Amazon Unboxed Is Also Unhinged

Those copyfighters over at BoingBoing have uncovered some tasty tidbits in the user agreement of Amazon’s new Video-on-Demand service. The gist?

Step 1: You give Amazon money.
Step 2: They let you download a video.
Step 3: You keep updating their software or they can delete your content.

Wait, what? It seems that Amazon is just selling you a license, which can be revoked. At any time. For any reason. You relinquish your privacy and the control of your hard drive, only to pay for an episode of CSI: Miami you could watch for free.

According to BoingBoing, “Amazon Unbox takes away your privacy and every conceivable consumer right you have, and then tells you that the goods you buy from them don’t belong to you, and they can take them away from you at any time, or change the deal you get from them without any appeal by you.”

By the way, did I mention that a DVD Quality Movie is $14.99? Well then. I’ll just Tivo. Oh wait. Nevermind.

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