Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others

EDITOR’S NOTE | 8:41 p.m. The Times published an article explaining that the Orwell books were unauthorized editions that Amazon removed from its Kindle store. However, Amazon said it would not automatically remove purchased copies of Kindle books if a similar situation arose in the future.

This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for— thought they owned.

1984A screen shot from Amazon.com The MobileReference edition of the novel, “Nineteen Eighty-four,” by George Orwell that was deleted from Kindle e-book readers by Amazon.com.

But no, apparently the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic edition, and apparently Amazon, whose business lives and dies by publisher happiness, caved. It electronically deleted all books by this author from people’s Kindles and credited their accounts for the price.

This is ugly for all kinds of reasons. Amazon says that this sort of thing is “rare,” but that it can happen at all is unsettling; we’ve been taught to believe that e-books are, you know, just like books, only better. Already, we’ve learned that they’re not really like books, in that once we’re finished reading them, we can’t resell or even donate them. But now we learn that all sales may not even be final.

As one of my readers noted, it’s like Barnes & Noble sneaking into our homes in the middle of the night, taking some books that we’ve been reading off our nightstands, and leaving us a check on the coffee table.

You want to know the best part? The juicy, plump, dripping irony?

The author who was the victim of this Big Brotherish plot was none other than George Orwell. And the books were “1984” and “Animal Farm.”

Scary.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

Jin Kim July 17, 2009 · 1:09 pm

Strange. And scary.

Already purchased ebooks residing on consumers’ Kindles should have been left alone. Amazon should have simply removed the ebooks from its bookstore. And the proper thing to do would have been to give current customers of the aforementioned books the option to voluntarily sell it back to Amazon. Of course, Amazon should have sweetened the deal with an extra dose of credit. And that wouldn’t have been strange. Or scary.

-Jin

PS: Anybody working on backing up content on the Kindle?

Silvia Cho July 17, 2009 · 1:16 pm

Amazon has recently been disappointing me in many ways. But this one is incredible!

Charles Slater July 17, 2009 · 1:21 pm

My account was credited for a “returned” digital purpose, and the next time I opened the Kindle app on my Iphone, my copy of 1984 was being deleted. I emailed Amazon asking for an explanation, and their reply was “We recently discovered a problem with a Kindle book that you have purchased”. No further explanation.
The day before I had been re-reading 1984, and had just reached the episode where Winston is instructed to rewrite history by carefully editing past newspaper articles.
So helpful of Amazon to delete books that have “a problem”. Perhaps they can extend this helpful service to edit history books that have “a problem”.

Barnacle Jill July 17, 2009 · 1:21 pm

I remember something about a hole.

Aijaz July 17, 2009 · 1:26 pm

This exactly is one of the reasons I haven’t bought a Kindle yet. I want the e-book I bought to be my property, with all the rights that implies.

The other reason is almost the opposite: The Kindle does not address the needs of voracious readers who can’t afford to buy every book they read. They would like to pay a reasonable fee to rent the book for a while. Like, you know, a library. Our household would have 4 kindles and a rental volume of about 40 books a month if that were renting for a dollar or two were an option. Until then, we’re regulars at the public library we pay for with our taxes.

Thanks for posting this report, David.

Aijaz.

Fred July 17, 2009 · 1:51 pm

I guess that means their eBook storage model is dead. We’ll have to save everything to our local hard drives and back it up. It works for iTunes, right? So much for the cloud.

Jeff Cahill July 17, 2009 · 2:06 pm

I love my Kindle2 and this concerns me a great deal. I would love to see a class action lawsuit against Amazon and the Publishers to put a stop to this practice immediately. They can’t pull this stunt with a physical book so why should they be able to pull it with a digital book.

Janice Campbell July 17, 2009 · 2:17 pm

Like Queen Victoria, we are not amused. High school teachers everywhere should take note of the splendid opportunity to illustrate the concept of irony.

On the upside, at least they presumably received full price for a used book, and didn’t have to stand in a long line to make the return!

If anyone imagined that they owned the e-books they purchase, they should now understand the reality of licensing. Oh well!

Sebastian M. July 17, 2009 · 2:18 pm

Wow… creepy.
Hopefully that won’t become a common practice for other
online sales. You can’t force people to give something back
that they have already paid for just because the owner
decides that it wasn’t such a good idea.
Where is the uprising people??

John July 17, 2009 · 2:25 pm

Yet another reason to never get a Kindle, or any reader that has such DRM embedded in it. Just because the published got cold feat is no reason why they should have the ability to retroactively change their mind.

I also note you’re careful not to name the publisher, who I think is a root cause of this issue and should be lambasted as Amazon is, since they are equally culpable.

John

Ben Ostrander July 17, 2009 · 2:25 pm

I wanted to get a Kindle. The price a little high though. This made up my mind though. No Kindle or other ebook reader until assurances are made this cannot happen again. I’ve used the library for years and going to stick with it. I can handle carrying the extra pound.

Christopher Trahan July 17, 2009 · 2:32 pm

I am interested in receiving your e-mails in reference to the blogs and updates to articles.

David Dollar July 17, 2009 · 2:54 pm

I was planning on buying myself a Kindle 2 for my upcoming birthday. Thanks for changing my mind, Amazon!

You can’t just come reclaim something I purchased, whether or not you give me the money back for it. It’s just not right.

jgodsey July 17, 2009 · 2:54 pm

and some pinheads want to PAY amazon more money to put one of these in the hands of every schoolchild? what phony baloney crapola is that?

The government should be legally forced to go OPEN SOURCE only. NO PROPRIETARY HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE. this backsies nonsense is beyond the pale!

abby, the hacker chick blog July 17, 2009 · 3:00 pm

I thought this was an April fool’s joke when I saw the author in question was George Orwell… only, it’s July 17.

I can’t imagine any response to this other than to boycott kindles, that is so very wrong.

Jill ONeill July 17, 2009 · 3:02 pm

If the media had done its job properly at the introduction of e-books and talked about licensing rather than purchasing, they wouldn’t be surprised at these occurrences. A Kindle user is only licensing access to content that resides on Amazon’s systems at the whim of a publisher. The media has failed by not making this very clear to consumers.

gordon July 17, 2009 · 3:03 pm

This is one of the consequences of a connected Kindle that I never liked.

I’ve used a Sony for a few years now, and I just use it to read books, and it takes me a while to read a book, so being connected to a service seemed like exposure rather than benefit – and it seems true now.

However, at least Amazon’s Kindle book prices are competitive (unlike Sony Store).

John July 17, 2009 · 3:04 pm

I have been in the market for an ebook reader but didn’t want the proprietary stuff that Amazon has. Perhaps the E Reader, which can use pdf files…which I can store myself.

gordon July 17, 2009 · 3:05 pm

@Sebastian M comment #9

Amazon are re-writing digital history – they changed their web API license to prevent use from mobile devices and are causing apps to stop working that people coded in good faith and customer bought in good faith.

e.g. //bruji.com/articles/2009/07/17/bye-bye-pocketpedia/

Winn Schwartau July 17, 2009 · 3:13 pm

Love my Kindle… Here’s what to do… pro tem.

1. I leave my tranmsit switch OFF most of the time.

2. I back up my saved files on the internal SD then also a backup via the built in USB.

3. DOn’t read the ‘banned’ books with transmit on.

Not perfect, but… nothing is.
Winn

Noel July 17, 2009 · 3:23 pm

And what happens to people who highlight and annotate the books? Searchable and hideable annotations should be a major benefit for ebooks. But if your books may suddenly disappear, that can be a lot of wasted time.

I never write in books, but for some take lots of notes on my computer. I want a good ebook reader for the books I need to reference. I won’t buy one where my annotations may disappear.

Big Bill July 17, 2009 · 3:30 pm

Break the DRM. You bought, you own it. Make a backup, it’s yours.

Matt July 17, 2009 · 3:33 pm

Publishers and other content providers make a grave error when they ensure that legitimately purchasing their products involves more hassle and uncertainty than simply pirating them.

Louis July 17, 2009 · 3:36 pm

Hah, the irony is rich, memory hole anyone?

Mandy July 17, 2009 · 3:37 pm

Many public libraries now have ebooks which can be borrowed with a library card, just like printed books. So for those of you looking for a way to get your ebooks for free, go to the same place that’s been lending books for more than a century. It seems like many tech savvy people are not library users by nature so they don’t realize that libraries have adopted new technologies. Through my local library’s website I can download ebooks and audiobooks as well as access dozens of databases that I would have to pay for otherwise. It’s great – and it’s all free.