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DRM gotcha? Can you move archived newspapers and mags to a new Kindle?
August 16, 2008 | 6:20 am
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By David Rothman
"According to the Kindle support staff," says TeleBlog regular Sam Hendrix, "archived material such as newspapers and magazines may not be transferred to a new Kindle."
I haven’t verified this—I don’t own a Kindle—and would be interested in hearing from others. But I have no reason to doubt Sam.
"I feel that this policy is dead wrong," he says. "Electronic devices do not last forever and new models replace old. If I purchase subscriptions through my Kindle, I want access to all content that I have paid for and archived over time.
"Replacing my Kindle in the future should not mean the loss of anything stored on the older device. Surely the access codes can be transferred to a new Kindle if the previous model is deactivated."
Once again we’re reminded that DRM’s gotchas can turn you from an owner of content into a renter. Maybe the Federal Trade Commission should even require this detail to be prominently displayed. Not to pick on Amazon alone. For example, iPhone and iTouch owners, of whom I’m one, should look out for similar rip-offs in the future.
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Comments:
The Kindle Owners manual states:
“Newspapers and magazines are also stored in Your Media Library but not permanently. Most publishers allow Amazon to store seven issues of their periodical for retrieval although this number varies by publisher. “
I guess they could make it more clear what that implies.
Is this a rip-off? I guess that is, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder.
I view the subscriptions as a convenience purchase which I can read when I am away from a pc. If there are articles I wish to archive I’d rather snag them off the web site and pdf them – that way I can get any graphical items that may have been a part of the article.
Personally, I wish the Kindle would automatically delete the various blogs/magazines/newspapers I receive from the Kindle itself after a week or so. What a pain it is to remove them manually if you are lazy (and I am) and let a couple of months worth of issues fill up your memory!!