Bad News Day - Here We go again. Amazon

[evg2000]

I'm a pedia user, used to be a collectorz user, got an email from them today, amazon has gone after them also:

Hi Charles,

Alwin here, with some bad news.
It looks like we have a problem. And because it could affect almost all
Collectorz.com customers and their usage of our software,
I wanted to let you all know what is happening, immediately.

Anyway, here it is. This morning, I received the following email from Amazon:

========================================================
Subject: Your Amazon Associates Acount

It has come to our attention that you have created applications for use with
mobile devices which use Amazon.com content. The use of a mobile application
in conjunction with the Product Advertising API or the Associates Program
without our express prior written approval is not permitted.

As a result, we must insist that you cease this use of our services immediately.
Moreover, because of this violation of both the Product Advertising API License
Agreement and the Associates Operating Agreement, your Associates accounts have
been closed and your access key turned off.

We thank you for your understanding and wish you the best of luck in the future.
========================================================

And indeed, in Amazon's Terms of Service for the usage of the
Product Advertising API, we found the following:

"You will not, without our express prior written approval requested via this
link, use any Product Advertising Content on or in connection with any site or
application designed or intended for use with a mobile phone or other
handheld device."


** So, what does this mean? **
Well, I am not sure, as the only information I have at the moment is in
the above two quotes.

But here's my understanding of the situation:
- Amazon does not seem to allow the usage of any Amazon data in mobile
applications, any data that was once downloaded from Amazon.
They must be referring to our iPhone applications, but it's not
even clear which ones. I am guessing Clz Music, Clz Movies, Clz Books and
Clz Games. Our comics app Clz Comics does not use Amazon data and never has.
- Because of this violation, they say they have "turned off our access key".
This means that they have blocked our access to all Amazon XML feeds.
Which would mean our software and our servers cannot do ANY Amazon searches
anymore. At the moment, the Amazon searches still seem to be working,
but I expect this to stop functioning any moment now.


** Our actions so far: **
To (hopefully) prevent the disabling of our access key for the Amazon feed:
- We have removed all our iPhone apps (except Clz Comics) from the
Apple App Store. I have no idea if they will ever be back. Time will tell.
- We have contacted Amazon to let them know, requesting that they keep our
access key enabled and re-open our Associates accounts.


** How does this affect you? **
First, you will not be able to buy or download our iPhone apps for
music, books, movies and games anymore.
If you have already purchased the apps, these will keep functioning.

Then, if Amazon really disables our access to their data feeds (which they have
not done yet), the effect will depend on the software version you are using:

1. If you are using the latest version (with the "single-source"
Add Automatically" screen): All searches will keep functioning, but you may
notice reduced coverage for barcode searches, especially for newer releases.
The best workaround is to search by Title for movies, books and games and,
for music, to search by scanning CDs in your CD-ROM drive.
2. If you are still using an older version of the software (one that still has
the info source selection in the Add Automatically screen): All Amazon
sources will stop working. The workaround here is to use Collectorz.com.

But again, Amazon has not disabled the Amazon searches yet.
Let's hope they never will, but I fear it will happen soon.


** What can you do to help? **
Here's a couple of things you can do to help us cope with this situation:

1. Don't email Amazon! Please let us do the talking and let us try to resolve
the issue. Users complaining to Amazon will not help us, on the contrary...

2. Please don't flood our Support inboxes and forum with questions.
The above is all information we have at the moment. As you can understand,
we are all very busy dealing with the (possible) consequences of this
situation, so please do not make matters worse by asking all kinds of
questions we cannot answer anyway.

3. If you want to stay up to date, you can:
- Follow us on Twitter : http://twitter.com/collectorz
I will try to keep you posted on all developments as they happen.
- Follow the "developing story" on our forum here:
http://www.collectorz.com/phpbb2/viewto ... 15&t=15881


That's it for now. I really apologize for any inconvenience this may cause,
but I hope you understand that this is fully beyond our control.

Let's hope we can work this out with Amazon, so that we can keep doing Amazon
searches and can maybe even bring the iPhone apps back.
But even if we will have to do without Amazon, I guarantee that we will keep
bringing you reliable and automatic media data and cover images.
We will just have to put even more effort into further improvements to our own
Collectorz.com databases. I hope we can count on you to help us do so!

Thank you for your understanding and support,

Alwin
Collectorz.com

[thajeztah]

This is very bad news indeed. I was so happy to see PocketPedia back in the iPhone!

Just wondering; what would happen if you deliberately did NOT remove the application from the App Store? Would that be an opportunity to start 'conversations'?

[jed]

I'm new to DVDpedia (love it) and haven't been following the Amazon thing for too long...
But why not get rid of Amazon; are they not aware of how it encourages people to buy from them.
It seems it would be easier to just DROP THEM!
I miss Pocketpedia2
-Jed

[sjk]

Part of the problem may be that Pocketpedia can't be guaranteed to be free from Amazon data while the desktop 'pedias are still capable of using it. And Bruji likely wants to keep Amazon support in the desktop 'pedias at least for people who don't use Pocketpedia. So, dropping Amazon probably isn't as easy as it might seem.

[Alex]

sjk is right. This has all been discussed, at some considerable length in this (and other) posts on this very forum:

http://bruji.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3277

Just in case anyone is interested in the history of it.