Realizing that not only I do not truly own the ebooks I have purchased but that all those ebooks can vanish from my digital library in an instant, and there is nothing I can do to prevent it is the second reason why I decided to switch back to reading printed books.
The first reason is the lack of privacy and anonymity when one is reading an ebook. I discussed it here: Am I Reading That Ebook or Am I Being Read by That Ebook?
(Disclaimer: like in the previous article, I only consider ebooks sold on Amazon, Google Play Store or Apple, and the very few other major online ebook retailers. My consideration barely concern self-published or small indie published ebooks.)
So, what is wrong with owning an ebook? Nothing.
There is nothing wrong beside the fact that one does not really ever own an ebook that is sold by Amazon, Google or Apple. To understand that, one just needs to read the small print we agree to when we buy stuff from them:
the Content Provider grants you a non-exclusive right to view, use, and display such Kindle Content (…), solely through Kindle Software or as otherwise permitted as part of the Service, solely on the number of Supported Devices specified in the Kindle Store, and solely for your personal, non-commercial use. Kindle Content is licensed, not sold, to you by the Content Provider.
Kindle Store Terms of Use
And:
Though it is unlikely, subsequent to your purchase, Content may be removed from the Services (for instance, because the provider removed it) and become unavailable for further download or access from Apple. To ensure your ability to continue enjoying Content, we encourage you to download all purchased Content to a device in your possession and to back it up.
Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions.
And:
After completing a transaction or paying the applicable fees for Content, you will have the non-exclusive right, solely as expressly permitted in these Terms and associated policies, to store, access, view, use, and display copies of the applicable Content on your Devices or as otherwise authorized for your personal, non-commercial use only. All rights, title and interest in Google Play and Content not expressly granted to you in the Terms are reserved. Your use of apps and games may be governed by the additional terms and conditions of the end user license agreement between you and the Provider. (…) If you violate any of the Terms, your rights under this license will immediately terminate, and Google may terminate your access to Google Play, the Content or your Google Account without refund to you.
Google Play Terms of Service
Those verbose conditions are all saying the exact same and very simple thing: we buy the ebook, but we don’t own it. Nah.
What we are getting in exchange of our money is a mere ‘right to read the ebook’. Also, note that this right can be revoked. Meaning that anytime in the future, for whatever reason deemed valid (more on that below), the seller may decide to revoke our right to read the ebook. All of a sudden we can’t open that ebook, if it has not just vanished completely from our device. A refund may not even be considered.
Do not think it is just some mandatory legal jargon sellers have to use to protect themselves and that such a silly/frightening perspective as remotely deleting a book will never happen. It happened, more than once. The most symbolic example being Amazon deleting Orwell’s 1984 from the e-reader of their customers. That will be hard to beat as a demonstration of why this is so wrong to let sellers give themselves the right to revoke our ‘right to read’ the ebook we bought from them.
Let that sink-in for a minute. Better yet, imagine the same situation with a good old paper book you purchase at your local bookstore.
You are home, looking at your pile of books to read, wondering which one you may enjoy reading tonight and you remember that book you purchased sometimes ago at your local bookstore. You search for it but instead of the book you find this odd little note:
Dear valued customers,
I had to enter your home in your absence in order to get back that book you’ve purchased sometimes ago because reason.
We appreciate your business, come back soon to check our latest suggestions.
Sincerely,
Your Bookstore Owner.
P.S. I absolutely love the way you decorated your living room.’
Yeah, silly. But as silly is it looks it is still what we all agree to the moment we purchase an ebook on those platforms. Their argument being that they need to constantly be able to comply with a change in the rights associated with whatever ebook. Say, in order to comply with a change in the publishing rights from the publisher. No big deal, right? Now, imagine for a minute not living in a perfect democracy with perfect leaders but in a place where a barely competent or a highly corrupted government may decide to censor any book that does not fit its narrative. What would prevent such a naughty government from requiring the deletion of said book? Or to have it replaced by a version they would have slightly edited?
Yeah, I know, that’s bad science fiction and even worse conspiracy theory. Still, I did not delete Orwell’s 1984 from the device of some customers. Amazon did it.
But let’s ignore that poorly thought-out science fiction scenario I just imagined where a private corporation, for whatever reason, would have the right to delete a file that a user has paid for from the very device a user has paid for to be able to read it, and let’s also ignore what such a power would mean in regards to the very concept of ownership and private property. Let’s happily ignore all that silliness, there would still remain one irking question: how? How can anyone get access to one’s private property (be it a house or some e-reading device) to remove something in it?
As far as I know, someone removing something from someone else’s home without permission should be called a thief. So, how is it possible to do that with a digital file without being called a thieve?
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, which is a complicated way of saying that ebooks sold by Amazon, Apple and Google (and most others sellers) will integrate some tiny snippets of code (next to the license we already lmentioned) that actually removes real ownership of the ebook from the customer who purchase it in order to give it back to the seller. Win-win for the seller: they get the money and they still own the file.
Those DRM are supposed to fight against ebook piracy. Which, obviously, is a noble task. My issue is not with having to pay for ebooks. Never was. My issue is how DRM are used far beyond that legitimate scope of protecting the publisher’s and author’s rights. My issue is how DRM are used against the customer that bought the ebook. Against, how?
- As we have discussed already, DRM can be used to revoke the right to access (aka delete) an ebook, despite having paid for it.
- DRM is used to limit how a reader can use the ebook. The most obvious limitation is the obligation to use the seller’s official reading app or device, not any other. Imagine not being allowed to read Penguin books in the same couch you like to sit to read Random House or Hachette books?
- DRM is also a way to force the reader to accept the data collection and the erosion of privacy. For more on that question, see Am I Reading That Ebook or Am I Being Read by That Ebook?
- DRM limits what one can do with the ebook beside reading it, which amounts to nothing, more or less. One may not even be allowed to lend it to family members, depending on where the ebook was purchased. One certainly cannot give it away or resell it.
- There is one more issue I want to mention: DRM are tight to one’s user account.
One needs to have a user account on Apple, and one on Amazon, and one on Google not just to be able to buy an ebook there, but also to be allowed to read it. One constantly needs to be identified and authorized. So, what?
If Google disables access to your account in accordance with the Terms (for example if you violate the Terms), you may be prevented from accessing Google Play, your account details or any files or other Content that is stored with your account. Google Play Terms of Service
Well, it happens that this user account is also subjected to a license we must agree to that stipulates that the user account can be terminated, aka deleted. Once it is terminated, the user lose access to all its content. There is no ‘download it before we will delete it’. It will just vanish. And there may not even be a refund, no matter the value of what has been deleted. Once again this may sound absurd, but it has already happened.
I never mentioned Microsoft next to Amazon, Apple and Google as a major seller. The thing is that despitetheywere never a big player, Microsoft used to sell ebooks in their own shop. Not for long, though. Then, one day, they simply announced they would be pulling the plug on that ‘service’, and that all purchased ebooks would be removed from the reader’s device at the same time. To Microsoft’s credit, they did refund all ebooks but all ebooks were deleted and there was nothing one could do to prevent it.
Also, since those ebooks are tight to a user account, what happens the day one passes away? I mean, I inherited books from my grandfather. How come no one will inherit the ebooks I purchased? That is certainly a good deal for the sellers and for the publishers, not much so for us customers.
Another very real issue is that a user account can be terminated for many reasons, inluding following a mistake from the very company where you created it. Good luck forcing a giant corporation to change its mind and admit it has done a mistake — do a search on people having lost access to their Amazon, Google or Apple account it is interesting read, to say the least. Sure, one should be able to create a new user account (not always, though), but there is no way to transfer one’s purchase from the deleted account to the new one.
For me, none of that would be an issue if DRM were not used to deprive the customer of their legit ownership.
Maybe I should add that it is relatively easy to remove DRM from an eboo but:
- Removing DRM is a hack, at best. And no hack should be considered a long-term solution. By relying on hacks, we are forced to rely on other people’s cleverness to devise such hack since there is no law forcing corporations to give us the keys to what we bought. Quite the contrary as…
- … In many countries, including the USA, it is nowpunished by law to try to circumvent DRM.
It is not yet fully the case in my country, France, where we all pay a special tax on every digital storage device we buy in exchange of what is called ‘le droit à la copie privée’, the right to make copies for our own personal usage. I do not think this will stay like that indefinitely and, once again, it is still a hack. Getting old I am getting tired of wasting my time fighting against something that is supposed to be mine already.
I buy it, I own it. If that is not the case, why buy it to begin with?
I am not very proud of the years it took me to realize I was silly not to worry about DRM, lured but the ease to remove them. I am even more less proud that it took me so many years to realize there was an obvious solution, and there always was one. The good old paper book has none of those issues. None.
I buy a book? I own it. End of the story.
I can read it where and how I want. I can share it with friends if I so desire, I can give it or I can resell it. Also, no shop owner and no publisher can ever enter my home without my permission, and certainly not to take back my book. No one should be allowed do that.
Published: 2024/01/16