Well, this sucks. I had not yet gotten around to downloading the new Delicious Library iPhone app, which I heard was great. And now I can’t because the developer had to remove it from the App Store. Why? Because of Amazon.
A recent change to Amazon’s Product Advertising API means that apps like Delicious Library are being restricted from using it, according to Alan Quatermain. And what’s really perplexing is that this change apparently only matters on mobile devices, meaning bye bye to an iPhone app that took its developers 8 months to build.
Here’s the official wording that killed the app:
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.
Developer Wil Shipley tried to reach out to Amazon to see about getting permission, but Amazon apparently said no exceptions were being made. Not only that, “they [Amazon] told me to remove it today, or they’d shut me down,” Shipley tweeted out.
And this data is crucial to Delicious Library, because it’s how it pulls its product information. So it won’t be back unless Amazon changes that rule, which it doesn’t appear to be ready to do anytime soon.
It would seem that Amazon only wants you to be able to access its product data through its own mobile site and apps. But that’s a problem because, as Quatermain points out, the Amazon iPhone app isn’t even available in places like the UK.
Yeah. This is fairly ridiculous.
Update: As Rod points out in the comments, this seems to be related to similar action Amazon was taking nearly 2 years ago against mobile web startups. But here’s why this remains utterly ridiculous — if not more so — just read what Amazon told us at the time:
2/ Now with regards to just ECS, we do limit access by some mobile-focused companies to just that service. Its says in our license agreement for that service that developers must first get permission from Amazon Web Services prior to using Amazon ECS in connection with any handheld, mobile, or mobile phone application (see 5.1.4 here) . The reason is that it’s very early days in the mobile space and Amazon.com is still thinking through how to best serve customers who want to use mobile devices to shop on Amazon.com. At this point, we’re being cautious about exposing our catalog data for use in the mobile space.
Amazon tried to make it sound like they were just in the process of figuring everything out and then would come up with a way to “best serve customers who want to use mobile devices to shop on Amazon.com” Uh yeah, it’s been almost 2 years.
And again, Shipley did ask for permission, and was flat-out denied.
[thanks Nik]
Poop on that.
Yeah, you need to use a real collection management tool like ours.
More than just media, and includes old stuff too — ie. not just stuff that’s currently for sale on Amazon.com…since everyone has an old book or VHS lying around that’s out of print.
So, when you’re in Barnes & Noble you don’t buy the most recent print of “Common Sense” — iTrackmine tells you that you’ve got that old heirloom copy in the attic from grandma.
Well it’s their service and they’re allowing people to use it for free. It’s not like a constitutional guaranteed right to have this service available on a mobile phone and I also don’t think they snuck that clause in there after Will started on his app.
I’m completely confused by Amazon. They are what they are today because of how open they have been with their data, affiliate program, etc.
Why are they insisting on limiting growth in the mobile space with a restrictive terms of use?
If it is to protect their own apps, the Amazon iphone app is nice, but doesn’t do what Delicious Library does and won’t anytime soon.
I don’t see what they expect to gain by this and honestly think they are losing out on a lot of revenue opportunities in the mobile space by not allowing developers to use their data.
If I were a betting man, I’d put money on that someone else has a business patent on using product data in a mobile application, and Amazon are being careful not to get sued over it.
I will never develop based on Amazon API anymore. They can change their API as they like without taking developer point of view.
Never … Never…. develop for Amazon API anymore
I don’t believe this is a new change. I recall a similar furore last year.
Here we go: Such a recent change that TechCrunch mentioned it in 2007: http://www.tech...obile-services/
Thanks Rod, that predates me obviously, but I’ll update with that. But here’s what really interests me about that article. From Amazon:
2/ Now with regards to just ECS, we do limit access by some mobile-focused companies to just that service. Its says in our license agreement for that service that developers must first get permission
from Amazon Web Services prior to using Amazon ECS in connection with any handheld, mobile, or mobile phone application (see 5.1.4 here) . The reason is that it’s very early days in the mobile space and
Amazon.com is still thinking through how to best serve customers who
want to use mobile devices to shop on Amazon.com. At this point, we’re
being cautious about exposing our catalog data for use in the mobile
space.
Uh, it’s been nearly 2 years. This is so ridiculous.
This makes NO sense to me. The app was essentially a way for us to get the information we wanted, in a format we wanted, with links directly to the Amazon web site for purchase… I used it for my wishlist among other things… now I won’t be buying those books from Amazon. Crazy. It’s right back to the old pre-API days when we had to use the Amazon site directly.
I can’t imagine where Amazon would be today if it hadn’t opened the API for external applications on the web – we purchase a LOT through apps using that API. The more we move to mobile, the more they’re going to have to realize the same rules should apply to both for them to continue that success.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t see what the uproar is about. The entire foundation of this app is all Amazon’s data, they can control access to it.
Alan Quatermain’s argument seems to be nothing more than “WIL SHIPLEY IS A COOL GUY, WHY IS AMAZON BEING SO MEAN”.
Right, so you see nothing wrong with opening up their API as Amazon has done for years, before taking away certain functionality? What a tyrannical view of business you must have.
The issue as I see it is Amazon arbitrarily deciding that no application (or _website_) designed for a mobile device can make any use of data obtained through otherwise permitted use of their APIs. The fact that DL on the Mac is free to grab synopses & such from Amazon, display them, etc., yet is prohibited from copying that same data to any form of mobile device (or mobile-formatted web site) is just plain weird.
Also, Delicious Library is probably one of the most high-profile users of this API for a real end-user need (as opposed to a blog listing ‘what I read’), and they obviously drive traffic to Amazon, because as I recall they get to send a not-inconsiderable amount of money to charities as a result (i.e. all their referral money). So it seems doubly ludicrous for Amazon to come down on them so hard.
The last thing that incenses me is the way that the clause states that you can only do so if you apply. But doing so just lets you find out that they will not consider any such application AT ALL. This therefore means that the whole bit in the clause about getting access via prior application is just arse-covering legalese put there to mitigate any unfair competition suits.
um, I’m sry, it’s not Amazon’s data.. It’s *MY* damn data..
Amazon doesn’t hold the copyright to the book cover art, the publisher does… Amazon doesn’t hold any right to *my* data about what *I* own… *I* do..
All Amazon has any right to, as far as the data may be concerned, is inventory/availability, price, and review data.. Let’s hope a revised app with this data omitted is available soon…
I was hoping to see the iPhone app upgraded to allow the 3gs camera to be used as an input device for the desktop app, fat chance of that now I guess..
I have a $100 Amazon gift cert, and a long wish list.. This has me feeling like sitting on it and telling amazon to go frack themselves.. I’ve been an amazon cust. since week one of their existence, have always been a big cheerleader for them … have been a Prime cust. since that was offered… but this Microsoft-like behavior will likely push me to iTunes and used bookstores more than anything..
Yes, it’s their API, they can write the license as assholeish as they want.. But they should know that it’s going to cost them potential business.. DL users will be less able to buy from them using DL, and people that disagree with this type of behavior may stop buying from them all-together…
Yeah, right.
Uh, dude, they’ve already got the $100 for that gift card. They’d absolutely LOVE it if you decided to “just sit on it and tell Amazon to go frack themselves” – that’s $100 for free that they don’t have to ship any product for! You make them suffer more by USING it, then refusing to purchase any more from them.
Can they spoof a non-mobile user-agent during the app’s requests or something? Don’t know much about the Amazon API or their app but…
…or could they bounce the request through a proxy they run?
You might be missing part of the story – the iPhone app IS NOT calling Amazon’s API. They are saying that the iPhone app cannot use the data even though the app does not actually retrieve it. The iPhone app was really a viewer for the desktop app.
I can’t imagine that this was a strategic decision by anyone at Amazon who knew what they were doing.
It smells more like lawyers meddling in business decisions. It reminds me of the furor that Amazon incited when they started filtering content they deemed sexual or inappropriate earlier this year.
It seems like somebody in the internal counsel’s office needs to seriously have their authority/meddling put in check. This sort of decision as well as the “mix up” that Amazon claimed was an algorithmic error earlier this year are uncovering a well spring of anti-Amazon sentiment, the likes of which could do the company serious harm should it ever fall under the sort anti-monopolistic scrutiny which has plagued companies like Microsoft.
Sucks for DL but doesn’t surprise me after Amazon bought Snaptell. Not sure there’s an obvious benefit in monopolizing the mobile experience but you can kind of see it in the roadmap.
Also possible that they will revert back the caveat if they figure they’re missing out on extended sales, etc.
More fascist practices coming from the big players – like the horrible Digg bar.
Gah. I just re-upped for the new version of Delicious Library based on the iPhone App. :-\
Oh… this sucks!!! Delicious Library rocks.
They should make an exception. Amazon’s data deserves to be public. Maybe they could license it for a fee. But, no one else has as much info as Amazon!
Seems the author didn’t do his homework and is now throwing toys from his pram.
This restriction has been present for several years, TechCrunch have even reported on it in 2007 (and falsely claimed it was a recent change then too).
http://www.tech...obile-services/
I updated. This actually makes it more ridiculous.
They should look into Glue’s API
http://getglue.com/api
Access to similarly rich data for books, movies, music, etc.
They should certainly be using Glue for the social aspects. It doesn’t look like Glue provides data on the content—authors, album art, etc—the same way Amazon does.
Thanks for pointing out glue though! Looks cool.
The Glue API provides rich meta data for any of the sites listed here:
http://www.getglue.com/sites
We were using the Amazon API in our next iPhone app about to be released. I guess now we’ll have to stick with the iTunes API only. Too bad for our users, and for Amazon.
I hope those big limitations coming from big ones like Amazon, Twitter are going to stop, or developers will have a hard time developing appealing applications that uses 3rd party API’s.
properity is what propirety does. support linux and android.principles turn in to facsts. open source to freedom
That sucks! Although, I’ve got the iPhone app and it still seems to be working fine. I’m glad I got it before Amazon made them pull it.
This is why I don’t think the whole internet sales thing will work out. I have better luck at the independent book store and organic coffee house up the street from my place. I found a VHS collection of footage from Clinton’s ‘92 Inaugural and a copy of Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors” on cassettee….still in the shrink wrap! Can you find that on Amazon? Didn’t think so…Party On.
So does this apply to Netbooks? Some use cell phone chips now, and certainly qualify as a hand-held device. If not, frankly my iTouch is a Netbook as far as I’m concerned. If this is an attempt to navigate away from some patent (which I’m sure exists), the industry definition of ‘a handhelf device’ has become so blurry that I doubt a case could be won against them.
Very, very odd.
is the Kindle a mobile device?
The Kindle doesn’t run third party apps, so it wouldn’t really matter.
Sounds like Amazon may have an issue with Apple on something.
What a step backwards, Amazon. See, this is why I have limited myself from using some of their services like Amazon FPS or EC2.
time for more public api’s for music and books and everything else for that matter… Amazon does what it wants. we all need to learn this lesson NOW!!!!
FYI – the terms and conditions have prohibited mobile use of the API since 2004. The only change was a without consent clause and link.
Ouch. Amazon were one of the first websites to expose its data through web services. (So long ago that they even thought SOAP had a chance!). I can’t believe Jeff Bezos would support this kind of restriction; hopefully the increased attention will have them re-think this policy.
Amazon can be short sighted here. If you’re a developer looking for great shopping information (such as product info, specs, reviews, pricing), you can strike a partnership with eBay’s Shopping.com (https://partner...hopping.com/app) to get access to their API which contains all that information in a more accessible/open format. There is a built in CPC based revenue model for every merchant lead as well.
Amazon’s data I’ve found to be a little too spotty, and they ultimately want to control everything. So stay away from Amazon and build something cool with Shopping.com’s data.
Quoting Amazon: “It says in our license agreement for that service that developers must first get permission from Amazon Web Services prior to using Amazon ECS in connection with any handheld, mobile, or mobile phone application (see 5.1.4 here).”
Hmmm. Here’s the thing — how do you precisely define ‘mobile’ and ‘handheld’ anymore? Those lines are blurring quickly.
For example, what about netbooks and tablets? Specifically, what about devices such as the CrunchPad?
Not to be trollish here, but on some level, you could argue that’s a handheld/mobile device, right? Is Amazon saying that apps that access the Amazon API from a CrunchPad won’t be allowed? Just saying …
Huh. How about this?
1. gdgt.com open up the product content via api
2. crowdsourcing, Amazon mechanical turk etc to fill up the product content in gdgt.com
3. bye bye amazon api.
you are a funny guy.
I have to wonder what info we’re missing here. If Amazon just sent everyone new agreements saying “no mobile devices” I can’t really believe Delicious wouldn’t just ‘forget’ to read it – especially since the product is already released. I wonder if this was targetted towards Delicious by Amazon, if Delicious has something up it’s sleeve, or something else entirely.
This seems a bit confusing. Does this also kill apps that are redirecting traffic to Amazon, such as ShopSavvy and other apps using the amazon associates API, or is it just for apps “using” their data for information, etc, a la DL?
This is probably related to Amazon’s recent acquisition of CellFire
I also asked amazon for permission to use their api for an iphone app about 2 weeks ago and they gave me the same answer on the same day the delicious library iphone app was shutdown. So I guess they decided to do the enforcing now. They say they are not prepared to give permission at this time.
Amazon is stupid. They should be wanting to drive all the business possible to their site. That they don’t have a clue makes me think the Kindle thing is not a good technology to buy into if they can be so clue-impaired about portable devices and cell phones.
I think I’ll be shopping first elsewhere first, rather than Amazon first as I have been for years.
Amazon is stupid. They should be wanting to drive all the business possible to their site. That they don’t have a clue makes me think the Kindle thing is not a good technology to buy into if they can be so clue-impaired about portable devices and cell phones.
I think I’ll be shopping first elsewhere first, rather than Amazon first as I have been for years.
I had problems using ShopSavvy this weekend. Now I know the reason. Amazon, one short question: What did make your webshop this successfull? Stopping all third-party apps and websites connecting to your data?
Trust takes a long time to be build up again, once it is destroyed. And the developers of mobile apps will remember.
Well if I can’t access any EC2, S3, Cloudfront etc API via my iPhone it would seem to have a very negative effect on AWS usage, which you would think they would want to promote?
Yup. Heaven forfend you want to make an application to manage and check status on your EC2 instances. Looks like Amazon is a very bad choice of company to do your hosting.
My bet is their acquisition of Stanza makes them having to think even more about what to allow for mobile api usage: http://bits.blo...for-the-iphone/
It’s not that this isn’t within Amazon’s prerogative; they can do whatever they want with their API and their store of information.
I do, however, think that part of the reason they’ve been so successful–and people are so willing to contribute to their site in the form of reviews, lists, and all manner of user-generated content–is that they’ve to date been quite open with their policies and access to their content.
They’re also now the 8-ton gorilla of internet shopping, putting them in a situation a little different from most other stores (heck, most of the stuff they now “sell” isn’t even sold by them).
And, frankly, I don’t like this. I just spent $900 on a camera there, but I’m a huge fan of Delicious Library, and I can see no downside to anyone involved whatsoever of their iPhone client (other than Amazon wanting to hoard the mobile space for some as-yet-nonexistent platform). And even though I don’t have an iPhone I’m going to think twice before spending money at Amazon next time.
There aren’t anywhere near enough people like me to make Amazon care, but so be it.
How about this… When a call to the Amazon API for product information is made the API returns the requested product information as well as one or two product recommendations using their existing collaborative filtering mechanism. The terms of use state that the app must display the product recommendations.
That way they monetize the API to a certain extent. Furthermore they could do some kind of revenue share with the app developers.. win win.
nothing special ..same as before.
Trying to understand all the negative comments about this. Let me get this straight, some of you are pissed because (a) Amazon pulled access to free information that they are under no obligation to provide and (b) a useless application whose only conceivably appealing functionality was provided by access to said information?
BOOOOOOOOOO Amazon! Shame on you!
I wonder if it would be possible to rewrite DL to use information from the LoC, Powell’s Books, the aforementioned Glue API, etc?
Amazon are such jerks. I have mobile sites getting 60,000 CLICKS PER MONTH with ZERO SALES and they said it was all on the up and up. BS!
Anyone who wants to build a house on the shifting sands of Amazon is a fool. Just visit their ghosttown boards to see the number of ticked off associates and zero response from the big A’s and you’ll see that Amazon is a terrible place to make a buck.