Amazon Tries to Strong-arm Kindle News Sites

The message reads as follows:

Greetings from Amazon.com.

It has recently come to our attention that you are using a domain name in our Associates Program that contains a variation and/or misspelling of the name KINDLE, including but not limited to KINDLEREPORT.COM. Please note that we do not allow anyone with a URL containing the word “amazon,” any other trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, any misspelling of the word “amazon” and/or numerical variants to participate in the Associate Program (see Section 1 of the Associates Program Operating Agreement at http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/agreement/). Such use violates Amazon.com’s trademark, proprietary and other rights.

At this juncture, we are willing to assume that you have registered and are using this domain name without a full appreciation of the above, provided that you are willing to assign this domain name over to Amazon.com. Please advise whether you agree to transfer ownership of the KINDLEREPORT.COM domain name to Amazon.com. If so, you will be contacted with further details.

If, however, we do not hear from you regarding the above within ten days from the date of this email, we will have no alternative but to terminate your associates account effective as of the date of this email and you will not receive payment for Q1 2008.

Please know that we value our relationship and we look forward to hearing from you. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Amazon.com Account Specialist
Associates Program
http://www.amazon.com

This has shut down other Kindle news sites in recent days (Kindlenews.info had to change its name), but I didn’t know why until now. I have contacted Amazon for comment but have yet to hear anything. I can tell you right now that I will be continuing to operate this site. I have created this site in good faith, promoting the Amazon brand. I have a slew of articles that I just need to finish up and post over the next few days and weeks. I also have a lot of ideas to improve the site.

I understand they need to protect their copyrights and trademarks, but there has to be another way. They risk losing a lot of goodwill from Amazon fans. They appear to be slowly working through Kindle news sites at least, so if they haven’t reached you yet they will soon.

“We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on! We’re going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!”

quote from the movie Independence Day. I would provide a link for you to buy it on Amazon, but apparently I’m not allowed to.

And thanks to TeleRead for providing coverage that let me see what others were saying (source).

Source: Via The Kindle Report