Transfer your Kindle account to another country and videos, music, subscriptions go poof
So Amazon is now selling the Kindle in Japan, meaning they also have a Kindle store. I might be tempted to think this would enable Kindle-owning me to buy e-books from the Japanese Kindle store, seeing as I live in Japan and already have an account on amazon.co.jp to buy print books.
Haha. Here's what happens when someone with a Kindle bought in Belgium tries to buy a Kindle book from amazon.co.jp. In short, in order to purchase Kindle books from amazon.co.jp, you first have to accept losing a bunch of stuff you already paid for.
Now I'm suddenly glad that Amazon never allowed me to buy video or music from them in the first place. (Video and music is all region-locked too. Not that I haven't tried to get at it, being a generally law-abiding person who prefers to pay for their entertainment, but no luck getting around that particular wall so far.) In the wake of the saga of that person whose Kindle was wiped without explanation, one might almost think that "buying" something from Amazon really means "licensing" it, even though the buttons on the site clearly say "Buy with 1-click". Oh wait, it really does mean licensing. I still don't feel compelled to stop ripping the DRM off every e-book I buy and saving personal copies just in case.
And yes, I still haven't managed to tear myself away from Amazon. It's simply impossible to find e-books elsewhere for many of the kind of academic books I need - other stores either don't have them or don't allow non-US customers to buy them. This entry was originally posted at http://unjapanologist.dreamwidth.org/64108.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Haha. Here's what happens when someone with a Kindle bought in Belgium tries to buy a Kindle book from amazon.co.jp. In short, in order to purchase Kindle books from amazon.co.jp, you first have to accept losing a bunch of stuff you already paid for.
Now I'm suddenly glad that Amazon never allowed me to buy video or music from them in the first place. (Video and music is all region-locked too. Not that I haven't tried to get at it, being a generally law-abiding person who prefers to pay for their entertainment, but no luck getting around that particular wall so far.) In the wake of the saga of that person whose Kindle was wiped without explanation, one might almost think that "buying" something from Amazon really means "licensing" it, even though the buttons on the site clearly say "Buy with 1-click". Oh wait, it really does mean licensing. I still don't feel compelled to stop ripping the DRM off every e-book I buy and saving personal copies just in case.
And yes, I still haven't managed to tear myself away from Amazon. It's simply impossible to find e-books elsewhere for many of the kind of academic books I need - other stores either don't have them or don't allow non-US customers to buy them. This entry was originally posted at http://unjapanologist.dreamwidth.org/64108.html. Please comment there using OpenID.