possibly removing amazon API support

[Pau Garcia i Quiles]

Hello,

It would be a real pity if Amazon support was removed. It's the most
useful service to me, as it provides covers for the books, movies,
etc.

On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 5:32 AM, Robby Stephenson<robby at periapsis.org> wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> Amazon.com has renamed their web services API to "Product Advertising API"
> and has introduced a requirement to encrypt and sign all search requests.
> You can read some more info at
> http://affiliate-blog.amazon.com/2009/05/attention-amazon-associates-web-
> service-developers.html
>
> Essentially, you work up the REST query as usual, then use a secret key to
> sign it with SHA-256 encryption or something. I've worked up an update to
> Tellico that seems to work with the new method, but basically, you're not
> supposed to distribute your secret key at all.
>
> As of August 15, 2009, all searches using the old method will stop working.
> That is, all versions of Tellico will stop working with amazon search on
> that day. That's the first thing.
>
> Second, Tellico has always been a bit in the grey area in terms of the API
> terms of service. You probably notice that there's always a link back to
> amazon in the search results. That's part of the terms of service. The terms
> have also been updated, and they're a bit more stringent. I'm not sure I can
> truthfully say that Tellico would not cross the line somehow. One of the
> requirements is that the principal task of the app is marketing amazon
> products. Yup...
>
> Third, it's pretty clear that even if the Terms of Service allowed it,
> they're pretty clear about not distributing your secret key. So I guess I
> could allow ever user to register for their own key (which is free), but I
> don't know if that is really a solution.
>
> So, I'm considering removing the Amazon API support altogether. Drastic, I
> know. Any comments?
>
> I don't know how other applications like Delicious Library plan to deal with
> the change. I wish I did...
>
> Robby
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>



-- 
Pau Garcia i Quiles
http://www.elpauer.org
(Due to my workload, I may need 10 days to answer)