Answers.Body: <p>I am not aware of any Amazon or other usage policy regulating the use of this file.</p>
  
  <p>The highlights are excerpts (quotes) from the book's content, so the copyright to those excerpts belongs to whoever owns the copyright of the <em>content</em> of the book.</p>
  
  <p>However, in most jurisdictions there are exceptions to copyright law that let you do a lot with quotes/excerpts without breaking the law  (e.g. fair use in the USA, fair dealing in the Commonwealth area, private use exception in the EU, etc.).</p>
  
  <p>This means that while the contents of the clippings file does not <em>belong</em> to you, you can do <em>almost</em> anything you can imagine with it for your own personal use.  However, you do not have the right to <em>republish</em> your clippings (e.g.: "Clippings from XYZ selected by magicbirth") as an ebook or physical book.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-01-30T21:57:42.887Z
Answers.Text: Also see the Kindle Terms of Service: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200506200
  
  Gisle Hannemyr's answer about excerpts and their fair use is essentially correct, so please mark it as accepted.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Alberto Pettarin
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2014-01-14T00:47:26.080Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2014-01-14T16:04:19.253Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2014-01-14T16:04:19.253Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Free Radical
Body: <p>I read all sort of things on my kindle, not only ebooks bought on Amazon, so often I want to get hold of the highlights and use them as notes or memories of what I've read (think there are online apps that let you do that too).</p>
  
  <p>So I was wondering: in principle, do the contents of that file belong to me and can be used at my own discretion, or by accessing it I break some of the Amazon's rules?  </p>
  
Tags: <kindle><amazon><copyright><tos>
Title: Would extracting the Kindle highlights from the 'my clippings' file break some usage policy?
UserDisplayName: magicrebirth
ThreadText: # Would extracting the Kindle highlights from the 'my clippings' file break some usage policy?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2014-01-11)
  
  I read all sort of things on my kindle, not only ebooks bought on Amazon, so often I want to get hold of the highlights and use them as notes or memories of what I've read (think there are online apps that let you do that too).
  
  So I was wondering: in principle, do the contents of that file belong to me and can be used at my own discretion, or by accessing it I break some of the Amazon's rules?
  
  **Tags:** kindle, amazon, copyright, tos
  
  
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  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2014-01-14. Score: 8
  
  I am not aware of any Amazon or other usage policy regulating the use of this file.
  
  The highlights are excerpts (quotes) from the book's content, so the copyright to those excerpts belongs to whoever owns the copyright of the *content* of the book.
  
  However, in most jurisdictions there are exceptions to copyright law that let you do a lot with quotes/excerpts without breaking the law (e.g. fair use in the USA, fair dealing in the Commonwealth area, private use exception in the EU, etc.).
  
  This means that while the contents of the clippings file does not *belong* to you, you can do *almost* anything you can imagine with it for your own personal use. However, you do not have the right to *republish* your clippings (e.g.: "Clippings from XYZ selected by magicbirth") as an ebook or physical book.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_2**: Also see the Kindle Terms of Service: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200506200  Gisle Hannemyr's answer about excerpts and their fair use is essentially correct, so please mark it as accepted.  
  
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