Kindle users may have experienced a harsh reality last Friday. I did not, thus I had to hear about it from the Times article, but still, as spoken by the New York Times, “This is ugly.” As a Kindle owner and user (and about to upgrade to a newer version), I wholeheartedly agree.
In the article, Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others, David Pogue reports that removal of all of George Orwell’s titles from all Amazon Kindles. Yes, purchased books disappearing from e-book readers without any warning or notice; books that owners thought they owned. Kindle users were credited for the price they paid, but the idea of removing books from Kindles unilaterally leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth.
Amazon swears it won’t handle the issue the same in the future; Amazon said it would not automatically remove purchased copies of Kindle books if a similiar situation arose. Okay, but the thing is, they just did it.
Why George Orwell books? The publisher changed its mind about offering electronic editions.
Thank goodness I have print copies. And it’s just a little creepy that everyone’s copy of 1984 was removed by big brother Amazon.
Something to think about for sure.
Meanwhile, happy Monday!
{ 1 comment }
Yeah, Trish. I read about this. My reaction was the same as one blogger: I’m never going to buy a Kindle! Some people have argued that Amazon did nothing wrong. But that’s not the point. The whole idea that someone else has control over my data and over what I can read, that’s just creepy. It’s like something you would expect from a virus: they deleted something from my Kindle.
-TimK
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