A couple of years ago Amazon quietly added a feature where if you buy (or had bought-it was retroactive) a CD from them you would get the MP3s from the Album for free. It was a great value and very popular (especially since it was kind of surprise).
Similar to this, there were rumors they would eventually institute something similar with e-books. Sure enough a few months ago Amazon made an announcement that they were going to create program where you could buy the Kindle version of books you had already purchased as a physical book for a steep discount (between $0.99-$2.99 each).
I recall the announcement had said something about October. I don’t remember if that was when it was going to start or is that was when more information would be forthcoming. Has anyone heard anything about this? I am looking forward to taking advantage of it when it becomes a reality.
Ever since I got a Kindle, I’ve been wishing there were an easy way to “rip” a book I own a hardcopy of, the way you can rip a CD to put it on a computer, MP3 player, etc. This sounds like it’s almost the next best thing.
Note that, for about a year now, Amazon has also had a deal where, if you’ve bought the Kindle version of a book, you can sometimes get a significant discount on the audio version from Audible.com (which is affiliated with Amazon).
Another deal – for Prime members – is that if you buy something and elect standard shipping instead of Prime, you get a dollar off an mp3 purchase.
So when does Matchbook actually start? I clicked the link and it said October, but more clicking resulted in nothing. I’d love to get some of my heavier books on the Kindle. Maybe I’d finish the Malazan series that way.
If I buy a reduced-price version of a Kindle book where I already own the print version, is it (a) legal and (b) ethical for me to then sell, trade, or give away the print version and still have access to the ebook?
What if I no longer own the print book, because I bought it as a gift, or lost it, or something? Am I still morally entitled to buy the Kindle version cheap?
There’s only one free title on my list but it’s Binscombe Tales by John Whitbourn (a Doper recommendation, IIRC). I’ve had it for almost two years but haven’t read it because it’s heavy to hold. Now it’s on the Kindle!
34 books, including three that were loaned and lost by the borrowers – The Great Mortality, The Worst Hard Time and Hunter’s Run (an excellent SF co-authored by George R. R. Martin).
Authors on my list include Neal Stephenson, Joe Hill, Terry Pratchett, Dan Simmons, Mary Gentle, James Morrow, Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury, Joyce Carol Oates, Paul Bowles, Tom Franklin, and Laura Lippman – so not crap.
I have 14 available, all at $2.99 except one for $1.99.
Kinda cool, but none of them are books I really want to re-read so I’m not overly excited.
It does feel kind of weird to see books I bought in 1997 on that list. I still think of Amazon as something new and cool, but I’ve apparently been buying stuff there for 16 years. Sheesh!
At the risk of sounding like a moral relativist, if Amazon (and publishers) didn’t want us to take advantage of this, they wouldn’t make the offer.
I look at buying/selling/trading/lending books, music, movies, etc. as a big part of cultural enlightenment, education, improvement. It’s why we have libraries and free public education and TV and radio.
The way the publishers look at it - you just bought 2 copies of the book. You paid for one book, now they’re offering to sell you a second copy at a discount. You’re the one paying for two copies so you get the special price, not the friend to whom you’re giving the book. This works out better for the publishers than just selling one copy for a gift and then having the giver borrow it back after the giftee reads it.
The fact that the two copies are in different formats is irrelevant (except that one of the formats is Kindle drm and has a whole garden of legal stickerbushes around it limiting your ability to physically do things with it.) You bought two copies of the book. As far as the physical book goes, what you do with it is entirely up to you. Your ownership of the Kindle version doesn’t go away if the physical books gets abducted by aliens (even though the ‘ownership’ of Kindle books is stuck in that stickerbush.
