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« A Plea For The Profane
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Amazon Puts The Firemen From Fahrenheit 451 Out Of Work

UPDATED below
Via Wil Wheaton’s Twitter feed (twitter.com/wilw), we get this news about the latest developments in digital book burning:

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.”

Yes, well, if ever a publisher needed to actually read his author’s books…

I don’t quite believe that in a battle between retailer and publisher, Amazon is the party which lacks leverage.  Still, I guess it was inevitable; just as they’ve made book buying ruinously easy, Amazon has now made book banning both effortless and instantaneous.  You don’t even have to light a match anymore, let alone dispatch firemen to hose down an unlucky bibliophile’s library with kerosene; all you have to do is hit Enter.

I bought a Kindle after I injured my back, and it’s a pleasant traveling companion.  Apparently, however, if I want to keep the books I buy for it I have no option but to memorize and recite them to myself as I wander around in the snow.  Thanks, Jeff Bezos.

UPDATE:
Endgadget has more from Amazon:

Drew Herdener, Amazon.com’s Director of Communications, pinged us directly with the following comment, and now things are starting to make a lot more sense. Seems as if the books were added initially by an outfit that didn’t have the rights to the material.

These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. 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. We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances.

So, Amazon confesses to breaking into its customers’ Kindles and secretly activating the Memory Hole option, but they’re really sorry and promise never, ever to do it again, and you can totally trust them to resist enabling that previously unmentioned protocol that will cause your Kindle to self-destruct like those tape recorders at the beginning of Mission: Impossible.

That’s good enough for me.

Posted by scott on Friday, July 17th, 2009 at 2:11 pm.

26 Responses to “Amazon Puts The Firemen From Fahrenheit 451 Out Of Work”

oops! Guess they want to add the Kindles to the yard sale crates of betamax cassettes and videodiscs. Too bad, I guess I’ll have to make due with actual books or e-texts on my eee-pc. Another golden goose peers into the windows of the abattoir.

Left by stupidBaby on July 17th, 2009

Print is not dead.
There’s a deal to be said for concrete objects.

Left by Li'l Innocent on July 17th, 2009

This is a big part of why I’ve never found e-books all that interesting.

Left by Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist on July 17th, 2009

But how did they do it? How could they access your Kindle if it was shut off? This is creepy.

Left by Kathy on July 17th, 2009

Printing on concrete objects is all very well but I exceeded the airline luggage allowance.

Left by herr doktor bimler on July 17th, 2009

An interesting point that is rarely mentionned is who are the sad, pathetic losers who ae issuing such orders to Amazon, etc. Sadly, George O. seems to have left his litrary estate to a bunch of parasitical losers who spend all their time scouring the net and everywhere else looking for any instance where Mssr. Blair might be quoted, and demanding all sorts of money for themselves, regardless of the fact that they never actually did anything to create any value. TB in 1948 is a bitch; mopre so when one refuses to take any steps to deal with one’s possible demise.

Left by skeptic99 on July 18th, 2009

“we’ve been taught to believe that e-books are, you know, just like books, only better.”

Whoa, hold on to that “we” there Willy. When the Kindle first came out, I actually read a bunch of articles by people who were very skeptical of the thing, because of… well, this exact thing, pretty much.

If anything, I’ve been taught to believe that this kind of nonsense goes on all the time in the world of e-books.

Left by Christopher on July 18th, 2009

An interesting aspect to the story is the student who had annotated and marked up his “copy” for a class, because Amazon essentially stole his work.

There is always lots of good discussion about copyright and DRM at boingboing.net.

I’m waiting for better screen technology (I forget what it’s called, but a less reflective “e-paper”). But when it comes to books, notebooks, paper, pens, pencils, etc., I’m still a Luddite. I write letters and send them through the mail. With a stamp. Who does that anymore? (Only one person I write to.) I’ve got page points in my copy of The Bride of Lammermoor, which is getting banged up with going to work with me, but too bad.

Of course, 85 percent of my clutter would be gone with the books and papers . . .

At least it wasn’t Fahrenheit 451.

Left by slywy on July 18th, 2009

Decades of EULAs have led me to believe that if there’s any way they can change the rules on you midstream, you should expect that sooner or later they will. This is why I own my own DVDR, too, I don’t trust TIVO not to decide I’m better off watching commercials and tweaking their software to make sure I do. It’s also why I update my computer and attendant programs rarely and only manually, why I don’t own a credit card, and why my family doesn’t know my current legal name.

Oh, wait, no, that last one’s because I’m paranoid. Still, there’ll come a day when I can point out that was a wise decision, too, I’m guessing.

Paperbacks! They’re lighter than you think!

Left by D. Sidhe on July 18th, 2009

I read this to my SO, and she said “Wouldn’t it have been more ironic if the author had been Ray Bradbury?”

Left by Clint on July 18th, 2009

they better be careful, next thing you know Winston will be on the dole

Left by preznit giv me turkee on July 18th, 2009

Gee, I read about this sort of thing potentially happening when the Kindle came out, and it was warned against in more than one place. I wonder if the kid who’s notes on F451 were deleted thus depriving him of his IP, can now sue Amazon for damages. Now that would be a delicious case. You got your DRM in my IP!

Left by papa zita on July 18th, 2009

See, this is why I continue to shoplift in late middle age: it’s the last honest profession.

Left by Doghouse Riley on July 18th, 2009

“They don’t gotta burn the books, they just remove ‘em”

- Rage Against the Machine

Left by Edgar Allan Li Po on July 18th, 2009

[...] See, this is exactly why I’ve never bought a Kindle: [...]

Left by SemiConscious Dot Org » Book Burning: Now With Fewer Greenhouse Gases! on July 18th, 2009

It seems increasingly so that people are forgetting that the power that makes devices work requires an outside source to supply or manufacture and then make available.

Batteries, power plants and solar boards are great but they fail and are a controllable commodity.

My eyes might fail, the sun comes up but half the day, but I am pretty sure odds are that they’ll not be plucked out and/or made available only at an enormous price.

Left by kate on July 18th, 2009

So I’ll stick to my dusty old used books and maps if by chance I need to find the way to the refugee center, thanks.

Left by kate on July 18th, 2009

Maybe it’s the drugs, maybe it’s the spinal cord, who the fuck knows, but D. Sidhe, honey, I think that you now have some competition for “Most Paranoid Commenter @ WO’C” — my NetFlix, which came in Tuesday before my surgery, and which I hadn’t gotten to watch yet, was…. (drumroll, please…) FAHRENHEIT 451.

I shit y’all naught.

So pick your creepy background noise: a combo of the “Twilight Zone” & “X Files” that sidles off into the woods up that hill with a mercurial lift to the vapors…

OR, those creepy-as-fuck Disneytronics brats singing, “It’s A Small World After All…”

Left by Anntichrist S; Coulter on July 18th, 2009

Wait, so I only find out about this title when I’m on the verge of losing it? Story of my life, man. I swear someone’s out to get me.

Left by D. Sidhe on July 18th, 2009

D., honey, remember our mantra: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that SOMEBODY isn’t out to get you!”

And one of these days, I’m finally gonna hit the powerball (didn’t get to go get a ticket tonight, unfortunately) and we are gonna have the t-shirts that attest to that very philosophical concept!

Maybe later on, as my PBS stations are all off the air, when they SHOULD be showing my favorite Britcoms, the bastids, I’ll watch F451 and have a TOTAL paranoid freakout (aided by the recovery drugs, of course) and we can write a road-trip screenplay about it! And yes, Scott, you will be in on the title, as our actual screenwriter expertise-offering consultant.

Think of it as “Thelma & Louise” Redux, except this time, THE COPS GO OVER THAT SHARP LIP to crash at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Heh heh heh… somewhere, I hear the Roadrunner giving the cops a raspberry then “Meep-me-meep!”

Left by Anntichrist S. Coulter on July 18th, 2009

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.

Actually, the publisher found out that it was illegal for them to publish an unauthorized edition (electronic or otherwise) of the books, which are still under copyright. But don’t let that ruin your fun.

Left by harmfulguy on July 18th, 2009

I got a note from an inquiry:
We are changing our systems so that in the future, books will not be removed from customers’ devices in these circumstances.

FWIW…

Left by JoeBuddha on July 20th, 2009

Does the Kindle come with a webcam? Cuz I am so not buying one if it does.

Left by actor212 on July 20th, 2009

I may still buy a Kindle. You just need to go into it understanding what you are getting into.

I suspect if I already owned a Kindle and this happened, I would be pretty pissed off too.

Left by Chris R on July 20th, 2009

What if unfavorable mentions of of say.. Monsanto or V. Putin get deleted down the memory hole? Or some new text added or a Pepsi blurb inserted? I will keep the dead tree copies thank you until they are pried from my cold dead hands.

Left by claragilbert on July 21st, 2009

[...] Book Burning: Now With Fewer Greenhouse Gases! See, this is exactly why I’ve never bought a Kindle: 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. [...]

Left by Book Burning: Now With Fewer Greenhouse Gases! « Heavy Metal Librarian on December 29th, 2009

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