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Topic: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle (Read 1295 times) |
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Walter Watts
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Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle
« on: 2009-07-19 01:26:11 » |
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The New York Times
July 18, 2009
Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle
By BRAD STONE
In George Orwell’s “1984,” government censors erase all traces of news articles embarrassing to Big Brother by sending them down an incineration chute called the “memory hole.”
On Friday, it was “1984” and another Orwell book, “Animal Farm,” that were dropped down the memory hole — by Amazon.com.
In a move that angered customers and generated waves of online pique, Amazon remotely deleted some digital editions of the books from the Kindle devices of readers who had bought them.
An Amazon spokesman, Drew Herdener, said in an e-mail message that the books were added to the Kindle store by a company that did not have rights to them, using a self-service function. “When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers’ devices, and refunded customers,” he said.
Amazon effectively acknowledged that the deletions were a bad idea. “We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances,” Mr. Herdener said.
Customers whose books were deleted indicated that MobileReference, a digital publisher, had sold them. An e-mail message to SoundTells, the company that owns MobileReference, was not immediately returned.
Digital books bought for the Kindle are sent to it over a wireless network. Amazon can also use that network to synchronize electronic books between devices — and apparently to make them vanish.
An authorized digital edition of “1984” from its American publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, was still available on the Kindle store Friday night, but there was no such version of “Animal Farm.”
People who bought the rescinded editions of the books reacted with indignation, while acknowledging the literary ironies involved. “Of all the books to recall,” said Charles Slater, an executive with a sheet-music retailer in Philadelphia, who bought the digital edition of “1984” for 99 cents last month. “I never imagined that Amazon actually had the right, the authority or even the ability to delete something that I had already purchased.”
Antoine Bruguier, an engineer in Silicon Valley, said he had noticed that his digital copy of “1984” appeared to be a scan of a paper edition of the book. “If this Kindle breaks, I won’t buy a new one, that’s for sure,” he said.
Amazon appears to have deleted other purchased e-books from Kindles recently. Customers commenting on Web forums reported the disappearance of digital editions of the Harry Potter books and the novels of Ayn Rand over similar issues.
Amazon’s published terms of service agreement for the Kindle does not appear to give the company the right to delete purchases after they have been made. It says Amazon grants customers the right to keep a “permanent copy of the applicable digital content.”
Retailers of physical goods cannot, of course, force their way into a customer’s home to take back a purchase, no matter how bootlegged it turns out to be. Yet Amazon appears to maintain a unique tether to the digital content it sells for the Kindle.
“It illustrates how few rights you have when you buy an e-book from Amazon,” said Bruce Schneier, chief security technology officer for British Telecom and an expert on computer security and commerce. “As a Kindle owner, I’m frustrated. I can’t lend people books and I can’t sell books that I’ve already read, and now it turns out that I can’t even count on still having my books tomorrow.”
Justin Gawronski, a 17-year-old from the Detroit area, was reading “1984” on his Kindle for a summer assignment and lost all his notes and annotations when the file vanished. “They didn’t just take a book back, they stole my work,” he said.
On the Internet, of course, there is no such thing as a memory hole. While the copyright on “1984” will not expire until 2044 in the United States, it has already expired in other countries, including Canada, Australia and Russia. Web sites in those countries offer digital copies of the book free to all comers.
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Walter Watts
Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
No one gets to see the Wizard! Not nobody! Not no how!
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MoEnzyme
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infidel lab animal
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Re:Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle
« Reply #1 on: 2009-07-19 16:34:41 » |
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When we are lucky the truth is funnier than fiction.
For any truly missing their George Orwell fix, Hermit has provided a useful set of links.
http://www.churchofvirus.org/bbs/index.php?board=57;action=display;threadid=42988
If there were any real teeth in this erasure it would be horrifying, but since George Orwell has more memetic immortality than Amazon or Kindle can hope for in their grandest wet dreams, its merely humerous, and one would hope for their sakes humiliating. -- I mean f@(&!! I was raised in Texas public schools and even I know better. This is simply embarassing stupidity on the part of any organization as large as Amazon and Kindle. While I hate to be the one saying it in these hard times, someone should lose their job over this. Seriously . . . we are talking about the market that actually reads books . . . old books even! If these folks can't keep up with even the marginally educated, then they've certainly lost their economic edge. Give some of the underemployed and over-educated a fresh job, y'all dumbasses!! Kick whatever nepotistic stupid relatives you are protecting to curb! Give real competence a chance or get out of the way before you further ebarass y'all'selves.
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I will fight your gods for food,
Mo Enzyme
(consolidation of handles: Jake Sapiens; memelab; logicnazi; Loki; Every1Hz; and Shadow)
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Hermit
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Re:Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle
« Reply #2 on: 2009-09-07 02:33:49 » |
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Amazon offers to replace deleted copies of 1984
[ Hermit : If anyone had been hesitating between a $300 Kindle that can display expensive books from Amazon until they are deleted on an idiotic whim (stupid, thoughtless and painfully out of line with our principles) or a linux palmtop that can do most jobs a PC can do, including displaying video, reading Google's on-line library and potentially hosting tens of thousands of free books for less money, would this make up their minds? ]
Source: Reuters
Authors: Alexei Oreskovic (Reporting), Carol Bishopric (editing)
Dated: 2009-09-05
Amazon.com Inc said it would replace copies of digital books that it purposefully deleted from its customers' electronic readers this summer, as the online retailer sought to make amends for the controversial incident.
In an email to the affected customers on Thursday, Amazon said it would provide owners of its Kindle electronic book reader with new copies of the George Orwell novels 1984 and Animal Farm for no charge.
Amazon said customers could also choose to receive a $30 gift certificate or check instead.
The email also contained a copy of the apology that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made in July, in which he called the company's deletion of the books "stupid, thoughtless and painfully out of line with our principles." [ Hermit : Well, Duh!]
In July, Amazon acknowledged that it had deleted the Orwell e-books from the Kindles of an undisclosed number of owners. Amazon said it deleted the books because it learned an outside company had added the books to Amazon's catalog but the outside company did not have the rights to sell them.
The move triggered a wave of criticism on the Internet, and Amazon was sued by a high-school student who said Amazon deleted his copy of 1984 and the "copious notes" he had taken on the book.
Amazon's email on Thursday said that the company would replace the deleted books along with any annotations made by customers.
Amazon spokesman Andrew Herdener said the move was unrelated to the lawsuit, and said the company does not comment on active litigation.
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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Mermaid
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Bite me!
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Re:Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle
« Reply #3 on: 2009-09-08 16:47:30 » |
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look...i know this incident ought to make amazon/kindle hang their heads in shame, but i wouldnt go boycotting the kindle. i have it. i thought long and hard before buying it. it is nothing short of fantastic. does it have 'issues'? yes. but i have always had great regard for bezos. i think amazon.com is genius. not just the concept of it, but the way the website is structured and their one-click. they were literally pioneers during the e-commerce infant days. recently i heard that they have taken over webvan. i was in the bay area during the dot fuck times and saw webvan(another genius idea that withered, but didnt deserve to die) kick the bucket. needless to say, i trust that man blindly. in my opinion he can do no wrong. did amazon fuck up with 1984. yes. but i wouldnt discount kindle.
buy it. it'll probably get cheaper in a couple of years, but the joy of reading from a kindle literally gives me goosebumps.
remember neal stepenson's diamond age? kindle will be going in that direction in the near future. just you wait and watch.
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Walter Watts
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Re:Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle
« Reply #4 on: 2009-09-08 20:09:12 » |
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Quote from: Mermaid on 2009-09-08 16:47:30
look...i know this incident ought to make amazon/kindle hang their heads in shame, but i wouldnt go boycotting the kindle. i have it. i thought long and hard before buying it. it is nothing short of fantastic. does it have 'issues'? yes. but i have always had great regard for bezos. i think amazon.com is genius. not just the concept of it, but the way the website is structured and their one-click. they were literally pioneers during the e-commerce infant days. recently i heard that they have taken over webvan. i was in the bay area during the dot fuck times and saw webvan(another genius idea that withered, but didnt deserve to die) kick the bucket. needless to say, i trust that man blindly. in my opinion he can do no wrong. did amazon fuck up with 1984. yes. but i wouldnt discount kindle.
buy it. it'll probably get cheaper in a couple of years, but the joy of reading from a kindle literally gives me goosebumps.
remember neal stepenson's diamond age? kindle will be going in that direction in the near future. just you wait and watch.
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My sentiments exactly Mermaid.
Been reading from my Kindle for a little over a year now and loving it. Especially the free, lifetime cellular broadband internet connection (Whispernet) that comes with it.
Plus, with a little research and tinkering, you can find the most unusual things available for it: 
Walter
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Walter Watts
Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
No one gets to see the Wizard! Not nobody! Not no how!
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Hermit
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Re:Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle
« Reply #5 on: 2009-10-20 20:44:04 » |
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B&N's Nook Is A Kindle Killer: 5 Reasons Why
[ Hermit : For those who don't prefer to carry a Linux notepad, here may be a viable alternative to the Kindle. The combination of WiFi, MicroSD and access to public domain books would do it for me - only for all of the reasons already mentioned, a notecard computer appeals more. ]
Source: PC World
Authors: David Coursey
Dated: 2009-10-20
Barnes & Noble's new Nook e-reader is the e-reader that competitors must now beat. So long Kindle 2, it was nice knowing you, but a better reader has come along. And just in time for the holidays, too.
If Amazon doesn't have a new model up its sleeve, it will be a Merry Christmas at B&N and a sack of coal for Amazon.
Here's why:[1.] Better Hardware: The Nook starts with specifications that closely match the Kindle 2, including the $259 price. Exclusive Nook hardware features include a Micro SD slot, supplementing the 2GB built-in memory and Wi-Fi to supplement AT&T 3G connectivity. (Kindle uses Sprint, lacks Wi-Fi). While standby battery life is shorter than the Kindle (10 days vs. 14 days), the Nook battery is removable and replaceable--the Kindle's is not.
[2.] Color Display: Below the main 6-inch "reader display" is a 3.5-inch multi-touch color display, used for control and navigation. (Replacing the Kindle's keyboard).
[3.] More Books: B&N offers more titles than Amazon, plus the Nook can access 500,000 public domain titles from Google that are not available to Kindle users. The Nook will load and read Adobe Acrobat PDF documents, which the Kindle does not do.
[4.] Loan-able e-Books: Nook users can loan their e-books for 14 days at a time to other Nook owners as well as iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry, and PC devices (Mac and Windows) running free B&N reader software.
[5.] Storefronts: Potential customers can try out a Nook at their local B&N store, making it easier for the undecided to make a purchase decision. The stores will also offer special Nook content, including the ability to read entire books in-store for free.
[6.] Android: (Bonus reason) The Nook is an Android device. I am not sure that matters today, except for "cool factor" but it may be important in the future.
The Nook is the first e-reader I've had any interest in purchasing. As soon as it arrives at the B&N over at the mall, I may just give-in.
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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