CBC News: Amazon erases Orwell books from Kindle service

[marmar]

Amazon erases Orwell books from Kindle service
Last Updated: Sunday, July 19, 2009 | 12:04 PM ET

CBC News


In a case of life imitating art, Amazon has angered some customers of its Kindle electronic book service by remotely deleting two George Orwell books, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Copies of the novels, which feature dystopian worlds, were wiped from the book readers this week.

Many have compared the move to the workings of the totalitarian government in Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which documents deemed inappropriate are dropped into a "memory hole" and erased forever.

Amazon said the books were uploaded by a publisher who didn't have the rights to reproduce copies of them.

"When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers' devices, and refunded customers," Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener told the New York Times. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2009/07/19/kindle-amazon-orwell.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dysfunctional press]

12. book recommendations from a tombstoned troll..?

yeah- i'll get right on that.

[Orrex]

2. This has been posted several times already

The fact that it's Orwell is amusing, but not really significant.

[marmar]

3. "but not really significant"

Who said it was?

[Orrex]

4. CBC news did, by referring to it as a case of "life imitating art"

[BlooInBloo]

5. (shrug) This was predictable.

[Orrex]

6. Are you suggesting that someone predicted it on May 2nd of this year?

Well? Are you? Hmm???

[BlooInBloo]

7. lol - I don't recall the exact date, ,but that could be correct.

[Orrex]

8. Predictably, I followed your link in an earlier thread on this subject

Good call, by the way!

[BlooInBloo]

9. :) Well there you have it - May 2nd it is!

[KamaAina]

17. If it was May 2nd...

:P

[karynnj]

10. They had no choice -

Amazon said the books were uploaded by a publisher who didn't have the rights to reproduce copies of them.

[jberryhill]

13. Only Eurasia Has The Rights To Publish It - East Asia Never Had Those Rights

East Asia was infringing copyright. Eurasia owns the copyright.

We hate East Asia. We always have.

[karynnj]

15. lol - I would assume that Kindle is working with the company that

actually has the rights to make the books available again - though it is ironic that the books this happened to were Orwell's.

[madmusic]

11. Naomi Klein is the post-modern Orwell.

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Naomi+Klein%22&ie=">Googled for your convenience.

[Patchuli]

14. The truth hurts

when one lives in freeperville.

[Wednesdays]

16. K&R

:kick:

[BeeBee]

18. I think people are making a lot more out of this than there is.

Amazon has a lot more controversial books than Animal Farm available both in print and electronically. I actually had downloaded Animal Farm not too long ago. This is the e-mail they sent me:

Hello,

We have recently refunded your purchase of Animal Farm by George Orwell. This book was added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and refunded previous customers.

We are working with the authorized rights holder to make this title available in our store very soon. We apologize for the inconvenience.


Sincerely,

Customer Service Department
Amazon.com