Well, that's not completely true. I still love reading from my Kindle, and spent some time reading in it today. I also love all the free books I've downloaded over the past year. However, there is a problem with the Kindle ecosystem, a problem that has me wishing today that I had waited to invest so heavily in the technology.
The problem isn't simply that I purchased an e-reader from Amazon.com. The problem is that I bought into an ecosystem that's, for practical purposes, closed. I committed to buying my ebooks primarily from Amazon, and entirely in their native ebook digital format. I've given my long term stamp of approval to a gigantic multinational corporation.
What if I discover Amazon treats its workers terrible, in sweatshop like conditions? What if Amazon does business with terrorists, or regimes that oppress human rights? What if Amazon starts featuring pornography on its pages? Is buying digital books, and reading on my Kindle supporting these practices?
Pre-Kindle the answers might have been simpler: skip saving a couple bucks and shop locally. Buy used paperbacks from local booksellers, and shop at Itunes for digital content. Now my dependency upon Amazon is more complicated. Not only is Kindle content sold outside the Kindle store scarce, but Amazon actually owns all the content I've purchased. One does not buy Kindle books, but "purchases" the right to use them--a right Amazon can revoke at any time.
I'm not saying now that Kindles and their owners are evil, or part of some grand conspiracy. I'm simply concerned at how complex certain dependencies have grown. There's always costs to early adaption, and this appears to be one of them.
How about the future? Hopefully amazon doesn't become truly evil, and even does better at ethical responsibility and transparency. But I don't have much hope in corporations saving the world. I am hopeful that people will stand up for private property rights, and push for a better, more open ebook ecosystem.
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