Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

We've read at least one, and we'll prove it!
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HARDKORE
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Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

Post by HARDKORE »

This happened a few weeks ago. I was talking to some of the guys from quake. They had not herd it. I figured i would share. Below is something from the new york times.

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The New York Times writer Brad Stone wrote: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People who bought the rescinded editions of the books reacted with indignation, while acknowledging the literary ironies involved.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 Canadia, Australia and Russia. Web sites in those countries offer digital copies of the book free to all comers.
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Re: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

Post by Oldrac the Chitinous »

Aw, I was hoping this all happened today, on Ray Bradbury's birthday.
That would have been spectacular.

I am pretty amused anyway.
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Re: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

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This is one of many reasons why I hate digital purchases. There's no protection for the buyer. DRM is a crock of shite in the first place, in my opinion, but this is an entirely new level of nonsense.

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Re: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

Post by AHMETxRock »

I read this article. It is ironic, and it's really funny. In 1984 our main character worked for a department that altered history. Facts were taken and changed, and were forever different. The newer generation had such bad memory as to be unable to recall anything to the contrary, and were conditioned and brainwashed never to question what they were told was fact.

The irony is of course, how a book that existed ceasing to exist for these kindle owners. While the Kindle itself has crappy service and is still relatively expensive, it has the potential to drastically overtake the usage of books. I believe you can remember a time when libraries insisted on teaching the card catalog rather than using the computer search system, right? Or when teachers demanded a written essay rather than a typed one? Perhaps we can broaden the focus for the skeptics. Perhaps we could mention how many people would rather drive their cars down 5 blocks to the store rather than walk? How more and more people prefer to use digital cameras and print their photographs, rather than get them developed (or, way way back, use Polaroids)?

In ten or twenty years, books can be an antique in our modern society mindset! Of course there will always be those that will hold on to the book in the face of technology, just like there will be those that refuse to be fricken idiots in the face of American PolicyTyranny, but your all stupid and I hate you.
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Re: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

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It's not as if downloading free .pdfs contributes to The Man's tyranny over humanity, it's the aspect of control that flips me off. I don't see anything wrong with eBooks whatsoever until something like this happens. I'm not offended at all by the increasing use of technology (except using a car to travel 5 blocks, which is just lazy). In fact, I hate hand-writing essays; it's clumsy and none of my teachers could read my handwriting, and my hands cramp up extremely quickly and painfully when writing, which is why I only use paper for short, personal notes. In that respect this excess of technology has done nothing but good for me. It only bothers me to know how easily someone can control the digital medium like this, but then again it's the same thing as a police state anyway; which is why the parallel to 1984 even comes up.

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Re: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

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This made me think of something. Do we read the terms of use or do most of of just click yes and go on with it.

I dont have one of those. Dont see the need to get one. I hate to read anymore. Its all the same thing just with different peoples names.
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Re: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

Post by Edminster »

Oh shit yeah, I read the Terms of Use and the various EULAs. In fact, I'm pretty certain that the SMBC Forum's Terms of Use are non-binding, as it does not specify what you are accessing.
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Re: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

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You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any laws be it of your country, the country where “” is hosted or International Law
I am sure the dream police look after that one.




I looked at a few internet videos on this. The student is sueing them. He says he dont want no money, he just wants to set precedent.
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Re: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

Post by Edminster »

HARDKORE wrote:I hate to read anymore. Its all the same thing just with different peoples names.
If you're looking at the New York Times bestseller list, or Oprah's book club, or other things that are being read because they are 'popular', I agree with you.
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Re: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

Post by Kimra »

I believe 1984 is a cut above the rest. And that's all I'm saying on the topic of the importance of stories and books.*

*bloody English major could go on for hours and still no-ones going to pay much attention to the ramble... it's almost like religion you have your belief and it doesn't matter what other people say because it's not going to suddenly change.
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Re: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

Post by GreenCrayon »

Kimra wrote:And that's all I'm saying
Do you not find the concept of self-censorship a little jarring, given the topic at hand?
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Re: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

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GreenCrayon wrote:
Kimra wrote:And that's all I'm saying
Do you not find the concept of self-censorship a little jarring, given the topic at hand?
Self-censorship is all very well when there are no rules saying I have to do it. It's a freedom of expression. I choose not to express myself. If someone had a gun to my head and a constant camera on me saying 'you can't say that' then I'd probably find it jarring.
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Re: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

Post by GreenCrayon »

Kimra wrote:If someone had a gun to my head and a constant camera on me saying 'you can't say that' then I'd probably find it jarring.
I think I would too, on general principal.
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Re: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

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GreenCrayon wrote:I think I would too, on general principal.
Glad to see we're on the same page.
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Re: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

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Kimra wrote:Glad to see we're on the same page.
Only for one more post, which I've just claimed.
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