NYTimes.com: Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others
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.
The MobileReference edition of the novel, “Nineteen Eighty-four,” by George Orwell that was deleted from Kindle e-book readers by Amazon.com.
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 pretty shocking. I know Amazon refunded the money, but the fact that it removed the book from the Kindle is wrong. Stuff disappears from iTunes all the time, but never from your iPod or iPhone after you’ve purchased it.
The funny thing is that I’ve been looking to re-read George Orwell’s 1984, especially with all the issues with privacy, control of flow of information, etc. I guess hard copy is the way to go.
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