5 ms·

A class action lawsuit against the publisher ought to fix it. Failing that then deliberate mass piracy of the original works will. These bastards need to be t

A class action lawsuit against the publisher ought to fix it. Failing that then deliberate mass piracy of the original works will. These bastards need to be taught a lesson.

bawolff 4y ago
On what basis? You can't just sue people because you dont like something they did. It has to actually be illegal.
- hilbert42 4y ago
  If I buy or license something in good faith and the seller or licensee changes it after the contract is set or done is not the way business is normally conducted. It's a breach of contract. Here, the publisher has altered the contract without my permission or knowledge. I no longer have what I paid for. As far as I'm concerned the publisher has not only deceived me but also has committed fraud. _ Edit: here's an analogy: I license Windows in perpetuity on my computer (which is the usual arrangement), and unbeknownst to me Microsoft has placed a timer within the code to disable the O/S after say 18 months then all hell would break loose. This is effectively what the publisher has done here (the contractual mechanism is the same).
  - bawolff 4y ago
    IANAL, but i feel this argument would fail since the change wasn't really material. If they cut half the book that would be one thing, but a paragraph changed is a pretty different matter (in the windows example - a kill switch would be obviously bad, some random changes in the interface after an update would be business as usual). Plus there is probably some shrink wrap agreement with the kindle saying that amazon could do this (which if true) would make it hard to argue you were decieved.
    - kragen 4y ago
      in this case the change was so material that it has made national news in dozens of articles and both the prime minister and the queen have criticized it
  - kelnos 4y ago
    Except you did agree to this when you licensed ebooks from Amazon. But I'm sure you didn't actually read that agreement (neither did I). I believe there's also a Kindle setting (default enabled, probably) to allow or disallow automatic book updates.

A class action lawsuit against the publisher ought to fix it. Failing that then deliberate mass piracy of the original works will. These bastards need to be taught a lesson.

bawolff 4y ago

On what basis? You can't just sue people because you dont like something they did. It has to actually be illegal.

hilbert42 4y ago
If I buy or license something in good faith and the seller or licensee changes it after the contract is set or done is not the way business is normally conducted. It's a breach of contract. Here, the publisher has altered the contract without my permission or knowledge. I no longer have what I paid for. As far as I'm concerned the publisher has not only deceived me but also has committed fraud. _ Edit: here's an analogy: I license Windows in perpetuity on my computer (which is the usual arrangement), and unbeknownst to me Microsoft has placed a timer within the code to disable the O/S after say 18 months then all hell would break loose. This is effectively what the publisher has done here (the contractual mechanism is the same).
- bawolff 4y ago
  IANAL, but i feel this argument would fail since the change wasn't really material. If they cut half the book that would be one thing, but a paragraph changed is a pretty different matter (in the windows example - a kill switch would be obviously bad, some random changes in the interface after an update would be business as usual). Plus there is probably some shrink wrap agreement with the kindle saying that amazon could do this (which if true) would make it hard to argue you were decieved.
  - kragen 4y ago
    in this case the change was so material that it has made national news in dozens of articles and both the prime minister and the queen have criticized it
- kelnos 4y ago
  Except you did agree to this when you licensed ebooks from Amazon. But I'm sure you didn't actually read that agreement (neither did I). I believe there's also a Kindle setting (default enabled, probably) to allow or disallow automatic book updates.