November 20th, 2007
Kindling a controversy
Ed Champion is investigating whether certain bloggers included in Amazon’s Kindle launch were made “Kindle Blogs” without authorization or licensing. He cites two examples (Daniel McGowan and Cork Gaines) of bloggers who apparently are included in the Kindle Store without their permission. This surprises me. My personal blog Bag and Baggage is there in the Kindle Store too (I’m also quoted in Ed’s post), but under an express agreement. It could be the Kindle team had some misunderstanding about the ramifications of the noncommercial use restriction in certain Creative Commons licenses; the initial email I received about participating did reference my Creative Commons license, but neither McGowan nor Gaines seem to use Creative Commons so I’m at a loss as to what’s going on. In my case, Amazon had lots of communication with me about including Bag and Baggage, and crossed its T’s and dotted its I’s on the legal front.
[Updated 10:08 p.m.] Ed Champion has unearthed two more bloggers who are less than pleased with being Kindleized.
[Updated 11/22, 9:36 a.m.] Engadget reports the Kindle gave Amazon plenty to be thankful for, selling out the first batch in just 5.5 hours.
Denise Howell is an appellate, intellectual property and technology lawyer who enjoys broad industry recognition for her expertise on the intersection of emerging technologies and law. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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