Melville House Books

Recent developments have abruptly brought about a perhaps momentary but nonetheless remarkable contemplative pause in the headlong rush into ebooks. A case in point: At Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow takes the opportunity of Jeff Bezos‘ apology to launch a detailed criticism of Amazon‘s policies regarding the Kindle — a surprising commentary, given Doctorow is a leading proponent of the company and a fan of Bezos. Indeed, Doctorow says he thinks Bezos is “a good guy, and I think that Amazon is, generally, the best etailer around.” However, he says, “when it comes to digital delivery, the picture is very different. Amazon won’t even tell publishers, writers, or readers what kinds of mischief the Kindle can do.”

So Doctorow does, noting that “in the months since its release, we’ve learned that Amazon will shut off your Kindle account for returning physical purchases if it doesn’t think you’re sincere; we’ve learned that Amazon can remotely delete files from your Kindle; we’ve learned that Amazon has a secret deal with some publishers to limit the number of times you can download Kindle books; we’ve learned that Amazon can selectively switch off features on books after you buy them, such as the text-to-speech feature. And what’s more, we’ve learned this all the hard way, because it bit customers on the ass.”

But what seems to particularly concern Doctorow is the question of “what else is lurking in the Kindle” — things he says the company won’t answer questions about. His bullet points:

• Whether the Kindle EULA or other terms forbid moving Kindle’s “DRM-free” books to competing devices
• Whether there is a patent or other encumbrance that would make it illegal to build a competing device that can read or convert the “DRM-free” files
• What after-purchase control Amazon can exercise on “DRM-free” files: can they be remotely deleted? Can they have features revoked?

All of which, Doctorow stresses, is the “basic stuff” of our electronic future. As he puts it, “if you’re going to sell a product, you should tell the purchaser what she’s getting. It’s not a radical proposition, and the fact that Amazon, with its stellar, customer-oriented real-goods business won’t disclose these basic facts shocks me silly.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.