Bought an eBook for Kindle? Careful, Amazon may delete it!

r3nu4l

I read about this on BookGroupOnline! :eek:

Amazon delete's Kindle titles AFTER they were purchased and downloaded

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.

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.

ElNino

The issue was that the George Orwell books are out of copyright in the rest of the world but still in copyright in the U.S. The supplier who provided Amazon their version didn't own the Orwell U.S. copyright so Amazon was breaking the law by selling that version. However Amazon is still selling the copyrighted versions of the Orwell books so they should have just compensated the copyright holders instead of cancelling the sales and deleting the books from customers' Kindles.

The ebook industry is making the same mistake that music publishers made a decade ago by offering their products for sale severely crippled with DRM. Readers are hardware locked to one device and can't swap their ebooks with friends like you can do with paper books. Until publishers start offering Ebooks for sale DRM free the market won't take off and piracy will prevail like it did with music. Music publishers eventually realised their mistake and oiffered DRM free music so hopefully ebook publishers will see the light sooner rather than later.

Eoin

I think it's the pricing that is the main problem. I was shocked to see that it can be the same price to get a hardback copy of a new release then it was to get the digital download.

They're probably in a bit of a more fortunate position than the film and music industries though as I'd imagine it's far easier to make a perfect copy of a CD or DVD than a book.

Locamon

Whatever about the drm and copyright issues here I thought it was hilarious that the book in question was 1984 of all the books to have this happen to:D -some great articles in the States on this.
Imagine if your local bookshop sold you a copy of a book that they had stocked not knowing the publisher had no rights to it -and they climbed in through an open window in your house and took it back without telling you! Not exactly the same but where did they get the power to take something back they had sold without notifying the buyer
Digital ownership has become temporary and subject to the whims of the seller?
One student using the edition checked his device to find both his book and his notes missing -so they not only retain control of the book but also any work you create using it?
In fairness amazon have said it was all a big mistake and will stop this happening again -or did we just get a glimpse of the future? :eek:

nayorleck114

I love all things techi. But when it comes to books, you can't beat the real thing. (plus you don't get the Airline hostess saying please turn off all electronic devises!). Maybe I will be proved wrong, but a Book is a Book and a book forever.

Eoin

Have you used one for more than a few minutes? I was doubtful at first, but I genuinely find it as usable as a "real" book.

Do you really think we'll really be using paper for books for the forseeable future?

nayorleck114

eoin wrote: »

Have you used one for more than a few minutes? I was doubtful at first, but I genuinely find it as usable as a "real" book.

Do you really think we'll really be using paper for books for the forseeable future?

I think there will be a market, but you can't beat the real thing. The Hardback Signed first edition are investiments that a digital copy can't offer.

I probably will buy one and find it very useful, but I think we will always have the paper book.