Amazon Remotely Deletes Purchased Copies of 1984 & Animal Farm From 1000s of Kindles
 

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Amazon basically guaranteed that I'll never buy a Kindle last night by bending to the wishes of a publisher and deleting every single legitimately-purchased copy of 1984 and Animal Farm from all Kindles remotely. Ridiculous.

Apparently, the publisher changed its mind about having electronic versions of Orwell's books. So Amazon removed them from the store and in the process remotely deleted the books from the Kindles of anyone who bought them, depositing a refund in their account in the process.

If there's a better argument for dead-tree books and against the Kindle, I'd like to know what it is. If you can't be sure that you own something after you pay for it, what's the point? How many people were halfway through these books that they paid for and now are shit out of luck?

Amazon says this is a "rarity," but even once is too many times for bullshit like this to happen. Once I buy a book from Barnes & Noble, I never have to worry about them breaking into my house and taking it back, leaving me a pile of singles on my nightstand.

And of course the fact that this happened to 1984, of all books, makes this even more surreal. [NY Times via Boing Boing]

This has enough IRONY to choke a horse.

I still love my kindle even though I have major reservations about the process of digital rights management and situations like this. I hope consumer activism will shape this into something great. The demand for a standard format is already getting notice (not fast enough, I know) but I like to be optimistic.

I use it for more than downloading books too. I am in a writing group and we can email pdfs to each other's kindles and we come better prepared for our rare in person meetings. The pdfs don't read as easy as the ebooks, but it is good enough.

There is plenty to recommend even with the major issues of digital rights and unit price. I think with a better unit price, more customers will add more pressure and then we will really see some progress.

That being said, they should send complimentary print editions to every customer that bought the ebook in addition to the refund.

wtf is a kindle?

Ummm, they could take the money they were refunded and go buy a regular copy of the book.

Amazing. You have to wonder if this wasn't some kind of publicity stunt by the publisher.

FAX

That is messed up. They shouldn't have deleted them from people that already bought them. I mean, WTF? You already paid for it. :shake:

And 1984 of all books. ROFL Irony at its best.

This

The thing pictured in the OP, you can download books to read on it.

Heh, I must of still been living in a cave when it came out. I had no fricken clue about it.

Me too. I still buy the books that you put on a literal bookshelf.

books? I have an 32 inch electronic picture-book in my living room

Literally?

I have a 37". Mine's bigger than yours. :p

Heathen!

Totally.

That Kindle is actually a really cool device. But I believe it costs about $300.

pretty ****ing outrageous

but not a surprise....

Amazon repurchased a book.

-Winston Smith

Good god, what does it cost to download a book?

Good question. I don't know.

Looks like $10.

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Books/b...ode=1286228011

Jeez, that $300 is just for the 6" model, the bigger one is $500.

I'll stick to paperback.

The Kindle is ridiculously overpriced because you are also paying for permanent access to a 3G network.

You could even splurge and go hardback for much less.

Aw Hell, I didn't realize they had more than one. I just remember when that thing came out a few years ago. They couldn't keep it in stock, if memory serves.

Ummm....any book I have ever purchased was cheaper in paperback than hardcover. :spock:
Unless I am misunderstanding you.

Only if you catch a great sale.

I use Wattpad on my Ipod Touch. Tons of free content out there.

Kinky.

Cheaper than all of this electronic shit.

SuperplusWINTHREAD...

I would have never bought one of those stupid things anyway, but now I wouldn't even accept one as a gift.

BS You would take it to the store to get the cash.:)

Oh, okay. :D

Seriously, though, I'm a collector. I have lots of books. If I'm going to buy a book, I want something tangible that I can keep. Not something that can be blipped away by the ThoughtPolice if the author falls out of favor.

I'm right there with you for the most part. I have an entire bookshelf of books in my basement I keep around just in case I get the urge again. Unfortunately, I will be losing that bookshelf when we have our basement fixed. It is built in and I will have to tear it apart to get it out of the way.

Well, you could do what we do and fill up two huge boxes and have them pointlessly take up closet space for all eternity.

Oh, I have that too.

It's getting hot in here.

I guess it's time to start memorizing one book per person.

I will be called "If Chins Could Kill"


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