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Doubleplusungood: That Copy Of 1984 On Your Kindle Is Now Gone
Techdirt —
... and should never have existed in the first place. So, like the war with Eurasia, the book is now just a figment of your imagination. You never had it. At least Amazon refunded the money, but what kind of book do you buy that gets automatically disappeared? eBooks are an interesting concept, but how can anyone buy into something where their books might suddenly disappear? Update: The NY Times is now reporting that Amazon says it will change its system so that, in the future, books won't be deleted. However, that's not making many customers happy. They ...
Amazon Big Brother deletes Kindle books
Techradar - All the latest technology news —
... The Kindle versions of Animal Farm and 1984 were, apparently, surreptitiously deleted over the air from the Kindles of anyone who bought them in the US. ...
Amazon takes a page from 1984, deletes Orwell books from Kindles
TG Daily —
... media reports, Amazon, erased George Orwells Animal Farm and 1984 from Kindle ebook readers and reimbursed customers for the purchase price. The company said the move was necessary as soon as it had learned that a company that had no distribution right had added the ebook versions to its store. 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, Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener told the New York Times. However, Amazon now thinks that the deletions were a bad idea: We ...
Amazon on the Orwellian episode: We’ll stop the Big Bro Act
TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home —
... books from customers’ devices in these circumstances."
Now an EFF lawyer is wondering if the FTC will be interested. High time, damn it! We’ve been saying as much for months. DRMed books are a consumer rip-off, pure and simple—“sold” when actually they’re licensed subject to the whims of publishers, retailers and others.
Image: Poster promoting a film adaptation of 1984.
Related: New York Times, Register, Baltimore Sun, Ars Technica, ...
Turns out not all Kindle owners had their Orwell books deleted
bookofjoe —
... The penny just dropped. Yes, Amazon deleted "1984" and "Animal Farm" Friday. But the Kindle only works in areas of the U.S. covered by Amazon's Whispernet. So Amazon couldn't have deleted those two books from Kindles which at the time of the deletion were outside those coverage areas, including every other country in the world. I wonder if when those owners reenter a Kindle coverage zone the books will be deleted or if it was a one-time signal, apparently not to be repeated ever again, according to Brad ...
Double Plus Ungoods: Amazon Unpublishes Orwell
TidBITS: Mac News for the Rest of Us —
... Amazon ripped two George Orwell books, their hearts still beating, from the Kindles of its customers. Reaction to the move provoked a firestorm of opinion related to ownership and permission, and Amazon swore off deleting customers' content from the Kindle again. However, the firm also found itself in an awkward position, one which most reports seem to have ignored or glossed over. ...
Zittrain’s Pessimistic Predictions and Problematic Prescriptions for the Net
Technology Liberation Front —
... Now, do companies make mistakes? Of course they do. All the time, in fact. Amazon’s bone-headed book deletion this week is the latest exhibit. But people learn from these things. And companies do as well. Things evolve. Companies correct their mistakes or people bolt. AOL lost 20 million paying customers and a billions in market share in the span of just a few years. Time Warner is still cursing the day they made that deal and has now ...
Amazon Chief Says Erasing Orwell Books Was 'Stupid'
Bits —
... last week for deleting electronic copies of George Orwell’s novels from its customers’ Kindle readers after it discovered it had inadvertently sold unauthorized editions of the books. On Thursday, Amazon’s chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, ...
Amazon CEO apology: 'Stupid,' 'thoughtless' to remove e-books from Kindle readers
Between the Lines —
... of popular George Orwell novels 1984 and Animal Farm— yes, the irony was immediately apparent — after it determined that it sold them without authorization to customers. Though Amazon provided refunds, ...
Amazon Apologizes For Its 'Big Brother' Move on Kindle
Switched —
... move, no doubt, especially because no one was informed of the invasion of privacy -- and customers thought the reclaimed content had been legally purchased. Amazon did issue refunds, but the blogosphere earlier this month took the story up en masse. Customers, feeling betrayed, came out of the woodwork to express their frustration. Charles Slater, an exec with a Philadelphia sheet-music company, told the New York Times, "I never imagined that Amazon actually had the right, the authority or even the ability to delete something that I had already purchased." ...
DRM, Orwellian book zaps and e-formats: Will the press TRULY grasp the importance of the book ownership?
TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home —
... Unwittingly, Amazon may have helped the pro-ownership case when it remotely zapped 1984 and Animal Farm from the Kindles of purchasers. That wasn’t really DRM. But it heighted awareness of the ownership issue. Now the ...
The 600-pound gorilla of e-books: Tech company, retailer or others? Or no one in particular? Best choice!
TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home —
... For now, publishing is horridly dysfunctional. But do we really need a 600-pound corporate gorilla to cure it? I’d hope not. Amazon’s Orweilian episode and ...
Why the Kindle 2 is a useless plastic slab for me—and many others with disabilities
TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home —
... Something is missing—notably an SD card slot, for people who want to expand local storage space for e-books. Amazon’s deletion of some customers’ already-bought books should make wise users miss the SD card slot, even if they can use USB connections for sending books to and from PCs or Macs. ...
Microsoft to Delete Apps on Windows Mobile Devices Banned from Market
IntoMobile - Cell Phone News, Information, and Analysis —
... You thought Amazon was bad with the Kindle? Well, it sounds like Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) will be retaining the right to remotely delete Windows Mobile applications that were downloaded through the Marketplace, but were consequently banned. This isn’t just a good recipe for irate customers, but also developers who are spending $99 for five app submissions, plus extra for international submissions. Of course, we don’t know how often that will happen in practice, since we’re waiting on the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, but if a remote kill switch ...
YouTube Readying to Take on iTunes
Mac|Life all RSS Feed —
... In comparison, iTunes offers you the ability to transfer your programs,
once
downloaded physically to your hard drive, to various Apple devices, and
Amazon lets you move programs to your Tivo. Content purchased on iTunes
remains the property
of the purchaser (which might not necessarily be the case with
Amazon...Orwell,
anyone?). Whether or not users, who've become accustomed to either free
videos or outright ownership, are willing to pay for something as
tenuous as streaming rights remains to be seen. ...
All signs point towards the e-reader: Kindle is the most gifted item in Amazon's history
Core77 —
... Despite hiccups earlier this year concerning the privacy of its users and their ownership of digital material, the Kindle pulled through, becoming the most gifted item ever in the history of Amazon. Though we don't have an exact figure, think of the most popular item you could imagine being gifted from Amazon (iPod Touches, Garmin Nuvis, Twilight) and Kindle has sold more. ...
