books if higher pricing wants aren't met.  They are 'removing' access ahead of time and are refusing to allow 'Buy' buttons for their bestsellers if in Kindle format.  This is a change.

  So, Rich/Stone continue, the publishers have 'sought,' not 'insisted on,' but 'sought' (much more polite) to renegotiate agreements with Amazon to make them align their selling practices with what Apple decides is right for the book-readers of the entire United States.

The Digital World is What's Looming
  I don't blame publishers for resisting 3-year contracts, as they are right that the digital book world is changing rapidly, but then why don't they acknowledge the changes as a reality and adjust to that instead of trying to stall, slow down, and stop it, as has been written?

  This particular article ultimately does a pretty fair job of reporting, but it is worded initially and headlined as if fed by publishers again, as was perceived by many in a recent article by Motoko Rich on the publishers' lament that they earn practically nothing much on e-books because of the expenses they need to charge against them.

Publishers make small margins on E-Books?
  Read the excellent analysis by Fair.Org's Jim Naureckas with regard to the publishers' claims and to that earlier NYT piece itself.  This wasn't a shining moment for NY Times's objectivity.  But they are a publisher also in need of a way to meet the challenges of the digital reading world.

What Choices will Smaller Publishers Have?
Amazon is talking with smaller publishers (let's call them the Small Thousands vs the Big 6) that haven't yet signed with Apple, in hopes of retaining its wholesale pricing model with them.

The Push to Fix Prices to be Never Lower than what Apple has Chosen
 However, some of the smaller publishers are of course talking with Apple too, and have been told the following by Apple, according to Motoko Rich:

'...any publisher that wishes to sell its books on the iPad must offer the same terms to all booksellers.  In other words, to do business with Apple, publishers must export Apple’s business model to all retailers. '

  Our-way-or-the-highway... And if the small publishers don't want to do that, then what ?
  No Apple Buy-Buttons for them?  It's an arena filled with implied threats.
Life in the rough lane.

Updated: I forgot to add that Rich's article included this interesting tidbit:

' Apple is not likely to give up on smaller publishers.  A new job posting on its Web site is for an “independent publisher account manager, iBookstore.”  The posting says the person would be “responsible for building and growing relationships with small- and medium-size book publishers, self-published authors and other content providers for the iBookstore.” '

  But back to Amazon's "threatening" behavior, did we ever see Amazon insist, under the traditional wholesale arrangement, that publishers not allow other stores to price any of their books lower than Amazon's pricing?

 What would the NY Times have written about that?

  But casually "fixed" pricing will bring all these problems with it.

I do agree that if Amazon ever felt it had to remove 'buy' buttons again for awhile, it could hurt its own reputation.  Point to Steve Jobs there.  Good play.  The books would be available elsewhere anyway, at of course higher prices.  Consumers want to consume.

Smaller Publishers and pricing plans
Rich and Stone point out that

' Amazon may believe that if it can keep those publishers from moving to an agency model, Apple will choose not to sell their e-books, and Amazon will be seen as having a broader selection.

Amazon’s strategy “is to work very hard to limit participation in the agency model to only the big four or five firms that are already announced,” said Evan Schnittman, vice president for global business development at Oxford University Press. “This would leave 50 to 60 percent of the content out there subject to the standard distribution terms, enabling Amazon to promote and price as it does today, and forcing Apple to have to compete with Amazon’s strength.” '

  But, as Rich and Stone point out, Apple wouldn't likely just give up on smaller publishers.  And shouldn't.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READING
Fair.Org's Jim Naureckas is not resting.  He has a wonderfully ironic piece about this New York Times article, titling his response:
"NYT Exposes Amazon's Fiendish Plot to Sell Books for Less Money"

Sampling:

' By implication, the hero would be Apple, which is also entering the electronic book market.
  Apple's business model, at any rate, doesn't get the harsh spin from the Times that Amazon receives. '

EXACTLY right.  More...

' Which is funny, because Apple's plan would result in consumers paying from 30 percent to 50 percent more to buy most e-books, and prevent publishers from allowing anyone else to undercut Apple's inflated prices. [Emphasis mine] '

  He says it's a "terrible deal for consumers ... but the piece is written with the unstated assumption that we're all rooting for the publishers. "

  And worse, the last two NY Times articles on this, with Rich headlining them, seem worded to make us root for the publishers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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Macmillan hard cover books return

NY Times: Macmillan Books Return After Dispute.  Brad Stone and Motoko Rich report on the end of negotations, though it's not clear what was successfully negotiated.  

They write:

' So what did Amazon hold out for?  The company would not comment, but it is likely that Amazon demanded that no other e-book vendors, such as Apple, get preferential access to new titles, or any kind of pricing advantages.
  Amazon may also have negotiated terms into its agreement with the publisher that would allow users of Kindles or Kindle software to lend e-books to each other. '

Emphases mine.  The words 'likely' and 'may' are used to mention concessions, the concepts of which wouldn't have come from thin air.  It seems the NYTimes probably got SOME kind of word but isn't free to say so outright.

Also, while hardcover books are back, the Kindle edition copies have not shown up as of mid-Friday evening.

OTHER NEWS REPORTS - Follow links for full stories
1. Why (And How) Apple Killed The $US9.99 Ebook

' Publishers joining Apple’s iBooks store are turning their back on Amazon and its vision of the flat $US9.99 ebook. Apple forced the music industry to charge 99 US cents per song, so why are they helping publishers set their own prices?

To screw Amazon. '   [From Gizmodo.com]

2. Apple iPad Helps Publishers Get Better Price from Amazon

' Gizmodo reports that the move could mean the end of the $9.99 book.  The conventional wisdom is that publishers will set the ebook prices first proposed by Apple—from $12.99 to $14.99.  I suspect that Penguin and Simon & Schuster will follow suit and that Amazon will be forced to migrate to the agency model and match Apple pricing.'   [From beforeitsnews.com]

3. Epicenter The Business of Tech Panacea or Poison Pill:
    Who Gets to Decide About $10 E-Books?

' Hachette has become the third major publisher to publicly denounce Amazon.com’s $10 e-book model.  It joins Macmillan and HarperCollins in what seems now like the death blow to a price point that had less to do with the inherent value of the content than it did with finding a magic number readers could not resist in droves. '   [From wired.com]

It's Friday night and Len Edgerly's The Kindle Chronicles weekly podcast is up, with the final part of the 2-part interview with Forrester's James McQuivey, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research.
  The first part is at Len's The Reading Edge podcast, which reports on all e-readers -- this last week's podcasts being especially germane, as mentioned in the last blog entry here. Part 1 of a 2-part interview there is titled "Amazon Brings a Knife to a Mud Fight."
  In Part 2 James McQuivey also shares his thoughts on the Apple’s new iPad's place in all this as well as what the next Kindle may shape up to be. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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Amazon settles lawsuit over remote-deletion of '1984' - UPDATE4

Amazon settles lawsuit over deleted Kindle copy of '1984.'

UPDATE to Student sues Amazon despite finding 1984 notes (and despite a Good Samaritan type having given him -- after hearing of his plight -- a copy of the same 'location-numbered' book previously downloaded DRM-free from Feedbooks.com).  The lawsuit was based on the principle of the remote deletion and to get legal assurances that this kind of remote deletion wouldn't occur again under those circumstances, as had been said by Amazon spokesperson Drew Herdener in an e-mail message to Brad Stone of The New York Times, but clarifying what any other 'circumstances' might be.  That more vague actual statement was:

'Amazon effectively acknowledged that the deletions were a bad idea. “We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances,” Mr. Herdener said. '

  The linked article from 7/31/09 was a summary of what went before, expanding on what was described in earlier articles (1)  and  (2) on the Amazon '1984' debacle.

Tech Flash's Eric Engleman

' Now Amazon has settled the lawsuit with Gawronski and a co-plaintiff. As part of the deal, which awaits court approval, Amazon said it "will not remotely delete or modify" works on Kindles, with some exceptions.

Here's an excerpt from the settlement document (pdf, 9 pages) which was filed Sept. 25 in U.S. District Court in Seattle and just unearthed by TechFlash:

Amazon will not remotely delete or modify such Works from Devices purchased and being used in the United States unless (a) the user consents to such deletion or modification; (b) the user requests a refund for the Work or otherwise fails to pay for the Work (e.g., if a credit or debit card issuer declines to remit payment); (c) a judicial or regulatory order requires such deletion or modification; or (d) deletion or modification is reasonably necessary to protect the consumer or the operation of a Device or network through which the Device communicates (e.g., to remove harmful code embedded within a copy of a Work downloaded to a Device).

As part of the settlement, Amazon will pay a fee of $150,000 to the plaintiff's lawyers, and the plaintiff's lead law firm KamberEdelson LLC will donate its portion of that fee to charity.

Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener had no comment.  Attorney Michael Aschenbrener of KamberEdelson, who represents Gawronski and the other plaintiff, Antoine Bruguier, called it a "great settlement."

"It provides protection for Kindle users and provides confidence to them that the books, newspapers and magazines they purchase will not be subject to remote deletion by Amazon," Aschenbrener said. "It sends a message to digital media purveyors of all kinds that sellers really need to respect users' rights to that content."

Techflash says that since the lawsuit had been seeking class action status, the settlement ends the possibility of a "painful legal situation."

Note that the settlement "awaits court approval."

UPDATE 2, with further addition to this section 10/2/09
  In connection with some who have insisted that the ability to do a remote-deletion be completely removed, the settlement speaks to processes I'd mentioned re dynamic network maintenance involved in subscriptions and other ongoing content-deletion based on time factors; these are taken care of in the document:

' This paragraph does not apply to (a) applications (whether developed or offered by Amazon or by third parties), software or other code; (b) transient content such as blogs; or (c) content that the publisher intends to be updated and replaced with newer content as newer content becomes available.
  With respect to newspaper and magazine subscriptions, nothing in this paragraph prohibits the current operational practice pursuant to which older issues are automatically deleted from the Device to make room for newer issues, absent affirmative action by the Device user to save older issues. '

UPDATE 3
  After reading various articles on this, which didn't seem to take into account details of the actual document, I decided to add here the items below:

'4. Amazon will pay Plaintiffs’ counsel a fee of $150,000, subject to the understanding that KamberEdelson LLC will donate its portion of that fee to a charitable organization that promotes literacy, children’s issues, secondary or post-secondary education, health, or job placement.

 5. Other than as set forth herein, Amazon shall not be liable for any fees or expenses of Plaintiffs or Plaintiffs’ counsel in connection with the Action.

 6. Plaintiffs agree that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, neither this Stipulation nor the fact of it, nor any act performed, nor any statements made publicly or otherwise in responding to concerns raised by Plaintiffs or other users, nor any document negotiated or executed pursuant to or in furtherance of it, is or may be deemed to be or may be used as an admission or concession of, or evidence of any liability or violation of any law by Amazon in any court, administrative agency or other tribunal. '

UPDATE 4 - 10/2/09. Also of interest is the clause:

' WHEREAS, based on current circumstances, Plaintiffs believe they would not likely be able to certify classes under Rule 23(b)(3) because of Amazon’s offer to fully reimburse affected consumers for all Subject Works previously removed by Amazon from Devices and to restore notes and annotations... '

 Also, some eagle eyes have noted what another clause may imply, whether for the near or distant future:

'...does not apply to (a) applications (whether developed or offered by Amazon or by third parties), software or other code...'

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Bits and pieces - 09-27-09 - Update

Lots of news this last week.  Catching up here...
UPDATE 9/28/09 to add alternative smaller photos of the Kindle DX screen.  See bottom of this blog article for the smaller ones.

Len Edgerly's The Kindle Chronicles podcast continues with its weekly good stuff, and the last two weeks brought us a couple of really fun, interesting interviews.

 Friday's interview: Brad Stone.
  "Brad Stone, technology reporter in The New York Times’s San Francisco bureau, talks about secrecy at Apple and Amazon,  Dan Brown,  a Kindle developer apps store,  and the brilliant description his 22-year-old daughter had of his Kindle recently."

A trip to Belmont Library, Massachusetts:
  "Maureen Connors, left in photo, is director of the Belmont, Mass., Public Library.  She and Emily Smith, technology librarian, told me all about their impressive Kindle experiment on a visit I made to the library on Sept. 16."
  Len also provides video of the checking-out process for Kindles, including a mobile-light version also.

GOOGLE BRINGS US LIFE MAGAZINE, full original run 1936 to 1972
Google announced its partnership with LIFE Inc. "...to digitize LIFE Magazine's entire run as a weekly: over 1,860 issues, covering the years from 1936 to 1972."  I found out via a retweet by Jan Zlendich of the original tweet by @idigg of this great news.

 Don't miss The LIFE photography collection with its 10 million images, 97% of which were not published in the magazine.  These are all included in the Web and Image searches of Google.

FREE ONLINE TEXTBOOKS Offered by The University Press of Florida
The University Press of Florida will be offering free online textbooks and reduced-price print copies.  Nice trend!  

' The plan is to eventually provide free online textbooks for every general education class taught at any of Florida's 11 state universities, said Meredith Babb, director of the press.
  All they can do is offer the free books, Babb said. Professors can decide to adopt them or not.
  "Eight hundred dollars a semester [for textbooks] is stupid," she said. "Maybe the students will force the professors into some of these options. That would be nice." '

 Most of the textbooks are being made available in print as well, at 40 to 50% less than the prices of similar textbooks at other stores, she added.
  They also plan to make the e-books available in as many formats as possible.
  Thanks to Suzanne Preate and DigitalKoans for the tweeted information.

MICROSOFT'S COURIER TABLET
This pleasant surprise has even Apple stalwarts excited.  After stories that the Mac Tablet/iPAD will likely go for $800 next year when it is ever released, this one is likely to be not much cheaper, but Windows has always charged less, which is why it has about 95% of the business market despite the quality of the Apple offerings.

  GottaBeMobile summarizes the Gizmodo scoop with additional pictures and embeds the video, but here's the easier-to-read Youtube video of a computer rendering of what the 'tablet' may be able to do (these are inevitably smoother than the actual processes) .  It's said to be a prototype in the last stages of development.

  The Los Angeles Times's David Colker asks: "...but is it real?"
  Microsoft is coyly neither confirming or denying any of it :-).  ' "We do not comment on unreleased products," company spokesman Doug Free said. '

  The article points out that everything shown in the videoclip is done with fingers or stylus and no keyboard is shown. While the video'd tablet user is shown making many handwritten notes, handwriting recognition isn't shown in the video even though Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system is said to have handwriting recognition features.  That would be something.  This seems far down the road and if Apple does anything that it's rumored to be doing on a tablet, they may be out with theirs, supposedly, in February.


MY KINDLE DX - a bit off-topic about my new camera that took a picture of it)
  I got a new camera for a trip because I didn't want to bring two cameras as I had 3 years ago on my last trip.  This one will do the work of two.  Its megazoom lens goes from 28mm to 560mm with excellent clarity, though smaller cameras like this one with this kind of long-zoom flexibility always have a bit more noise/grain and also 'purple fringing' or chromatic aberration seen in big enlargements than the larger cameras will.  However, in-camera adjustments by the manufacturer at the time of shooting can cause other problems, and the fringing at 100% size (which is huge) is easily eliminated with the $25 PT lens utility, which is painless and amazing and sold by 'word of mouth' among photo nuts.

  I bought the older one (Canon SX10 IS), which is increasing in price these days because the new one (Canon SX20 IS) crams more megapixels into the same sized sensor and produces more noise and chromatic aberration than the older model.  This is okay with 4 x 6 photos but not as good at 8x10 and above.
  The attraction of the SX20 is its High Definition video.

  At any rate long-distance shots are amazingly clear and it gets closeups of things I cannot even see in the default wider/normal shooting settings.  If anyone reading has one of these, I saw good recommendations at dpreview.com forums (Amazon now owns dpreview.com, a fantastic site) to choose to shoot with sharpness =-1 and contrast =-1 and then you can edit afterward and wind up getting a very clean photo in the big enlargments.

  So, I took a photo of my DX at the ice cream shop to see if it could render the text and screen better than my other camera did, and it does.  It should, since it costs more. But it's better than I expected.  As you can see, the screen is extremely readable.

  UPDATE 9/28 - I was reminded that the photo I had originally put up was larger than the browser screen and when some browsers, by default, then resize-down the photo to make sure the full shot fits the screen, the resized version is barely legible.  So now I've now substituted the cropped version that you probably just clicked on above (it leaves the font size the same but cuts out the bottom of the Kindle) and a smaller, full shot which will fit a browser window.

(Apologies for all the experimenting.) Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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Student sues Amazon despite finding 1984 notes

Update to earlier articles (1)  and  (2) on the Amazon '1984' debacle

  Note that an interview with the "1984" student will be broadcast on The Kindle Chronicles podcast tonight (Friday).

When the student was last interviewed by The New York Times's Brad Stone about the sudden removal of his copy of '1984,' Stone reported:

' Whether or not people are bothered by these possibilities may in part be a function of their age, as a new generation grows up with an implicit understanding of the rules around these networked devices and learns to live with them.

“I’d like to live in a perfect world where I own this content and can do whatever I want with it,” said Justin Gawronski, a high school student whose copy of “1984” was erased by Amazon, but who recently declined when a lawyer asked him to join a class-action lawsuit over the incident. Mr. Gawronski said, “This is probably going to happen again and we just have to learn to live with it.” '”

That last thought was more relaxed than my own reaction as I feel that Amazon and other e-reader companies have seen that they'd best not do anything like this again, just for what it would do for their bottom line, as customers definitely don't want this done.  Amazon acknowledged this already by changing their systems, they said to Stone, so that this wouldn't happen again on even a book that was found to not be a legal edition, once it had been sold.

Yesterday, the Wall St. Journal reported that Justin has gone ahead with the lawsuit after all (no doubt with the help of some persuasive lawyers).

  Though other newspaper reports didn't mention this, there is another plaintiff name involved, "A. BRUGUIER," who wants another book to replace the one removed.  The lawsuit also focuses on what it calls "unfair and deceptive business acts and practices...as part of a pattern and generalized course of conduct."
  For most people I talk with on Amazon forums, this description just gives the suit less credibility, as Amazon's strong point has been the overall quality of its customer service in the last couple of years.  

Len Edgerly of The Kindle Chronicles announced the other day that Friday night's podcast will include separate, unrelated interviews with Ian Freed of Amazon and with Justin Gawronski.

  The interview with the student came about because of the interesting, almost entertaining way in which he found out ("The rest of the story") that he still did have the notes after all, on his Kindle, after feeling his work had been stolen.  That can be read, with hyperlinks added by Edgerly.  It should be good to hear from Justin himself in the interview.  Len said, at the unsympathetic Amazon forum thread discussing this, that in his interview

' Justin comes across as a pretty good kid, trying to do the right thing in a situation that is getting pretty intense.  I agree this lawsuit doesn't look very good on paper, but hearing his side of the story in his own words puts the matter in a different light, IMO. '

  The notes were, by normal programming, put into a separate pure-text file ("My Clippings" file) which Kindle users can then copy or move to their computers for editing and printing.  Justin confirmed the notes are still in that file.
  About a day later, Justin received a used e-copy of the book that had been available at feedbooks.com some time ago.  It wasn't provided by Amazon though.

 The Lawsuit acknowledges that the notes were not lost (despite many current newspaper reports).  It states, instead, that Justin considers the notes "rendered...useless" because he no longer has the book for reference and that some notes, which give location numbers in the Kindle book, referred to items such as "this paragraph" in the book.


MY TAKE ON THE LEGAL TEAM'S POINTS
This includes the detail from TradingMarkets's story.

1. License for Life: Jay Edelson, of the firm of KamberEdelson uses the following rationale: his main point seems to be that “People are given license for life” (to an e-book), but I think the problem there is that Amazon found out from the copyright owner that Amazon didn’t have the "rights" to License the e-book at all as the book is still under copyright in the U.S., and Mobile Reference, who uploaded the book ‘1984? (as well as ‘Animal Farm’) didn’t have the right to offer it for sale.

  If Amazon didn’t have the right to license that book to anyone, can they license that book "for life" as Edelson puts it?

  I still feel that Amazon handled it poorly, even if giving refunds as they did, and really should not have removed the book(s) from customers' Kindles, but they have given two apologies, with the assurance (reported in The New York Times) that they’ve changed their systems so that it will not happen again despite illegal book uploads having been sold.

2. "Hacking" into peoples Kindles - TradingMarkets reporting Edelson's points).
  TradingMarkets reports, "The class action seeks injunctive relief barring Amazon.com from improperly accessing peoples Kindles in the future."

What is 'hacking' or 'improper' accessing in a network environment with ongoing interaction and file handling and backups?
  Amazon's normal network processes include ‘removal’ of a current daily blog to replace it with the most current daily blog subscribed to, and to ‘move’ customer-deleted books to the Kindle “Archives” area so that these deleted books can be re-downloadable via a click from the Amazon servers.  Also, older subscription issues are moved to a Periodicals folder, and all kinds of file handling (including back-ups of notes and notations on books with customer approval) are everyday file-handling.  In other words, deletions are part of the everyday processes.

 Ironically, a long-standing demand by some customers has been that they be allowed to have 'permanently removed,' from the Server logs forever, any books they thoroughly dislike and have deleted from their Kindles, so that they never have to see the title in their Kindle's Archives listing anymore, but Amazon has been reluctant to do this when the customer had bought it and when there is no legal issue involved that presses for permanent removal.  What if customers were to decide later we wanted a book again after all, for a second look, and called to say we had purchased it and should be able to download it?

3. Personal property / Network client device
  Another key point will be whether or not the Kindle doubles as personal property AND as a network client device, the latter covered by Title 17 of United States Code:
(c) Information Residing on Systems or Networks at Direction of Users which is discussed in an earlier report.

---

To download a copy of the federal lawsuit, click here.
Photo Credit: KamberEdelson Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!