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

When I read the thread title I almost fell from my chair laughing. Great maker! The devil has humor. Interesting that the protagonist of 1984 corrects history in newspapers. So now the company that sells you the hardware to read books, newspapers and magazines decides to correct what you should read

It's a sign. And it can't get any clearer that that. Others control what is good for you and what not. The name "Kindle" should give you another hint what the device should show you. Only the books that survived the burning.

This is so good I rate it 2nd place after the best trick the devil ever played. And you know what that was *ggg*.

Originally posted by tjack
Here's an interesting thread from a kindle forum...

www.kindleboards.com...

Yes, it is an interesting thread.

Who is Ayn Rand? Apparently his/her stuff had been pulled/deleted as well.

Here's a copy of the e-mail I received... I read through the TOS agreement and it clearly states that I purchased the rights to own a copy of the electronic file. However, any breakage of the terms places Amazon in liability for the total amount of the product in question, which in this case, they automatically refunded.

Hello from Amazon.com.

We're writing to confirm that we have processed your refund for
$3.12 for the above-referenced order.

The total refund amount will be credited to your credit card in
3-5 business days.
For more information about this refund, please visit
Your Account (www.amazon.com...=cs-ae-yr) to view the
above-referenced order.

The following is the breakdown of your refund:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Item(s) Returned:


NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1984)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Item Refund $ 3.12
Item Tax Refund $ 0.00


Refund Total: $ 3.12

---------------------------------------------------------------

For more information on how we calculate refunds, please visit
our web site at
www.amazon.com...

We hope this is a satisfactory resolution for you. However, if
you have any questions or concerns, please use this link to
contact Customer Service:

www.amazon.com...



Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com.

reply to post by Jessicamsa


Ayn Rand was a popular author who was touted by the college crowd in the 60's. Her books were generally about the important people who had the big picture and shaped the world as opposed to real people. Imagine a Howard Hughes-like character and a plot from a Danielle Steele novel. She was an elitist who believed that there were those suited to run the world and those who should serve them.
A short description of her books would include "overly long and boring."

Originally posted by pteridine
reply to post by Jessicamsa

 

Ayn Rand was a popular author who was touted by the college crowd in the 60's. Her books were generally about the important people who had the big picture and shaped the world as opposed to real people. Imagine a Howard Hughes-like character and a plot from a Danielle Steele novel. She was an elitist who believed that there were those suited to run the world and those who should serve them.
A short description of her books would include "overly long and boring."

Thanks for that. I am not sure who Howard Hughes is, nor have I ever read a Danielle Steele novel. I do understand overly long and boring though lol.

reply to post by thomasblackraven


Thanks for posting that email! I really appreciate it.

tjack- That link to the thread was awesome! The very first post I read was great. I want to Quote it here but I am not sure if I am doing it right so mods feel free to correct me if I am in error.

"...imagine if someone from Barnes and Nobles walked into your house, took a book you had bought from them and left the money for it on your bookshelf." -Posters name was BeccaLT.

From the link of

www.kindleboards.com...

So Amazon has given absolutely no reason what so ever for WHY they decided to take these electronic books back? Was there some type of defect that made them dangerous so they had to have a recall?

Man this is a perfect thread for ATS as Arbitrageur has pointed out.

a NY times article regarding this matter:

www.nytimes.com...

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.

Sounds plausible, I'm not through digging though.

Just a couple of thoughts..

Prior to reading this thread I had never heard of a Kindle and didn't have the slightest idea what was one. This thread has made me feel a very old Frog.

I did skim through the Kindle thread though - the irony of deleting Orwell by remote is so very, very thick.

So evidently this Kindle thing would be kind of like having a Barnes and Noble rep drop by my house every so often to browse my book collection and take what he didn't like and show me a few books I could buy.

Hmmm.. I wonder if they left any other back doors open besides the one for Amazon? You notice they just said they wouldn't do it again. They didn't say they shut the back door.




[edit on 17-7-2009 by Frogs]

reply to post by tjack


I just wanted everyone on ATS to know that I am publicly laying claim to the combination of the words "Turkey" and "Burgers" both with capitols combined into one word. I am publishing "TurkeyBurgers" as a short story and as such I am declaring it as Free Intellectual Property allowing you all the legal right to republish my short story either for free or for profit.

That is all.

reply to post by pteridine


Ayn Rand was extremely anti communist and anti fascist. She was a major supporter of individual rights and capitalism. If anything she was anti elite.

From what I understand only certain versions, namely one's coming from a certain publisher, were pulled due to copyright violations.

From what I read the publisher is in a country where these 2 books are no longer copyrighted and are "free to print" so to speak. (Canada, Australia and Russia)

These books are, of course, still copyrighted here in the states so all copies were deleted. A move Amazon says it won't repeat.

Both books are still available for digital download on Amazon, just not the one's by that particular publisher.

NY Times

I posted this in a different thread, wanted to put it here also

Wouldn't some sort of fraud law cover this? This is like the publisher coming into your house, and grabbing the book after the sale has been made.

Refund or not, the sale was made, IMHO it's theft, or fraud... perhaps a wire fraud with possible RICO charges.

This is not cool. My girl was going to buy me a Kindle 2 as a gift soon. I definately am not getting one now. I read conspiracy type books too and i don't want this happening to me. I already have a Sony PRS-505 and so far I have had no trouble. It doesn't have a remote wifi connection so what I put on there....stays on there. The Kindle 2 has a few features that would be convienitent but not at the price of removing my freedom to read what I want. I can do without the bells and whistles. My PRS-505 has never let me down and does just fine.......and my books stay on there. I'll just stick with what works.....My vote for SONY. Kindle just lost a sale.

This is a good thread, im reading 1984 now. Im about 2/3 of the way through and this seems like just the sort of thing Big Brother would do.
Not that im saying that this is a conspiracy because the evidence for copyright violation seems to be stacking up.

Does anyone else find 1984 uncomfortable reading or is it just me? Makes me want to keep looking over my shoulder.
Its just too accurate!

reply to post by Bunkered


The first time I read 1984 as a child it didn't bother me at all... I was like "thats crazy"...

I read it a year ago or so, and it scared me because of how it was in the book. Then I looked around and watched all the technology thats come together to make it completely possible.

Ink and paper obsolete? This thread reminds me that if all literature goes electronic, it will all be lost at some point. It will be another burning of the library at Alexandria. The earth goes through cyclical catastrophes, and today we face the very real prospect of a man made one as well . Ink and paper, or other physical means of storage, stand a better chance of survival for future generations IMO. I think that we should have literature banks just as we have the seed bank in the arctic. A thousand Qumran’s spread the world over, with some attempts to draw attention to themselves, waiting for surviving generations to discover and put to use. Just a thought.

reply to post by tjack

With regard to George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) it should be noted that he was briefly a student of Aldous Huxley and was quite aware of that writer's book "Brave New World." Orwell's book is said to be a take-off on Stalin's Russia, while Huxley's brother Julian was actually a eugenics supporter and reportedly significantly involved in the real New World Order. Thus Huxley's book more closely approximates what is happening today, though Orwell's book, from what I can tell, has been more widely-read.

There was a lot of literature being generated during the first half of the 1900's on these subjects, and it should not be overlooked that many writers who wrote their books as warnings had friends or relatives seriously involved in "the other side." From that viewpoint, "Brave New World" is probably a more accurate report on the planning that was taking place in Britain and Europe by the NWO and its academic allies during those years.

Originally posted by bsbray11
Can anyone say "memory hole"?

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

Too right the net is full with ebooks for these two books. Also you can buy audio books of them.

Originally posted by andy1033

Originally posted by bsbray11
Can anyone say "memory hole"?

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

Too right the net is full with ebooks for these two books. Also you can buy audio books of them.

Right, but doesn't that make the cheese more binding? After all if there's a hundred big holes letting water into the ship, what difference does sticking your finger in the small hole do?

Again though, it's not so much that it "happened", it's that it happened to "these particular books".

If this is true then this is really really bad. It is not like Orwell is a banned author or someone who is publishing seriously bad, like hate crime, opinions and inciting violence!

I purchased this (with a Brave New World) from Amazon a while back. I am going to go and check if the book still appears in my "Order History".

Cheers