Amazon remotely deletes Orwell e-books from Kindles, unpersons reportedly unhappy

If you're into keeping tabs on irony, check this out. Amazon apparently sent out its robotic droogs last night, deleting copies of the George Orwell novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four from Kindles without explanation, then refunding the purchase price. As you can imagine, a lot of people caught in the thick of Winston and Julia's love story aren't very happy -- and rightfully so -- the idea that we "own" the things we buy is pretty fundamental to... ownership. We're not sure exactly what happened, but it seems that the publisher of said novels, MobileReference, has changed its mind about selling content on the Kindle, and poof! Amazon remotely deleted all previously purchased copies. It's all a bit Orwellian, is it not?

Source blog engadget

I have no idea how to even interpret this, so I'll just leave my opinion at "wtf" and let you guys run with it.

Cheers.

How Orweillian of them!



This sounds like they're trying to delete them out of existence. Those Amazonian commies!

Lol.

I just find the irony of this to be too much.

Why delete that book though?

Too much truth in it?

[edit on 17-7-2009 by Frankidealist35]

So lets say i run a business, and I sell you a car.

And then lets say I change my mind and decide I want the car back, so I send someone by to jack it back for me.

But I send you the $$$ back in the mail.

Good business? No, actually its illegal business.

Here is why, because there is something in this country called DUE PROCESS, and you can NOT take away someones property without performing this "DUE PROCESS" and having a lengthy paper trail and oversight.

What they have committed is a crime, it is Theft.

Without due process you cannot take anything away from anyone legally, EVEN if you just sold it to them last week!

Wait, they deleted it from kindles?

That is a crime, I would agree with Muzzleflash.

A crime is a crime is a crime. Regardless of how you paint it. Once you buy something you own it. The person selling you the thing cannot just simply tell you that you can't have it anymore unless it's a rental.

That's odd.

As stated, the irony is simply bizarre.

Incredible.

People don't even read EULA's or they would realise they don't really own anything. IP laws are a mess. Basically you pay for a Kindle and then you pay for content you don't really own, as the guys apparently can get into the Kindle, which thus you don't really own either, and delete the files you never owned in the first place.

Good thing money is debt and you don't really own that either, or I guess people would get mad.

God I need drink. *eyes the cognac bottle*

I like the irony.
And I hope it is just irony.

Was Update 2 there when you read it?

While that publisher's version of the book may have been removed, it appears other versions of the novels are still available.

Update 2: Drew Herdener, Amazon.com's Director of Communications, pinged us directly with the following comment, and now things are starting to make a lot more sense. Seems as if the books were added initially by an outfit that didn't even have the rights!

"These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. 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. We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances."

reply to post by Pauligirl


It's George Orwell, of course nobody has any rights!

And no, update 2 wasn't up when I first linked, not that it changes the irony of the situation.