Comments on: Amazon, Kindle, and Orwell: Horse, Meet the Barn Door

By: The 541 diary » Blog Archive » The last to know? 1984 in practice

The 541 diary » Blog Archive » The last to know? 1984 in practice — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 01:12:05 +0000

[...] in licensing electronic content and allowing a third party to control access to it. Karen Schneider puts it well: “What we are learning is that the same technology that makes a book conveniently [...]

By: Maia

Maia — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:03:52 +0000

I really appreciated this piece. I cannot (or will not) read from electronica; I need to feel paper between my fingers, to dog ear the pages and scribble in the margins. But more important is the threat I perceive to the value and stewardship of our literature in future generations. It’s not enough to waive one’s hands and say “the future is electronic, and that’s the way it is;” we must stop and consider the consequences of lost heritage, culture and wisdom from lost volumes.
Keep up the great work, Karen.

By: Beth Gray

Beth Gray — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:58:05 +0000

Yes, the world is going digital at a very pace. The future of the library system is going to be interesting in following. I enjoy following mobipocket that allows you to download directly to you pc or to a PDA. My latest novella is listed there and it is doing well.
I just found this site and have added it to my bloglist on my site.
Beth Gray

By: Miriam B.

Miriam B. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:18:22 +0000

The title of this post is one of my all-time favorite titles. So I don’t mind seeing it on top every time I stop in to see if there’s a new post… (I don’t use RSS feeds, that’s a bit of communication awareness that just didn’t stick on me.)(Now tweets work a treat…)

By: lu

lu — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:44:19 +0000

just rereading the comments, Jon Gorman makes a good point:

“Of course, I’m not sure if that’s actually what happened in this case. Sounds more like a misunderstanding and the publishing company either didn’t realize the book was available as a kindle book or realized that they weren’t allowed to do that and started trying to backtrack.”

If these books are available at Project Gutenberg, chances are the Publisher had no right to be making money off the title in the way they were (i know nothing about this side of things), perhaps they were charging too much or… who knows, and they were required not to make money from selling something they didn’t own – hence the refunds.

It makes more sense than “it was a pirate copy” since it is a title that is freely available as Larry Scritchfield points out.

By: Larry Scritchfield

Larry Scritchfield — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:25:30 +0000

Addendum to my earlier post.

The Kindle display problem lay with incorrect HTML markup at Project Gutenberg Australia, not with any inappropriate filtering on the part of Amazon.

The moderator may choose not to post either this post and the earlier one. Actually, that would be my preference.

By: Larry Scritchfield

Larry Scritchfield — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:17:47 +0000

Just to thumb my nose at Amazon, I went to Project Gutenberg Australia to download 1984 and Animal Farm. I saved the HTML files and emailed them to my Kindle account.

The files are apparently on my Kindle, but when I attempt to view them, they are blank!

This seems to be beyond what Amazon has a right to do.

By: lu

lu — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:31:56 +0000

this does conjure images of all copies world wide of a controversial book magically disappearing as the corporate entities of America bow down to political interest groups.

We didn’t vote Amazon in, yet they control information.

It would be sad if, what has happened to mainstream media, was to happen to fiction. You might say it couldn’t happen, that the human race has always sought a variety of sources for information, yet independent television news is all but gone.

By: Jon Gorman

Jon Gorman — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 01:27:12 +0000

The issue of “pirated version” is an interesting one. If you “buy” a book on kindle that turns out to be pirated, what are the obligations of Amazon. I’d think in some respects that Amazon would almost be forced by the DMCA to immediately yank their providing access of the book. Otherwise they’d lose their safe harbor provisions, correct? And publishing is one of those areas where a lot of copyright laws actually do tend to fit.

Of course, I’m not sure if that’s actually what happened in this case. Sounds more like a misunderstanding and the publishing company either didn’t realize the book was available as a kindle book or realized that they weren’t allowed to do that and started trying to backtrack.

By: Charles Slater

Charles Slater — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:12:16 +0000

I use Kindle for Iphone, which doesn’t offer an option of creating a backup of purchased books. My copy of 1984 disappeared from my device without my consent or knowledge, except for receiving an email credit from Amazon. There was, at the time, no explanation of why this happened. The Kindle’s terms of agreement state pretty definitely that the customer may keep a “permanent copy of the applicable digital content.” Amazon may have a strictly legal case that they have the right to erase or alter customers’ previous purchases (and clearly they have the technical ability to do so), but they sure suggest quite the opposite.