E-book Ownership: First World Problems At Its Finest
This month, I chose — yes, this was a choice — to write about something so stupid. *sighs and laughs* There is an element of seriousness in it, but in hindsight, I’m a little annoyed at myself for spending so much time on it, not gonna lie. Maybe it’s March madness, but I actually spent two weeks on this post, not consecutively, which actually makes it worse because it means I couldn’t be bothered about it on some days. However, if ever sunk cost fallacy is going to get me, it’s now. *clicks publish*
How did I end up here? Well, someone had the audacity to lump all book readers into this mess and I had to correct them. Don’t bring the rest of us sound-minded, beach-dwelling, waist-pelting readers around the world into that. We do not agree, and probably, just don’t care!
What am I talking about? So, about a month ago (Feb 2025), Amazon made an announcement that you would no longer be able to download books on your Kindle to your PC. The cut-off date was sometime at the end of February 2025. So if you didn’t know, sorry, that boat has sailed. After this announcement, many vloggers in the international book community then proceeded to absolutely lose their minds. There followed several posts and videos online with them telling people to ‘go download your books before Jeff takes them back!’ People were stressing out over ‘losing’ their libraries of hundreds of books. Issues about ‘true’ ownership were flung around and the masses lamented at capitalism winning again. Oh no.
I didn’t bother to check my Kindle books until way after the deadline because 1. I have about 50 books in there and I’ve read about 80% of them. The ones I haven’t read, I know I no longer wish to read so if Amazon takes them back, it’s fine, and the ones I love, I already have a physical copy of in my bookshelf.
And 2. I have never, not once, in my entire time using Kindle felt that I owned an e-book.
Tell me, where did this idea come from? Estoy confundida. Very confused as to where this notion came from. Headlines like ‘Amazon removes your right to download Kindle books’ or ‘Kindle books are no longer owned but rented’.
WHEN? When was owning a Kindle e-book ever a thing? I have said it before and I’ll say it again, even if you don’t read the Terms and Conditions before you sign up to a service, you STILL have to follow them!
Now, the no-download thing is one issue. We’ll get to that. Let’s deal with this e-book ownership thing first. For those of you not familiar with this ongoing argument, some people feel that Amazon has no right to restrict them downloading e-books they purchased because if you bought it, you own it and should be able to do whatever you want with it, i.e., copy, share it, etc.
However, in the past weeks, after reading many articles and speed-watching through far too many videos, I have realised that ownership of e-books is a delusion that has been propagated by some readers, a ‘Karen-thought’ process of sorts, among the industrialised nations. Because owning an e-book is news to me, and I have found no proof, nor have the mob been able to provide any, that this was ever the case.
And before you jump on the ‘you should be able to own whatever you buy’ bandwagon, yes, I agree, IF you actually buy it to own! Not every purchase automatically denotes ownership. This is not new, even with physical items, and especially when it comes to digital products where each transaction isn’t the same across the board. Each item in a digital space has its own terms and conditions that the party who is selling and the party who is buying has to agree to.
For example, let’s take the seagull from the movie Nemo I posted above. It’s a decal from Etsy, a digital download, and you can find it on several stores. Once purchased, the seller grants the buyer use according to the conditions agreed upon prior to the sale. Let’s say the terms were that the buyer is allowed to print it for personal use but can’t use it commercially. If they don’t agree to that, they are free to NOT BUY IT, and if they buy it and use it in ways that were not agreed upon when they purchased it, they WILL BE in the wrong and liable.
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I understand some of you are saying there are laws established for use of digital items in your countries but that’s just it, it’s laws for use in YOUR country. You can’t apply it elsewhere, which is why terms for digital items isn’t a broad brush you can stroke over everything. What we all agree to though is that the seller sets the terms of use as it’s their item. If the buyer buys it, it means they agree to those conditions. The buyer doesn’t get to just change the terms of use because they want to, or in this case, because they failed to read the terms.
This e-book thing is not a physical vs digital item argument either. For those of you trying to compare this to a bookseller coming to your house to take the physical books back that are in your bookshelf after you’ve bought it, please stop. You KNOW it isn’t the same thing. The ability to copy and distribute a digital item is so much easier. In the case of a printed book, it would cost you actual money to make a copy and have it bound. With a digital download, it literally can be as simple as right-click and copy-paste. Not comparable, which is why different legislation had to be created for digital purchases to begin with.
You bought that physical book. You own that single, physical copy, but you know what you don’t own? The copyright. Last time I checked, you can’t copy and share a physical book with your friends EITHER! Or do the books in your home library, both physical and digital, not have a version of this on the copyright page?
What do you think the above means???
For those pretending you don’t know, it means that you can’t copy and/or distribute said book to anyone without permission from the owner of the copyright. If you wouldn’t go to a copy shop and copy out every page of a physical book to share it with your friends, or whoever else wants one, why do you think it’s okay to copy your download of an e-book and do the same thing? You wouldn’t with a physical book because you already know that’s illegal, so how is your e-book download different?
You see why I say this whole uproar feels so stupid? Why must this be explained to people who claim to be avid, intellectual readers? Did you all forget BASIC copyright law? Or you all just playing dumb? What it is?
This is not even me not understanding ownership. If you own something you should be able to 1. use it, lend it or share it (without duplicating it), and 2. resell it or donate it, if you decide you no longer wish to keep it. That is true ownership and you can do all that with a physical book you bought from the bookstore. But no, you would rather go online and argue about e-book ownership rather than just go buy the print copy of your favourite books… so you will actually own them. Like, isn’t that the most logical solution? Why you all like drama — I just… Jah! Give me strength, eh!
But let me ask you a question? Who owns the e-book you downloaded from Kindle? If you were paying attention, this is a simple answer.
If you say you do, again, that’s not the right answer. But if you say Amazon — you would also be wrong.
The e-book belongs to the author or the copyright holder who uploaded it to Amazon’s site.
Logic also therefore follows that Amazon cannot grant you, the consumer, rights to something THEY DO NOT own! The only thing they can grant is a license, which is why e-books have ALWAYS been, on their site anyway, a license-to-read item because it doesn’t belong to them. The removal of books is also not solely up to Amazon.
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