Amazon removed books from my Kindle

[haertig]

Originally Posted by slm

But in fact anyone who bought that version of 1984 did purchase it from a stranger in the street. Amazon just arranged the meetup

Amazon did much more than "arrange the meetup" if the cost of the book was paid to Amazon. If Amazon took one penny of profit for that sale, then they are the ones who sold you that book. Otherwise, it would be like a physical store (the retailer) selling you fake merchandise, banking their profit for the sale, then telling you to contact the distributor/wholesaler and washing their hands of the matter.

[John F]

Originally Posted by haertig

Amazon did much more than "arrange the meetup" if the cost of the book was paid to Amazon. If Amazon took one penny of profit for that sale, then they are the ones who sold you that book. Otherwise, it would be like a physical store (the retailer) selling you fake merchandise, banking their profit for the sale, then telling you to contact the distributor/wholesaler and washing their hands of the matter.

Isn't there a difference? Amazon didn't keep the profit (or any of the money), and they didn't tell the ebook purchaser to contact the "seller"?

[haertig]

Originally Posted by John F

Isn't there a difference? Amazon didn't keep the profit (or any of the money), and they didn't tell the ebook purchaser to contact the "seller"?

I believe book purchases are paid to Amazon. What Amazon does with the money after that (pay it to the seller?) is not our concern as consumers. And it was Amazon that removed the book from people's Kindles.

It certainly looks like Amazon is the one who "sold the book". Just by looking at their actions subsequent. Apparently they made good afterwards, by refunding the price paid. They were no doubt forced to conclude that's what they had to do. Because they were the seller.

My point was, Amazon sold the book. It did not "arrange a meetup" between consumers and some shadowy 3rd party seller. Amazon WAS the seller. And because of that, they were the ones on the hook for removing the illegitimate book from people's Kindles and for providing refunds. Which they did. These actions that Amazon took validate that Amazon was indeed the seller. As the seller, Amazon had to provide relief to the true copyright holder. The choice for how to do that appears to be removing the book from people's Kindles (maybe money changed hands behind the scenes as well). But after removing the book from people's Kindles, Amazon - as the seller - had to provide relief to the consumers who had paid Amazon for the book. Apparently Amazon chose to provide this relief by issuing refunds.

This was a sticky situation that Amazon got themselves into, not verifying copyright ownership of the book before selling it. But they made their mistake, made their mess, and then had to clean up their mess. I think they did good actually - what else would you expect them to do? I think it might have been a better idea for them to announce the problem to customers first, before removing content from Kindles and blindsiding customers. They tipped their hand at the control they have over your Kindle. And they haven't been completely trusted ever since. But after this ordeal was over, they had hopefully learned a thing or two about selling items.