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Government Thought Control
July 19, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
I've heard it argued that they had a legitimate reason to pull the copies (they were sold illegally.) But the mere fact that they CAN do it and that they are WILLING to delete already purchased copies from peoples' devices... No e-books for me, EVER!
Posted by: Andrew Clunn | Jul 20, 2009 11:40:28 AM
Wow, I was not aware of that. That would be like someone coming into my house without a search warrant to look for "illegal" books and taking them without due process.
I wonder: can you download "1984" to a Kindle?
Posted by: Bruce Oksol | Jul 20, 2009 9:27:09 PM
What irony! After posting my comment, I googled the story and found out that one of the books in question was "1984."
You can't make this stuff up! I'm flabbergasted.
Posted by: Bruce Oksol | Jul 20, 2009 9:29:39 PM
I guess Tom's non-Kindle alternative e-book reader is the way to go. Tom, maybe you should provide a link with this 4-Block.
Posted by: Sparticus | Jul 20, 2009 9:39:20 PM
I find the "synchronization" terminology used to be most interesting. There is no possible alternate interpretation except that it allows for remote edits and alterations to existing books. That may not be the "planned" usage, but that is clearly within its capabilities. "Shades of 1984" indeed.
Posted by: O Bloody Hell | Jul 21, 2009 11:18:53 AM
I would expect to genuinely own something irreversibly if I paid for it.
But I know that amazon's model involves a drm scheme that its users must agree to. And since they are not the gubmint, they have every right to hold their customers to the contract they agreed to before purchasing the book.
You can pirate thousands of dollars of college textbooks within hours. It's really not that hard these days. In contrast, Amazon's service is offering you the convenience of having the book you want any time you want it for a nominal fee. If they "unbuy" your, then all is not doubleplusungood. You can just use the refunded money to buy the same book from a different publisher.
Posted by: tpulley | Jul 22, 2009 12:10:13 AM
> I would expect to genuinely own something irreversibly if I paid for it.
But I know that amazon's model involves a drm scheme that its users must agree to. And since they are not the gubmint, they have every right to hold their customers to the contract they agreed to before purchasing the book.
1) This is irrelevant, THE BOOKS WERE BOUGHT ON AMAZON. I'd think it is Amazon's responsibility to ascertain the legality of any sale they perform, prior to sale.
2) These were pirate only in the sense of insane US Copyright laws which are, like many laws, no longer connected with a purpose but have become redesigned for the benefit of special interests like Disney. How long did the FF consider necessary "to promote the Sciences and the Arts"? Try 28 years, max. Thanks to Disney, three times that is no longer "adequate" to promote the Sciences and the Arts. Funny, I don't see Disney as likely to NOT continue producing under the ORIGINAL terms, much less the excessive terms that existed in 1995.
So this extension does NOT promote the Sciences and the Arts, but instead actively works against such by stifling certain very common and effective types of innovation -- which, I'd note, Disney themselves have been quite effective at -- namely riffs on cultural memes, which is the vast majority of stuff Disney has made and done in the last 80 years. I will happily and without a moment's hesitation pirate any and all Disney "properties" as a result of their pushing this unConstitutional abortion of a law through. They have ceded all copyright protections as far as I am morally concerned by a ridiculous overreach for their own benefit to the expense of legitimate public interest.
3) Amazingly, the device isn't given away free by Amazon -- you buy it, so, frankly YOU OWN IT. I would, and should, no more expect Amazon to have the right to come in and selectively "edit" what I have on my device than I would expect Dell to be able to come by and remove hardware or software at will or GM to come by and remove the cruise control off my car.
4) "You can pirate thousands of dollars of college textbooks within hours. It's really not that hard these days." Yeah, guess what? I don't need a friggin' Kindle to do it, either. So Orwellian crap like this will do nothing to make me want to own a Kindle.
5) "You can just use the refunded money to buy the same book from a different publisher." Or I can save the money on a Kindle and use it to buy real books in the first place, and NEVER EVER have to worry about this kind of thing.
6) This is why I will never, ever not own an open-source device of this kind. Any sort of proprietary device is always going to have some kind of "special" controls built into it for the benefit of someone.
7) Copyright AS-IS is dead. Copyright historically is based on control over the distribution containers of the copyrighted info -- since there are no containers for digital media (this crap is nothing but an attempt to add that back in) Copyright As-Is is doomed. It died the day when the internet became a cultural norm. Now it's just spastically flailing about screwing things up in its death throes. (NOTE: That does not mean Copyright itself is dead or has no purpose -- only that it cannot attain that goal: "To promote the Sciences and the Arts", through control of containers. PERIOD. It needs to be re-thought and re-approached from scratch. Rewards must be provided to content creators based on a different set of ideas and memes which have nothing to do with possession of control over the material or its distribution.
8) As I note -- the fact that Amazon can come in and alter a book I've purchased -- not just remove it, but alter it -- is an unacceptable idea in the first place. That they even thought that anyone should be willing to accept that is preposterous.
Posted by: O Bloody Hell | Jul 27, 2009 11:47:24 AM
