A Chilling Irony
Don’t know how I missed this one in July, but in talking with my Dad this morning he told me of the recent controversy of Amazon deleting illegal copies of the book 1984 from user’s Kindles. The irony of this story, to any who have read this book, is so unbelievable that I’m amazed I’m seeing this on verified news agencies and not in Hollywood.
Click here to read the article. Here is my favorite quotes from it: “‘Of all the books to recall,’ said Charles Slater, an executive with a sheet-music retailer in Philadelphia, who bought the digital edition of ’1984′ for 99 cents last month. ‘I never imagined that Amazon actually had the right, the authority or even the ability to delete something that I had already purchased.’”
Apparently most Kindle users didn’t even realize Amazon had the ability to do this. It seems that they’ve designed their very own system of “memory holes.” Makes me glad I haven’t jumped on the Kindle bandwagon yet. It would be like me going to my bookshelf to reference one of my books and it has mysteriously vanished. I’d be a little ticked.
I’d love to hear your feedback on this. What do you think of Amazon’s ability to delete books? Are we on track to 1984 or is this blown out of proportion? Would this hinder your desire to buy a kindle, or does this not bother you at all?
This is the personal blog of Jeremy Jernigan. Husband, father, teaching pastor, and student of truth.
My first thought was, a company as big as Amazon didn’t take a moment to verify suppliers permissions before release? Really…? So no problem, just delete everyones copy and move on. Because of the specific subject of that book and what is happening in our world at the moment, I am not feeling the love of freedom in America, but rather Paranoia in paradise!
How many times have we sent an email to the wrong person at the wrong time and tried to frantically grab our PC screen to try to stop it? Guess Amazon employees don’t have that problem.
I will be sticking to hard copies personally!
Books smell better. I would never get a Kindle because it smells like a computer and not like a book.
.-= Richard´s last blog… Perception =-.
I think it’s ridiculous that they can delete it, especially 1984. Apparently, Big Brother is truly watching… It’d be like Apple being able to delete songs from your Ipod because they think you got the song illegally.My favorite line from the article was this, “Retailers of physical goods cannot, of course, force their way into a customer’s home to take back a purchase, no matter how bootlegged it turns out to be. Yet Amazon appears to maintain a unique tether to the digital content it sells for the Kindle.”
Along the lines of your question though, there’s no way I’d spend $259.00 on a book reader. I love to read real books where I can underline and write in the margin.