Big Brother Amazon Remotely Deletes Purchased Copies of 1984 and Animal Farm From Thousands of Kindl

Big Brother Amazon Remotely Deletes Purchased Copies of 1984 and Animal Farm From Thousands of Kindles

gizmodo.com

Apparently, the publisher changed its mind about having electronic versions of Orwell's books. So Amazon removed them from the store and in the process remotely deleted the books from the Kindles of anyone who bought them, depositing a refund in their account in the process.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
technologizer.com

If you click the link, there's some pg-13 rated language that violates our T&C, so keep that in mind...

I guess it's not so much that this happened, but Orwell? The irony is over the top. I'm not generally too much of a CTer, more of a concerned and interested observer, but it really makes me wonder the true motive behind this. Is it simply to prevent piracy? Man, I sure hope so. Otherwise, it means that someone doesn't want "the masses" or at least the kindle crowd to have "that type" of access these particular books, which begs the question "Why?", but I think deep down we know the answer to that.

Gosh, my head is spinning!





gizmodo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 17-7-2009 by tjack]

Were these the ONLY two books that were deleted?
Or was it EVERY book that had language that went against their T & C?
Big Difference in that friend.

reply to post by tjack

What's more puzzling is how and why did Amazon have access to these Kindle's in the first place,if you own a Kindle let it be known your back door is swinging wide open.

Zelong.


[edit on 17/7/09 by Zelong]

I wouldn't buy a kindle (ebook reader) unless I could own it.

I mean who the hell buys to rent?

reply to post by star in a jar


My local library now has a program where they pay money to buy Brand New just released books. In order to cover the cost of expenses in this economy you pay a small fee to be able to borrow the books.

reply to post by TurkeyBurgers


The "language against our T&C" comment I made was referring to ours here at ATS. I was simply warning casual clickers, that they were going to be subjected to a BS and a couple other light swear words, and to keep that in mind when clicking the links I provided, that's all, friend.

I seriously doubt that any of Orwell's books contain language capable of violating a T&C, they teach it in school!

I do not know exactly which books were deleted, but the two mentioned in the article were Orwell, and I think the other link mentions "Orwell" books. I'm continuing to search for more details, and will post them if I learn more.

Kindles T&C most likely gives them permission to do exactly what they did, for their reasons...there's some more digging that can be done. Any kindle owners on ATS? I haven't been able to dig up their T&C, but it's still fresh news.

Get to digging, everybody! Sic 'em!



[edit on 17-7-2009 by tjack]

Can anyone say "memory hole"?


I'm glad I've already read them both. Suck on that! Knowledge is power!

This is very interesting -
and very curious to know which other books and why.

I had downloaded Kindle for iPhone and wanted to try it out, so I payed $4 for 1984 (read it years ago and have been meaning to go through it again). Yesterday, I get an email from Amazon saying my refund request was processed. I'm thinking, "What request? Something is screwy here..." So I open the Kindle app and sure enough, it syncs and removes 1984.

The program (possiblly, the full device as well) syncs on startup to check for new purchases. This time around though, it removed the book. Well, at least I know I'll ne avoiding Amazon when it comes to eBooks!

So why should anyone pay to read 1984?

It is online for free!
1984

1984

animal farm

There are more - google them.

Really, the irony is stunning. They sure Fahrenheit 451 wasn't among them too?

Nearly everything's available for free online, if you're willing to dig deep enough, however, the point is why these books?

The lessons being taught in these particular books are very specific, and by my measure, very UN-popular to TPTB today.

Coincidence?


[edit on 17-7-2009 by tjack]

Originally posted by elfie
Really, the irony is stunning. They sure Fahrenheit 451 wasn't among them too?

Dripping, oozing, saccharin sweet, there's nary a "picturesque" enough adjective to do justice to the irony of this one.


1984 and Animal Farm.

I haven't been able to find reference to any other books, so far. Still poking around.

If that one and Anthem were included as well, I'd probably be bugging out right now.

Originally posted by thomasblackraven
I had downloaded Kindle for iPhone and wanted to try it out, so I payed $4 for 1984 (read it years ago and have been meaning to go through it again). Yesterday, I get an email from Amazon saying my refund request was processed. I'm thinking, "What request? Something is screwy here..." So I open the Kindle app and sure enough, it syncs and removes 1984.

The program (possiblly, the full device as well) syncs on startup to check for new purchases. This time around though, it removed the book. Well, at least I know I'll ne avoiding Amazon when it comes to eBooks!

Can you post the message that was sent to you regarding WHY it was deleted? I would like to see it myself. Or did they not send you ANY type of message and just "make it vanish" and say absolutely nothing about why?

I do not own a Tin Foil Hat. I am getting a little bit worried though. Can someone post a link to a good Tin Foil hat production method?

You know......better to have it and not need it.....than to need it and not have it.

Originally posted by OhZone
So why should anyone pay to read 1984?

It is online for free!
1984

That link has a notice I can download it if I'm in Australia, but it may not be legal for me to download it here. I keep trying to eradicate that Big Brother-1984-style spy in my keyboard shown in Tristar's avatar but I think he's still in there LOL.

OK I know some people might do it anyway, but I'm just saying...

I had my questions about the whole Kindle concept, but this may be a nail in the Kindle coffin. And from what I recall of seeing Kindle pricing, the discount wasn't great enough to make me want to get the kindle instead of the book, at least if I'm reading the book in an airport waiting for a flight, the book won't die on me from low battery power.

Well the biggest part of this story seems to be the title of the book, I mean of all books to delete, 1984? This should light a conspiracy site like ATS up like a Christmas tree!

Perhaps they did not own the copyright or access to it, and therefore were not legally authorized to make a sale. I don't know which publishers have what classics anymore (they really should be free) but to them 'ownership' means nothing.

I was considering buying a Kindle because my personal library is becoming too large. This has convinced me that paper is still better and that my great grand-children will have the opportunity to read books that may be politically incorrect.

Originally posted by Maxmars
Perhaps they did not own the copyright or access to it, and therefore were not legally authorized to make a sale. I don't know which publishers have what classics anymore (they really should be free) but to them 'ownership' means nothing.

Well if you believe the Gizmodo link in the OP, it says,

Apparently, the publisher changed its mind about having electronic versions of Orwell's books.

Maybe they felt the DRM on Kindle might not be secure enough or something? But you'd think they would make a decision one way or the other and stick with it...unless...maybe they learned about a previously unknown security flaw in the Kindle DRM, if that's the case, that could be big news too.

Here's an interesting thread from a kindle forum...

www.kindleboards.com...