Comments on: Orwell on the Kindle: It’s Orwellian!

By: Holmes Wilson

Holmes Wilson — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:02:26 +0000

Re: In response to Amazon’s remote deletion of 1984 and Animal Farm

Hi there,

Saw you’d written about the Amazon / 1984 flap, and I thought you might be
interested in the petition we launched yesterday:

http://defectivebydesign.org/amazon1984

We have over 1400 signatures already, and signers include Lawrence Lessig,
Clay Shirky, Cory Doctorow and other notable authors, librarians, and
scholars.

The petition opens:

“We believe in a way of life based on the free exchange of ideas, in which
books have and will continue to play a central role. Devices like Amazon’s
are trying to determine how people will interact with books, but Amazon’s
use of DRM to control and monitor users and their books constitutes a clear
threat to the free exchange of ideas.”

Please have a look, and if you support the cause or think it would be
interesting to your readers, a blog post would be great!

Thanks,

-Holmes Wilson
Free Software Foundation

By: Mike Licht

Mike Licht — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:31:54 +0000

Six months ago bloggers (notably Stephanie at UrbZen) warned about this kind of thing.

See:

http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/kindle-see-we-told-you-so/

By: Pixelnews » Blog Archive » Amazon se prend les pieds dans Orwell

Pixelnews » Blog Archive » Amazon se prend les pieds dans Orwell — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:20:28 +0000

[...] surface sur le Net. Et pas qu’un peu. Du New York Times au Guardian en passant par la plupart des blogs spécialisés, les articles n’ont pas fait dans la dentelle. Pourtant, encore une fois, Amazon ne peut pas [...]

By: Philip Coates

Philip Coates — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:23:20 +0000

” The Orwell books that Amazon yanked back were unauthorized copies of copyrighted works. ”

Let’s see:

I sell you a car which I turns out my wife wants back or I don’t have the rights to. So, I not the actual owner and not a court of law, can sneak into your house in the dead of night, find your keys, then walk into your garage and drive off with the car.

I was nice enough to leave you a note, though, which you find the next morning when you got ready to drive to work with the car.

By: Kindle Books Could Go Up In Smoke | Mobility Site

Kindle Books Could Go Up In Smoke | Mobility Site — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 06:49:29 +0000

[...] books would be deleted from their Kindles the next time they synced. Various blogs, including Technologizer, claimed that the publisher had changed its mind about offering electronic books and Amazon removed [...]

By: Top Posts « WordPress.com

Top Posts « WordPress.com — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:17:07 +0000

[...] Orwell on the Kindle: It’s Orwellian! [IMPORTANT UPDATE: The Web is rife with examples of people assuming something unlikely-sounding is true because they [...] [...]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:29:04 +0000

Two points.
First, not having US distribution rights does not mean “pirated” or “stolen goods”. In countries which have chosen to keep copyright term “limited”, the books have already entered the Public Domain and can be distributed freely.

That hasn’t happened in the United States in part because “Winne-the-Pooh” would have also entered the public domain, and cost Disney a billion plus dollars per year in merchandising fees.

Calling them “stolen goods” is like saying US eBay sellers of Nazi memorabilia are breaking French anti racism law, or US newspaper publishers are breaking Iranian law against insulting the Prophet.

Second, the concern isn’t about “whims”, but that now a Saudi courtier accused of funding terrorism, instead of merely having all unsold copies of a British book reduced to pulp, could instead make it disappear entirely.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/books/review/Donadio-t.html

By: Dennis McDonald

Dennis McDonald — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:27:49 +0000

I knew from the start that the copies were not legally licensed. That’s not the point. The point is that Amazon CAN yank back ebooks after they’re sold. If that doesn’t give people pause about whether or not to adopt this device, then I don’t think anything will. This is one of those cases where I think the technology is wonderful but that it may be unwise to trust the people who are managing the technology. Remember: that’s one of the reasons that DRM is applied to media: DRM IS USED SO THE MEDIA CAN BE CONTROLLED AFTER THEY ARE “SOLD.” This Orwell example is a case in point. Next time it might not be as “simple.”

By: GodKillzYou

GodKillzYou — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:13:13 +0000

Why do you think people resort to using sites like The Pirate Bay? You can’t get what you want by paying for it. You “rent” it.

By: Josh

Josh — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:29:29 +0000

I understand the argument that these were essentially “illegal” copies, and Amazon taking steps to rectify that with the rights owner(s) is admirable. However, automatically deleting them from Kindle users devices is not only unorthodox but reveals intrinsic ideological issues with digital media between customers and providers. The best comparable “traditional” example I can think of for a similar situation (based on years working in book retail) is when a book store would sell a new book before the authorized release date (either accidentally or intentionally). Doing so breaks contracts and raises legal issues, often resulting in fines and legal ramifications. However, I can’t imagine this same situation ever resulting in bookstore staff or officials going to each customer’s house who bought the book early and taking the book back while offering a store credit. Ridiculous. I mean, what if one of these Kindle users was reading Orwell for a class this summer and suddenly their book vanished? I know they have said they will not do this again, but for a company trying to establish themselves as the dominant frontline of a new ebook revolution, actions like this just cause people to think how much better an older, traditional model can be.