How Orwell would have enjoyed this irony!

I am grateful to the always excellent Tallbloke who normally confines his interest to climate affairs but who picked up this story which has sinister potential.  Apparently, Amazon have quietly "disappeared" all e-copies of George Orwell's books, 1984 and Animal Farm, not just from their own list of e-books on offer but from the individual Kindles of their customers!

It all stemmed from a dispute over copywright but the fact that Amazon did this without a word to the public, let alone their customers, provides an indication of just how fragile security of property is in this brave, new, electronic age.  Tallbloke sums it up, thus:

Regardless of whether you believe Amazon’s promise to leave your Kindle alone,
the company has tipped its hand and shown us the dark side of a culture where
books are only available in electronic form. If the WhisperNet service from
Kindle allows the company to delete books silently from your device, what other
information might they have access to? Can the company monitor what you’re
reading and when – and then hand that over to law enforcement? Can it replace a
book file with a different file whose content is changed?

No wonder George has a wry smile on his face!

 

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Sinister irony: Amazon uses whisper network to silently delete Orwell's 1984 from customers Kindle e-readers

Comments

[A K Haart]

If you check Tallbloke's link and the comments you will find this is an old story from 2009 connected with a copyright issue.

[David Duff]

Now look here, Haart, reheating stories from four years ago is the sort of super-fast reportage you can expect from D&N and which has made our name a byword for, er, something or other.

Actually I did check the original story (honest!) but never noticed the dates - and I never read other bloggers' comments threads because they are always of a much lower standard than here at D&N where the readership is of such a high standard. (That's enough lickspittle: Ed)

[dearieme]

I've got a Kindle, ho yuss. I plan shortly to learn how to use it.

[Richard Morgan]

Er... Animal Farm is still there (safe and sound) on my Kindle.

[Dom]

I have an iPad with kindle software, so I can download and read kindle books. But I don't. You know why? I enjoy turning pages. I like that feeling of hitting the halfway mark, and then going downhill, so to speak. It makes the story more enjoyable.

[Able]

I gave up on 'dead tree' books ages ago (so hard to carry more than one in your pocket) but studiously ignored the Kindle. Why?

- Like the iPod/Mac/etc. people have long confused 'fashionable' with technically the best product.

- I long wondered about Amazon (and B&N with the Nook), their politics and access to what, even after you've paid for it they still seem to regard as their property.

- Pricing. So, mainly because I'm cheap and shallow and My Sony was on offer (with free case which matched my eyes)

Oh, by the way DD, did you hear? They relieved Kartoum! ;-)

[Andra]

I love my Kindle. Perfect for plane travel and saves carting around half a dozen books.

[David Duff]

I'm told, DM, that they're very good for holding down the pages of your book if you happen to be reading at a table!

Good Grief, Richard, did they let you into Russia with that?!

Dom, you express my feelings exactly but I just know that sooner or later I will succumb.

KARTOUM relieved! Really? And how is dear old Gen. Gordon? And by the way, Able, how do you rate your Sony technically, I mean, what does to do better than the others?

Well, there wouldn't be any room in your suitcases for books, Andra, what with all those dresses and shoes!

[Able]

The truth is there isn't much between the current models (although external, data card storage, would swing the Sony for me).

The older models? The Sony as one of the (if not the) first ereaders had a tech following so lots of root kits, tweaks and programs available.

Of the newest offerings, I would either go the tablet route (7" Nexus probably, definitely if they ever added a card reader), with the add on reader, or more likely one of the larger phones (Galaxy Note) - pocket size and eyesight notwithstanding.

But what do I know, I'm just a wannabe geek