I figured this could be a nice extra channel to sell our existing Android apps.
About a month ago, as a test, we created a special build of our CLZ Movies app and submitted it to the Amazon Appstore for review. Approval took 2 weeks, but it got approved in one go. So we quickly prepared builds of our other 4 apps and submitted them too, hoping to get them all live before the launch of the Kindle Fire on November 15. We just missed that deadline, but still, on November 17 we received the OK on the other 4 as well.

After which I proudly announced to my Facebook fans that our Android apps were now available for the new Kindle Fire. Some customers had been asking about apps for Kindle Fire, so I told our support guys that they could tell them the happy news.
In the meantime, we had already sold some copies of CLZ Movies through the Amazon Appstore, so things were looking good.

But then we started receiving questions from customers, why they could only find CLZ Movies in the Amazon Appstore on their Kindle Fire device. Huh? All five had been approved so where are the other 4? The Appstore Developer Portal shows no difference in status between the apps, they’re all listed as “Live”.
Andrey Butov, a fellow mobile app developer, had similar results: His app, designed for Kindle Fire only, had been approved but was not available on the Fire, apparently because it had not been specifically approved for Kindle Fire yet.

So I submitted a quick question to Amazon Support, from the Devportal:

All my five apps have been approved, but my customers tell me that only 1 of them (CLZ Movies, the first one that was approved) is available in the Kindle Fire Appstore.
I can’t figure out why my other apps don’t show up on Kindle Fire. I heard that there is a separate approval process for the Fire? Is there anyway I can see the status of that?

Their answer:

Thanks for contacting the Amazon Appstore.
I’ve asked our content team to review your app again for Kindle Fire. Please note, however, that we are considering each app on a case-by-case basis for Kindle Fire and not currently offering all apps in the Amazon Appstore on the device. I will follow up with you once I’ve heard from the content team. Thanks for your patience.

What? Does this mean my apps are not guaranteed to be selected for Kindle Fire? What’s that about? My only reason for submitting my apps to the Amazon Android Appstore is to make them available on Kindle Fire (and I suspect that it’s the same for most developers).

And why is this so unclear? Why not just list the Kindle Fire approval status separately in the Developer Portal. I thought the Android Market Developer admin was clunky, but this is even worse. iTunesConnect suddenly doesn’t look that bad…

Our Collectorz.com online media database systems use Amazon searches as a fallback, only for items that are not in our own databases yet. Users of our Windows or Mac software can use that downloaded data (*possibly* containing Amazon data) for cataloging their CDs, DVDs, books or video games. Then, if they also have our iPhone app, they can export the data to the mobile device. Our iPhone apps do not access the Amazon data feed directly.

But last week, I received an email from Amazon, saying that we must stop using Amazon data in mobile apps, because it is a violation of their agreement. Or else they would turn off our access to the Amazon data feed. So to play it safe, we removed our iPhone apps from the App Store.

What’s Next

Of course, I tried contacting Amazon to discuss the issue, but it took 10 days to get someone on the phone (see below).
In the meantime, I found that Bruji (one of our competitors and the creators of PocketPedia) had received the same email and had an unfruitful phone call with Amazon a couple of days later:

Amazon made it clear that they are not okay with Pocketpedia2, even though it censors their data. We were told that even the most common of attributes, the title, cannot be synced to a mobile device.

That didn’t sound like there was much hope we could modify our iPhone apps to meet Amazon’s demands. So it slowly dawned on me that the only solution would be to stop using the Amazon Product API in all our products. Mobile applications are a big part of Collectorz.com and they are only going to be more important in the future. If we cannot do mobile apps while still using Amazon data, then Amazon will have to go.

So a couple of days after Amazon’s cease and desist email, we started on a huge project: Making Collectorz.com Amazon-Free.

My phone call with Amazon

Finally, last Thursday I was allowed a call with “the powers that be”. Here’s a summary of my conversation with two very reasonable guys at Amazon:

Alwin: What exactly is the nature of the problem, as we are not directly using the Amazon Product API from the iPhone apps?
Amazon: Any usage of Amazon data on mobile devices is not allowed. We can’t tell you why, that is just our policy.

Alwin: No problem, if that is your policy, then we will have to deal with it. So does that mean that the only solution would be to either stop doing mobile applications OR stop using the Product API?
Amazon: We don’t need you to stop doing iPhone applications, but you just cannot use any Amazon data on them.

Alwin: Okay, but then for us, the only solution is to stop using the Amazon Product API altogether. Can you please confirm that once we completely stop using the Amazon Product API, we can put our iPhone apps back in the AppStore?
Amazon: Yes, if you do not use the Amazon Product API anymore, you can put all iPhone apps back into the App Store.

Alwin: Great, good to hear that. Now, would it be possible to address this problem per program? For example, if we stop using the Product API for movies, can we then bring our Clz Movies iPhone app back to the App Store?
Amazon: Yes, that would be possible, but we *will* verify that you are not doing any searches in the Movie category anymore. We can track that on our end. But please make sure that you will stop ALL Product API searches as soon as possible.

Alwin: We will probably be ready to stop Amazon searches for movies and games next week. Implementing alternative sources for books and music will probably take longer, say about six weeks. Is that okay?
Amazon: That is okay.

Alwin: Thank you. Can you please confirm that you will keep our Product Access Key enabled during this period, while we implement alternatives?
Amazon: Yes, we will keep it enabled. As long as you don’t suddenly start doing more searches to populate your own databases. Please know that we will closely monitor your API usage.

Alwin: That will not be problem. You will probably see the number of searches decrease next week, maybe even tomorrow. One final question: would it be possible to re-open our Associates accounts? Our users like getting the Amazon links, so we would like to keep delivering Amazon links in our software and on our website (and of course make some money from the affiliate fees).
Amazon: Yes, we can do that. Please email us with the details and we will re-open them. Also, please email us your plans and planning and keep us posted on your progress.

Alwin: I will.

A good conversation IMO. These guys were very reasonable and clearly willing to help us resolve this problem. I am also happy to receive confirmation that our Amazon-Free strategy is accepted as a good solution and that we can tackle the issue one program at a time.

The Amazon-Free Project

Sooo… we’ve got some work to do… My guess is that the entire Collectorz.com team will be working on this Amazon-Free project for the next couple of weeks at least, probably longer. We will be removing all usage of the Amazon feeds from our online database systems, and replacing it with alternatives where needed.

For Movie Collector and Game Collector, we aim to be Amazon-Free within a week from now. Our online databases for movies and games are pretty complete already, we only used Amazon searches there as a fallback datasource, for barcodes that were not in our own online database yet. We are now adding a couple of freely available lists of DVD and Blu-Ray barcodes. Plus we have implemented a new tool in our content management system that lets our admins spot and add popular missing barcodes with just a few clicks.
If all goes well, I expect to re-launch our iPhone apps for movies and games in about 2 weeks. The Clz Movies app is the most popular by far, so that will return most of the App Store profits as well.

For Music Collector and Book Collector, we are more dependent on Amazon searches. So we will have to add complete alternative sources for barcode lookups and cover images. This will be a lot more work and thus take longer (4 weeks? 6 weeks?).

All other projects we were working on have been put on hold at the moment (Connect editions for music and comics, major upgrades for Movie and Book Collector, small Mac updates, etc….). All of us are working to free Collectorz.com of Amazon.

But can you imagine how happy I am that we started to create our own online media databases 5 years ago? Best idea ever

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. 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 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 about this removal, requesting that they keep our access key enabled and re-open our Associates accounts.
• We have emailed all our existing customers, telling them about the removal of the iPhone apps and the possible disabling of the Amazon searches.

We are not the first: Delicious Library and PocketPedia

I just learned that we are not the first to have our iPhone apps pulled because of using Amazon data. The same thing seems to have happened earlier, to both the Delicious Library iPhone app and the PocketPedia companion app for Bruji’s [..]pedia software.

And now ?….

And now we wait.
Currently our Amazon searches are still working. That’s my biggest concern. Over the years we have build pretty good online media databases of our own, for CDs, movies, books, comics and video games. So our Windows, Mac OS X and online Connect editions will continue to work, even without Amazon data. Maybe with reduced coverage for barcode searches, but even that is something we can improve on (with a lot of manual labour).

As for our iPhone apps.. Well, it was fun while it lasted. Maybe we can bring them back later, modified to never use Amazon data or images.

Anyway, I will keep you posted on the developments.