Ebooks and 1984

[adina_atl]

I have an ebook reader, a Kindle from Amazon. If I hear one more time about how evil and draconian Amazon was for removing "1984" from people's Kindles after Amazon sold unauthorized copies of the novel, I'm going to scream. Probably at someone, in their face. Because every time the word "ebook" is mentioned, someone hauls out this hairy old

Comments

[nineveh_uk]

Oh dear. Sounds like people are being *ffing stupid on the internet again.

[adina_atl]

Again. Still. Always.

The sentence that set me off was a comment in someone else's journal:
E-books scare me a bit because of the whole proprietary thing (remember when all the copies of 1984 disappeared?), though the technology is pretty cool.

Because "all the copies of 1984 disappeared" is such an accurate summation of the situation.

[kk1raven]

"All the copies"? There's a huge difference between all copies of something disappearing and copies of a particular, stolen version being taken back with refunds.

There seems to be some ignorance showing through there. It seems to me that they needed to take back those copies and refund the purchase price. I think they probably could have done a better job of communicating with people about what was going on, but it doesn't seem to me to be something to be upset over at this point. I have other issues with some things that Amazon has done, but not with taking back something that wasn't legally sold.

[adina_atl]

Communication is always a problem, yes.

Sometimes I wonder whether this would ever even have been an issue if the book hadn't been 1984--I mean, the only book better suited to make a kerfuffle would have been Faranheit 451! *grin*

[sraun]

A friend who is an expert in copyright law said at the time that Amazon was in the wrong in deleting the already sold copies. The copyright owner is allowed to recover from the publisher for sold copies and damages, and make whatever arrangements desired for unsold copies, but sold copies are supposed to stay with the buyers.

From a logical point of view, I can see why the law was written that way - before e-books, the cost of tracking down every single sold copy of a pirated book would have been astronomical.

[adina_atl]

I suspect the matter would have had to go to court--and then a couple of rounds of appeals--before there'd be a definitive answer. At the very least I think Amazon was acting in good faith in removing and refunding.