Amazon deletes George Orwell books from users' Kindles

[apfhex]

From NY Times (Pouge's Posts blog) VIA Daring Fireball (link):

This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned.

But no, apparently the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic edition, and apparently Amazon, whose business lives and dies by publisher happiness, caved. It electronically deleted all books by this author from people’s Kindles and credited their accounts for the price.

The really crazy part?

The author who was the victim of this Big Brotherish plot was none other than George Orwell. And the books were "1984" and "Animal Farm."

Glad Apple hasn't used their kill swtich on any App Store apps thus far (still rockin' Tris on my iPhone).

 

[theBB]

I've seen the news on another obscure non-tech blog. I am surprised that it did not make bigger news. I guess Kindle overall does not matter to readers of most news websites.

In any case, both Kindle and iTunes movie sales suffer from the same problem. There is not much of a point in them. The only advantage is the size. You don't have to depend on and store and carry books or DVDs. Good, but then you get a lot more restrictions. You cannot lend or sell them due to the encryption. Of course, there some strange issues that come up like this from time to time as well. That reduces their value even in a financial sense significantly.

iTunes Music is different. It gives you the freedom to own the songs you like at a much reduced price as you do not have to pay for the rest of the album. iTunes and iPod also allows you to make your own playlists or to shuffle them. Add in the podcasts and no wonder these new electronic movie or book store are not very successful.

 

[cycocelica]

Everyone likes to believe that the RIAA and the MPAA are stringent about technology and stuck in the past. Little do we forget that publishers are worse.

What a terrible, terrible move on both Apple and the publisher. Why would you ever do this? Way to guarantee it so people won't buy the Kindle.

 

[gkarris]

THIS IS THE DRM EVERYONE'S WORRIED ABOUT...

Imagine Apple or a studio deciding that a certian TV show or movie will no longer be available on your computer. The show is deleted from your iTunes (or Apple device) and your iTunes account credited....

Have fun....

(that's why I ultimately prefer the DVD - even Blu-ray is subject to DRM by checking the network first to see if the disc is to be played on the player...)

 

[Ntombi]

Everyone likes to believe that the RIAA and the MPAA are stringent about technology and stuck in the past. Little do we forget that publishers are worse.

What a terrible, terrible move on both Apple and the publisher. Why would you ever do this? Way to guarantee it so people won't buy the Kindle.

You mean Amazon.


Really bad. Amazon should have just stopped selling copies of it, but for them to erase copies that were already bought and downloaded is akin to them coming into my home and demanding the hard copy they mailed me. NOT COOL!

 

[erickkoch]

Hmmm...., the only workaround I can think of is to store your e-books on a memory card (for Kindle 1 owners, Kindle 2 lacks memory expansion) and then back them up to a PC, they can't erase them there (yet) then reload your book or iPhone through USB.
The only problem is that you'd have to keep the wireless connection off while reading the book. You might have to do a complete system reset in case Amazon sends instructions to the device disabling the book if it's reloaded, but they may not have thought of that.

This sucks.

 

[.Andy]

This will only result in even more people incorrectly referencing 1984 in regard to political events without actually having read the book .

 

[upinflames900]

They are actually pulling an 1984 by taking away those copies that were purchased. They are re-writing history "so to speak" lol.

 

[opinioncircle]

Thanks Amazon

 

[Starfall]

This isn't quite as bad as some people are making it out to be.

From the New York Times:

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.

 

[joeshell383]

This isn't quite as bad as some people are making it out to be.

From the New York Times:

It doesn't matter if Amazon did the "right" thing or not. The bottom line is anything you buy on a Kindle can be retracted at any time. Comparatively, if B&N or Borders had sold you the book, and they were subsequently alerted that they didn't have permission to do so, the existing inventory of books would have been pulled and it would have been a case of "too bad, so sad" for the publisher for the books that had already been sold.

 

[RedTomato]

I find this extremely disturbing.

Yes I'm aware that the customers got a refund. However, to go into your computer and just remove media that they felt you shouldn't have is an extremely disturbing step.

While in this case it was a book, a work of fiction, that was removed, this is a demonstration and successful application of their power to do so.

What happens in 10 years time, if you buy an newspaper electronically, and there's an article criticising the government, who then decides to take action? Will all copies of this article be taken away from people's computers?

As junior network admin, this kind of thing is actually quite easy for me to do to staff computers. If I decide they can't have a certain file, bam, it's gone from all the work computers. I never thought I'd see this level of control extended to people's own possessions on their own computers at home.

I had thought if you purchased a book though Kindle, you bought it. Now it seems you are merely renting it, and your licence to read it can be withdrawn at any time.

Moral - if you purchase electronic media for home use, copy it immediately.

 

[Starfall]

It doesn't matter if Amazon did the "right" thing or not.

It doesn't matter at all that in this specific case, the seller didn't have rights to the work being sold, but that in the vast majority of Kindle downloads, there's no reason to erase the book? And it doesn't matter at all that Amazon refunded the money?

Many people are reacting as though Amazon arbitrarily pulled the books with no refund, and that it's equally likely that they could do so with any given book. But that doesn't appear to be the case here.

The bottom line is anything you buy on a Kindle can be retracted at any time.

Do you honestly believe that Amazon will just yank stuff off of the Kindle for no reason at all? Or do you think that it might be in Amazon's best interests to actually try to keep people's money, instead of having to refund it, and reserve the erase-and-refund procedure for very limited cases?

 

[Boneoh]

The problem with this is it crosses a certain line. No one should have any permission to view, alter, or delete anything on my computer, cell phone, ipod, etc. Just refund the customer and ASK them to please delete the file.

The true publisher has the right to go after the bogus publisher for damages, etc. Let the courts decide what is appropriate in line with the laws. I'd like to see if any attorneys are thinking class action lawsuit on this one.

Just look what the telephone companies have already gotten away with. They basically gave carte blanche to the NSA and who knows else with what ever they wanted. When they were caught, our elected representatives gave them a "get out of jail free" card.

So much for privacy. I will never trust any company with any of my data in any kind of cloud, etc.

 

[erickkoch]

Amazon is now saying that it won't pull books in the future. We'll see.

Statement.

 

[ucfgrad93]

Seems a little over the top from Amazon. A more reasonable approach would have been to stop selling the books, and make a payment to the real author, publisher, or whoever gets money when the book is sold.

 

[Abstract]

This isn't quite as bad as some people are making it out to be.

From the New York Times:

From that report, I agree with you.

It's really interesting how a story can be spun to look so negative.

 

[ntrigue]

What to spend my Kindle savings on now?

 

[QCassidy352]

From that report, I agree with you.

It's really interesting how a story can be spun to look so negative.

I don't agree. If these books were sold without the rights then the correct course of action is for Amazon to pull the titles from the kindle store and the rights holder to sue the infringing company for damages. Taking content off of users' personal devices is completely and totally unacceptable.

 

[Divyesh]

From NY Times (Pouge's Posts blog) VIA Daring Fireball (link):


The really crazy part?


Glad Apple hasn't used their kill swtich on any App Store apps thus far (still rockin' Tris on my iPhone).

Thanks for the update.

 

[LethalWolfe]

From that report, I agree with you.

It's really interesting how a story can be spun to look so negative.

Spun to look negative? Okay, so what is positive about Amazon apparently violating it's own ToS agreement by deleting books from customer's machines?


Lethal

 

[iAlex]

Big Daddy found naughty books on your Kindle! Nope! Nope!, not on the the "approved" reading list.... report to carousel!

 

[djellison]

even Blu-ray is subject to DRM by checking the network first to see if the disc is to be played on the player...)

My BR's play fine when my PS3 is offline.

 

[50548]

You mean Amazon.


Really bad. Amazon should have just stopped selling copies of it, but for them to erase copies that were already bought and downloaded is akin to them coming into my home and demanding the hard copy they mailed me. NOT COOL!

As I said before, the Kindle is an utter failure destined to irrelevance. Amazon's move further confirms this point, especially since recallling DRM'ed books that have already been bought should be deemed as inconceivable in any civilized market...just think of the basic legal concept called "buyer in good faith". If Amazon has a problem with a publisher, it should settle it with him. They have ABSOLUTELY no right to enter someone's device and erase content at their discretion.

 

[xlii]

Don't take this lying down... before it's too late...

By Spirit... 1984

1984
Knockin' on your door
will you let it come
will you let it run
1984
Knockin' on your door
will you let it come
will you let it run your life

Someone will be waiting for you at your door
when you get home tonight
Ah yes he's gonna tell you darkness gives you much more
than you get from the light
Classic plastic guards well they're your special friends
he sees you every night
Well he calls himself your brother
but you know it's no game
You're never out of his sight

1984
knockin' on your door
will you let it come
will you let it run your life

It's time you started thinking inside your head
that you should stand up and fight
Oh where will you be when the freedom must end
just one year from tonight
Those classic plastic coppers are your special friends
they see you every night
Well they call themselves protection
but they know it's no game
You're never out of their sight

(guitar solo)

1984
Knockin' on your door
will you let it come
will you let it run

1984
Knockin' on your door
will you let it come
will you let it run