3 ms·

Free Software Foundation calls upon Amazon to free the ebook reader.

22 points by tjr 17y ago

anupj 17y ago
A while back there was a rumour that Amazon had open sourced the Kindle, which turned out to be false of course. The code was really GPL'd Linux libraries and drivers. In an ideal world I think Amazon should open source the Kindle software, but I think because of pragmatic business repurcussions it won't happen anytime soon.
michaelfairley 17y ago
Stallman's Right to Read (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html) is slowly becoming more and more relevant.
- _pius 17y ago
  Nowhere near as slowly as I'd like.
rwolf 17y ago
Without discussing whether the Kindle should be open source, it seems like there's something easier Amazon can do to prevent this from happening again. If Amazon's ebooks were DRM-free, customers could back up their titles on hardware that does not occasionally receive orders from the mothership to delete their books.
trapper 17y ago
Does anyone else think they would love to open source it, but the publishers won't let them? Surely Amazon would love to be able to put all their books on the kindle without DRM. But the publishers would be up in arms if this happened, as they want control. At least this way Amazon is slowly getting many more publishers into the digital age.
- frossie 17y ago
  It's plausible. That's what happened with Apple right? - they turned iTunes into an industry cash cow, and then used that leverage to switch most content to DRM-free.
brl 17y ago
I'm pretty annoyed at how badly the Richard Stallman cult members have flooded the Kindle DX Amazon reviews. It's very tedious now to wade through the spam to find reviews written by somebody who actually owns a Kindle. Is this supposed to make me sympathetic to the Free Software movement? It's certainly not going to convince me not to buy a Kindle DX which is the first gadget that I've seen worth getting excited about in the last 10 years.

22 points by tjr 17y ago

anupj 17y ago

A while back there was a rumour that Amazon had open sourced the Kindle, which turned out to be false of course. The code was really GPL'd Linux libraries and drivers. In an ideal world I think Amazon should open source the Kindle software, but I think because of pragmatic business repurcussions it won't happen anytime soon.

michaelfairley 17y ago

Stallman's Right to Read (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html) is slowly becoming more and more relevant.

_pius 17y ago
Nowhere near as slowly as I'd like.

rwolf 17y ago

Without discussing whether the Kindle should be open source, it seems like there's something easier Amazon can do to prevent this from happening again. If Amazon's ebooks were DRM-free, customers could back up their titles on hardware that does not occasionally receive orders from the mothership to delete their books.

trapper 17y ago

Does anyone else think they would love to open source it, but the publishers won't let them? Surely Amazon would love to be able to put all their books on the kindle without DRM. But the publishers would be up in arms if this happened, as they want control. At least this way Amazon is slowly getting many more publishers into the digital age.

frossie 17y ago
It's plausible. That's what happened with Apple right? - they turned iTunes into an industry cash cow, and then used that leverage to switch most content to DRM-free.

brl 17y ago

I'm pretty annoyed at how badly the Richard Stallman cult members have flooded the Kindle DX Amazon reviews. It's very tedious now to wade through the spam to find reviews written by somebody who actually owns a Kindle. Is this supposed to make me sympathetic to the Free Software movement? It's certainly not going to convince me not to buy a Kindle DX which is the first gadget that I've seen worth getting excited about in the last 10 years.