Amazon Web Service

[Lost Highway]

Hi,

maybe someone of you can give me a helping hand to reactivate my Amazon Information Data Base in Germany.
I can't find the entrance to the "Amazon Web Services", so I'm not able to download German CD and Movie informations with my new 5.0 Version.

TX 4 your help

Lost Highway

[Lost Highway]

Hi,

as far as I can see, Amazon want me to send them my Credit Card Informations to allow me to use their service.
I won't do that! How can I downgrate back to Version 4.XX ?

TX for an information.
Lost Highway

[Nora]

Do you have an account with Amazon DE, to purchase books etc. from their website? If so, go to this site and enter that email address and password to sign in. You should not be asked for any credit card information but instead see a page where you can see your access key and secret key, as shown here.

If that is not the case for you, can you please send me the URL or a screenshot of the page you're taken to so we can check that out here? Thanks.

Before you downgrade back to version 4.6.8, have you tried some of the other search options such as MusicBrainz, Wikipedia and IMDb? You can select which search site to use in the search window by clicking on the little magnifying glass in the search field.

[Lost Highway]

Hi Nora,

I checked MusicBrainz, Wikipedia etc. but they doesn't work well for the German market. IMDb gives me all informations but on the base of the English versions (wrong cover, all informations in English).
Amazon: Yes I have an account and I checked in first and went to Amazon Web Service. Then I have to put all my datas in again and after that I have to give my credit card informations to them (I didn't do it). My personal data's were sent to the States (for what reason ever...) and I couldn't stop these transaction.

By the way: Now I understand the idea of doghouse but I'm not well informed about the laws and rules in England but you are not allowed to use pictures are discriptions from other people without their permission in Germany. I'm not talking about the cdpedia users, but about the people who wrote the original words about the CD's and the photographer of the pictures of the covers. As an example: I sent some CD's from "the Runaways" to doghouse. The pictures are from Amazon AND from the Web. It's the same story with the CD discriptions: They are from Wikipedia, from "Babyblaue Seiten", from "Rock hard" and some more Webpages.
You can delete this info - if you think it's important for you but not for the community at this time. If I'm wrong - fine 4 us all

CUsoon Highway

[Bobo]

Hi!
I did the registration-process for the two Amazon-services right now.
I think the problem is, that you have to change the location to your country (in your case to germany) and than create your accounts.
I did it a few minutes ago and gave no bank or credit informations.

Also auf deutsch @Lost Highway:
Man muss auf den Seiten darauf achten, dass man die deutschen Services benutzt und auf deutsche Landeseinstellungen wechseln. Alles in Allem ist der Prozess aber meiner Meinung nach ziemlich aufwändig. Insbesondere das Erstellen der Partner-ID! Hier muss man diverse Informationen für Statistikzwecke (und eine URL mit der man Amazon verlinken will) angeben. Alles in Allem erscheint mir der Wechsel auf die 5er-Version insgesamt ein Rückschritt in der Benutzerfreundlichkeit zu sein. Ich nutze CD- und DVD-Pedia seit Version 2.0 und hatte nie so einen Aufwand.
Offensichtlich spielen hier aber rechtliche Probleme zu diesem Aufwand (oder habe ich das falsch verstanden?).

Bei mir funktioniert die Amazon-Suche nun wieder!
Viel Erfolg!

Mit einem Gruß,
Peter.

[Lost Highway]

Hallo Peter,

ich sehe das genau wie Du. Im Grunde geht es für Amazon jetzt um das Abschöpfen von Daten. Ich bin jedenfalls auf die alte Version zurückgekehrt.
Trotzdem bleibt meines Erachtens für Bruji immer noch das Problem der Foto- und Textrechte von den Daten , die die die Einzelnen auf Doghouse veröffentlichen.
Gut, mit der 4er Version kann ich mich eh nicht mehr beteiligen.

Setzt Du denn jetzt die 5er Version ein?

CUsoon Highway

[Lost Highway]

A short translation from my posting:
At the end Amazon is only interested in collecting data's from the users. That's the reason why I downsized back to V.4.
At the end I can't support the doghouse.
But there is still the problem with the picture rights...

CUall Highway

[Bobo]

Setzt Du denn jetzt die 5er Version ein?
CUsoon Highway

Ja, mache ich!
Ich habe schon zu große Änderungen an meinen Datenbanken in der 5er Version vorgenommen und möchte das nicht noch einmal alles machen müssen...

English: Yes, I will!
I did too many changes in my data bases. I don't wanna do that again.

cu
Peter

[Nora]

@Lost Highway - The reason we've moved the Amazon searches to be a sign up option rather than an incorporated one is because we've had several issues with their services in the past, most importantly regarding our iPhone app which we had to remove from the App Store twice because of complaints from Amazon. With this new system, those issues will hopefully be taken care of for good.
Another reason for this is also that users now get the commissions on sales made through Amazon instead of us since it's your associate ID in the program and not ours. (This is independent of where you are located. You can sign up for an associate ID with Amazon DE as well.)
Regarding your copyright questions on Doghouse - please read our Doghouse Policy for more information.

[brainpedia]

Hi,
I do not know whether the bruji folks appreciate my suggestion but anyway here it is:
You can register with amazon with a fake account (spambog mail adress).
It could be wise to fire up a different browser than the one you use for amazon purchases (in case you do that) to avoid cookie confusion.
Using your new account you can set up your web services information. Although bookpedia requires you to type in an associate ID you actually do not need a valid one one as long as you do not want to buy via amazon. So you don't have to register with the associate web site.
In bookpedia's amazon settings, type in your Access Key, Secret Key, and ANYTHING in the field "Associate ID".
You can now search amazon from bookpedia (but not buy).
So with these settings amazon will still track your searches but they cannot connect them easily to your real account where your real name, address etc is persisted. On the long run they can make an educated guess that bookpedia user x is amazon user y using ip numbers and stuff but they actually cannot be sure.

Best regards
b

[dedlock]

I have gone through the rather complicated process that allows me to continue to use your program with Amazon, but I am astonished that you forced your customers to do this unless Amazon somehow made it compulsory for your customers to sign up. The best thing about your program is the ability to easily import data from Amazon. None of the other databases are worth a damn. So making it difficult for your customers to use the best feature of your program looks like business suicide to me.

Plus, you should have revealed in advance that this is a feature of the latest version of your program. I would never have upgraded if I had known.

MOS

[Bobo]

I completely agree with dedlock!

Peter

[Nora]

@dedlock and bobo - Thank you for your feedback. The Amazon change was not something we undertook lightly but in order to be able to bring back our iPhone app this is the only option we found. I'm sorry to hear you don't find any of the other databases useful. Most of the new sites, such as Wikipedia and Freebase, are content driven rather than sales oriented which means for example they will have every single Harry Potter movie listed but not the 8-DVD box set.
That's the bridge we're working on building with Doghouse, the Pedias own new database. Since it is still in its infant shoes, having only just been launched together with version 5, there is still some way to go until the database will be able to match others in size but the contributions from early adopters of version 5 have been great and the database continues to grow.

As for not warning our users about this change - it is listed in the release notes (quite prominently in the one that appears when the program announces the update) but I'm sorry if we weren't clear enough about the changes.

Have you checked out this blog post about the new search sites? Maybe you can learn a few new things about the sites and the way the new search feature works that'll improve your opinion.

If you'd like to return to version 4 while we continue to improve the search, you're obviously welcome to do so. You can download the old version of the programs here: DVDpedia, Bookpedia, CDpedia, Gamepedia

Make sure after you downgrade to version 4.6.8 you delete the data file for version 5 (Database.*pd) so that if you ever do decide to update, the program will be forced to do this from your 4.6.8 file. You will find the file in the Pedia data folders, located in your Home folder under ~/Library/Application Support/

If you're on Lion, it hides the Library folder by default so to go to your Pedia data folder you have to use the Finder's 'Go' menu, select 'Go to Folder' and copy paste ~/Library/Application Support/ into the window that appears.

[Bobo]

Dear Nora,
thank you for your detailed answer and hints.
I think the problem is, that every user prefers localized descriptions.
All the other databases are in english! No problem for most people of the world...
Amazon is in many different languages available and this is the point, I guess.

On the other hand I#m looking forward for your iPhone/iPad/iPod app.
In my case, until 4.x.x of the Pedias the iPhone app worked fine (it was Version 1, I never recognized a second version).

Have a nice day,
Peter.

[kent]

I agree with deadlock, If you happen to live in State which Amazon will not allow yo to sign up you waste money on upgrade