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Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Zielwolf — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:09:24 -0000

Sounds to me like all you actually own is a "license to read" which can be revoked at the seller's discretion (as happened in this case). You don't actually own actual property - virtual or otherwise. Welcome to the beginnings of a subtle transformation of capitalism into a totally new kind of socialism & welcome, a little late perhaps, to 1984. LOL.

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

holmeswilson — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:55:59 -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.or...

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

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Mike Licht — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 07:21:36 -0000

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

See:

http://notionscapital.wordp...

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

John — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:17:12 -0000

Yeah, Great PR move by the publishing company

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Jim — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:24:48 -0000

Greg, your comment:
<<it reminds="" me="" in="" the="" gulf="" war="" after="" the="" transport="" unit="" got="" hit="" and="" the="" media="" was="" in="" a="" frenzy="" figuring="" the="" war="" was="" going="" to="" hell.="">>
...sort of defeats your purpose. The '90s Gulf War actually turned out to be an initial battle in the larger Iraq conflict, which as we now know, *did* turn to hell.

Kindle is seeing some early wins but, as I earlier pointed out, the concept is fundamentally flawed. Like I said--when I can not have to worry about it costing me hundreds of $$ if it gets lost, stolen, or dropped in the water (instead of $6.99 like a real paperback), then the market may warm to it. That's a pretty tall order.

And this is not to be compared to saying one will only buy a computer until it costs as little as a sheet of paper. All a Kindle does is let you read a book. I can do that for $6.99 now, and not worry about leaving it on my seat in the bus, train, whatever.
--Jim

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Jim — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:25:23 -0000

The Kindle will not be truly relevant until:
1. I can bring it to the beach and not worry about it falling in the water or sand.
2. If it gets lost, stolen, or stepped on by an elephant, it will only cost $6.99 to replace, like a real paperback.
3. I won't have to worry about titles getting electronically re-posessed by Big Brother.

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

SteamGeek — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:57:43 -0000

I'll bet that in at least one State, the Amazon "forced return and refund" AKA theft violated the law.

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Jarrod — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:26:48 -0000

How permanent is content online? http://jarrodhiggins.com/?p=96

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Lizardbrain — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:04:51 -0000

Or, y;know, you could always buy an E-Reader from Sony instead...

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Don Jaycox — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:37:48 -0000

No, Jason. You have it right. Your reference is to Animal Farm which was also remotely deleted.

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

AuroraLee — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:47:01 -0000

And this is exactly why I still buy books and CDs. I got burned when I bought some music. I'll never do it again. At least not until these issues are dealt with. That could be years! :(

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

nov0caine — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:04:54 -0000

The irony in this is magnificent

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

esbee — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:43:27 -0000

This tactic is nothing new. Those of us who own animals are fighting a similar thing that would allow the USDA to come onto our private property at any time and take (kill) our animals if they think there is a disease within a 6 mile radius. They do it by getting us to register our premises with the govt and calling us stakeholders, both terms which imply we no longer own our animals or property.
The USDA program called NAIS (National animal Identification System) was developed to benefit and improve marketability of factory farms and corporate agriculture. But while factory farms and big ag gets a free ride, the ones who will be hurt most by NAIS are the small producers who raise even one farm animal whether for a pet, their own consumption or to sell locally by all the onerous rules that have to be followed..

Under NAIS, you register your premises, even if you own even one animal, even if it is a pet. This step clouds title to private property. All critters must be microchipped and all births, deaths and movements reported into a database. This costs time and money. Factory farms do NOT have to do this, they get one lot number per group of animals. Any animal in that group could be diseased and who would know. But if animal disease is suspected in an area, the USDA can depopulate a 6 mile radius (140 sq. miles of dead healthy animals).

NAIS will not prevent animal disease nor ensure food safety since tracking stops at slaughter, after which is when food safety issues occur.

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

FraudFinder — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:34:26 -0000

Maybe we should be allowed to return our purchased digitial books at anytime for a full refund if we decide we "No longer want to own digital copies of these works". It would be the as them taking them back.

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:05:25 -0000

So a Saudi courtier, instead of having all unsold copies of a book reduced to pulp, could instead make it vanish entirely? 1984 indeed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007...

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Andew Rivera — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:11:31 -0000

Because of this, I refuse to buy a Kindle. And I probably will boycott Amazon for doing this and I will encourage others to do the same.

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Andrew Newton — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:09:36 -0000

If this is the only way that Amazon could convince publishers to go digital on Kindle then it seems to me to be a pretty poor judgment of what is more important - adding new titles or risking enormous inconvenience to users.

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Andrew Newton — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:27:22 -0000

Has Amazon come out with a public statement answering to this?

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

People Search — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 07:58:16 -0000

Next they will be deleting Animal Farm.

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:36:31 -0000

Upon receipt of payment , the ownership of electronic copy should be transferred to the buyer how can ....? BUT for a free copy, it is another story.

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Lee — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:46:34 -0000

I see the kindle wikipedia page has already been updated to reflect amazon's draconian business practises in regard to '1984-gate' :D

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Chuck Lasker — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:32:05 -0000

I like paper books. Barnes & Noble can't take them back. An electromagnetic pulse, an Amazon bug, a cyber attack, the government, etc., can't delete my entire library. I can read by candlelight when the power's out, long after the Kindle battery is dead. I can pass the books on to others and my kids. Yep, I'm sticking with good ol' paper books.

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Guest — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:42:58 -0000

but what if rocket theme takes back my WP template - the internet will get ugly again :-P

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Paul — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:40:32 -0000

"He had won the battle over himself. He loved Big Brother."

Re: Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles

Gregg Cleland — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:25:47 -0000

"I may never own a Kindle just because of this." Some of you guys make me laugh. With all that the Kindle offers and you get frightened and paranoid about some little incident like this. It reminds me in the Gulf War after the transport unit got hit and the media was in a frenzy figuring the war was going to hell.

Get a bit if perspective, make a copy of your purchases and give yourselves a slap people!