Amazon makes up for '1984' snafu but the chapter isn't over
Summary: David Pogue says Amazon is doing the right thing in finally offering to return "1984" - including users' annotations - to Kindle users who had the book remotely ripped from their hands. But it's a fix the company could have made proactively and much more timely.
David Pogue says Amazon is doing the right thing in finally offering to return "1984" - including users' annotations - to Kindle users who had the book remotely ripped from their hands. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sent out an email to those users today offering to give them a legitimate copy of the book, including any annotations they may have made, or a $30 refund if they don't want the book.
“As you were one of the customers impacted by the removal of ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ from your Kindle device in July of this year, we would like to offer you the option to have us re-deliver this book to your Kindle along with any annotations you made. You will not be charged for the book.”
The email apparently restates Bezos' angry mea culpa he issued back in July when news of the snafu hit.
This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our ’solution’ to the problem was stupid, thoughtless and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.
You'll recall that the reason for the pull-back was that Amazon discovered it didn't have the rights to sell that particular copy of "1984." As Pogue notes, Amazon did have a legit copy available and it could have alerted users to the situation, offering the switch or rebate, ensure that annotations would still be available and done the switch. Instead they took two months to take care of people. Bezos' apology meant little until the users were made whole.
The damage to Amazon may be more than just of a PR nature. Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard Law prof, says content owners and lawyers will take note of Amazon's ability to control users' Kindles.
"There is this new prospect for control, and it is hard to imagine that regulators or litigants won’t notice." Litigants in defamation cases or government regulators could demand that these services remove entire works from their collections, or simply a word or paragraph that they found offensive, Mr. Zittrain said.
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Talkback
How ironic
I love the post;
<I>The damage to Amazon may be more than just of a PR nature. Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard Law prof, says content owners and lawyers will take note of Amazon?s ability to control users? Kindles.
?There is this new prospect for control, and it is hard to imagine that regulators or litigants won?t notice.? Litigants in defamation cases or government regulators could demand that these services remove entire works from their collections, or simply a word or paragraph that they found offensive, Mr. Zittrain said.</I>
Doesn't matter. People will keep buying anything the great plutoracy sticks in their face. Reguardless if the people's rights are being eroded away.
- Kc
Uh huh...
How ironic that this happened with "1984"!!!
RE: Amazon makes up for '1984' snafu but the chapter isn't over
RE: Amazon makes up for '1984' snafu but the chapter isn't over
RE: Amazon makes up for '1984' snafu but the chapter isn't over
1984 is only a little late coming
You could not have planned a better or more ironic
introduction to the dangers of this kind of technology.
You clearly "own" nothing on your Kindle device and "Big
Brother" can and obviously will do anything he wants to
with it. Pull content, modify content, censor content, or
read your annotations (better watch out here). Even
without knowing about Amazon's ability to mess with
Kindle content I was never interested in buying one, but
now I will never buy any such electronic reading and
storage device. I own all the books, including their
annotations in the margins, in my library of books on
paper. The dangers of this electronic reading technology
are more than clearly pointed out by this incident. And
yet, as another poster points out, the masses will fall all
over themselves to buy into it.
RE: Amazon makes up for '1984' snafu but the chapter isn't over
content ownership.
RE: Amazon makes up for '1984' snafu but the chapter isn't over
So amazon didn't "delete the book"... or even "delete the book and my notes"... to *TOOK* a copy of my notes and placed it on its server.
What if my "notes" contained private information?????
Amazon now has a copy of that? Forever????
Thanks Amazon.
RE: Amazon makes up for '1984' snafu but the chapter isn't over
The idea that Amazon can reach out and grab annotations is frightening.
Also frightening is the implications of school textbooks being distributed on a device like this, where the content can be changed without notice, by some party with a political or religious axe to grind.
RE: Amazon makes up for '1984' snafu but the chapter isn't over
RE: Amazon makes up for '1984' snafu but the chapter isn't over
The fact that they have the ability to restore "USER ANNOTATIONS" to the users means that they are in possession of stolen property.
Solution? Buy Sony. nt
RE: Amazon makes up for '1984' snafu but the chapter isn't over
The trend is moving more to all devices, including PCs, all starting with small devices and up. It is a major strategic for the big guys; Microoft, Google, Apple, even the ISPs and IPTV providers. Microsoft has it for long time since ARTICLE 2B to make central control a major aspect for Windows. ARTICLE 2B was too controversial and was shot down. But Microsoft neve gain up and slowly got want they wanted in the name of Security (evolution of Windows Update from manual to automatic) and the push to LIVE.
My concern that the direction will be so embedded in our society it will be too late to do much about it. The shared networked with centralized data which is too rich to not be leveredged will undoubted cause all problems for people one way or another.