Winner Of Irony 2009 Award: Amazon Deletes People's Kindle Copies of Orwell 1984!

[BlooInBloo]

:rofl:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/07/down_the_memory_hole.php?ref=fpblg

EDIT: Here's the root link - http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/some-e-books-are-more-equal-than-others/

"Big, big, big step backwards for the Kindle book platform. And even with a poetic twist.

It seems Amazon snuck into people's electronic libraries overnight and deleted their George Orwell books. (I'm not clear what happened in cases where people had also saved their electronic copies to the computer in addition to their Kindle -- if anyone knows, lemme know.)

The technology and execution is amazing, as I've noted before. But it really seems like Amazon Inc. might be too craven to make it work."


Note that some smart and handsome fellow predicted precisely this eventuality months ago:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=5584386#5584555

[valerief]

1. You are a smart, handsome, and *clever* fellow to predict that.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Had I thought about it, I would have gone for the full monty and picked the book....

Sigh. :P

[Echo In Light]

3. Not surprising. Their "voting" system for Reviews became VERY suspect yrs ago

Favoring rightward views, naturally, while disappearing votes for non-rightist reviews.

[Posteritatis]

14. Their voting system's interesting when you don't actually buy based on the scores

How people react to a book - usually sight unseen - can be really fascinating.

[bvar22]

21. You mean they have an "unrec" button too?

Hush my mouth....

[WeDidIt]

4. I had been planning on getting a Kindle

I think I'll give up that plan now.

[valerief]

5. Me, too. The Kindle is now kindling. They should call it The Swindle. nt

[Hekate]

6. Ooops. Mr H was thinking about gifting me with a Kindle.

They can do that? Take back a book you purchased? WTH kind of behavior is that? I find this very confusing.

Hekate

[BlooInBloo]

7. Yes, they can. Or change the text itself.

[Hekate]

8. My actual books are overrunning the house. I'm keeping the little darlings anyway.

[BlooInBloo]

20. :) I'm happy with books in any form - real or pdf.

[Posteritatis]

9. Stuff like this is why I refuse to touch ebook readers. (nt)

[BlooInBloo]

10. PDFs and real books work just fine for me.

[Posteritatis]

11. Luddite! Anti-American! Communist! (nt)

[BlooInBloo]

12. ? I said pdfs. I just don't like expensive, single-use, bulky devices....

that I don't control the content on.

[Posteritatis]

13. Exactly

Don't mind me, I'm just laughing at all the Kindle owners who've been sneering down their noses at people as backwards or changefearing for preferring to use media that they know will be around next week. ;)

[AntiFascist]

15. Next they'll get rid of all copies of Fahrenheit 451 n/t

[kitkat65]

16. Another irony?

The definition of kindle is to arouse or inspire as well as to set fire to or inflame.

[BlooInBloo]

17. Heh. Well-played.

[kitkat65]

30. Actually, well-played again by you.

The irony I was musing over was that Amazon pretty much did a cyber-burning by deleting copies without consent or permission. Lots of irony to go around, I guess. ; - )

[exboyfil]

18. I got two electronic books on globalization for a class a few years

ago. I downloaded the books to my work computer. Eventually my computer was upgraded (I moved the files to the new computer). I went to open them later, but no good - they would no longer open. The books were orphans at Amazon so I could not redownload them, and they were lost to me.

I was not a happy camper. I will never pay for another electronic book unless it is an open configuration like a pdf.

[BlooInBloo]

19. Yep.

[tblue37]

22. I too have lost ebooks that way. It's such a rip-off. nt

[Hissyspit]

24. Can you copy them to your computer and then to disc?

[tblue37]

26. Probably--but I wasn't aware that I was going to lose them, so I hadn't

done that. It was a couple of years ago.

[ContinentalOp]

23. Wow, do they just realize that they KILLED the Kindle in one move?

Nice work Amazon. And I'm normally a big fan.

[Hissyspit]

25. Corporations do short-sighted stupid shit (SSSS) all the time.

It's part of the flaw of the corporate ecology and mind-set.

[wroberts189]

28. And the book they used to do it with... its like they have no brains at all. nt

[wroberts189]

27. If they took Fahrenheit 451 as well no one would have believed the story..

as unbelievable as it already is.

I predict Kindle users will not be happy about this.


wow

[X_Digger]

29. That's why I always download / de-DRM my kindle purchases..

.. it's trivial to do these days, and gets you out of the fight between amazon and stupid publishers.