Amazon erases Orwell books from Kindle

19 July 2009 | 15:53 - By Stefano Boscutti

In a move that angered customers and generated waves of online pique, Amazon remotely deleted some digital editions of the books from the Kindle devices of readers who had bought them.

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An Amazon spokesman, Drew Herdener, said in an email message that the books were added to the Kindle store by a company that did not have rights to them, using a self-service function. "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," he said. Wow, swiping media you've already paid for out of your own media device.  Down the memory hole we go.  It's oh so 1984.  No, really, one of the reappropriated ebooks was actually George Orwell's "1984".   Newspeak anyone?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jul/17/amazon-kindle-1984

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About this Blog

New New Media looks at how our mediascape is exploding to bits. How the latest technology and the internet are changing the way we live, work and play. How the latest media is shaping us all.

Stefano Boscutti is an executive creative director and strategist. He's like a better looking version of Todd Sampson. He also has an abiding faith that stories and wordplay (and not powerpoint presentations) will change the world.

 
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