Amazon pulls 1984 from Kindle

Outcry as books removed remotely

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18 July 2009 17:37 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Amazon has come into criticism over its decision to remove and delete copies of George Orwell's 1984 from not only its online Kindle store but also from Kindle ebook readers across the US.

Ironically, copying something that would be more akin to Big Brother, the book retailer automatically deleted copies on people's devices without telling them.

Amazon states that the book was falsely published along with Animal Farm, by a company called Mobile Reference, Kindle owners who have bought the book are outraged at the invasion by the company.

"It's like Barnes and Noble coming into your house in the middle of the night and raiding you bookshelf", one Kindle owner told Pocket-lint.

Amazon, who has refunded the ebook purchase, is standing by its position, however has confirmed that it will not be automatically removing copies from people's devices in the future.

"The Kindle edition books [Animal Farm and 1984] were removed from the Kindle store and are no longer available for purchase", the email read. "When this occurred, your purchases were automatically refunded. You can still locate the books in the Kindle store, but each has a status of not yet available", the company said to customers wondering where their novels had gone.

The electronic ebook reading device, which is currently rumoured to be released in the UK in time for Christmas allows people to download books over the air to be stored on their Kindle.

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Comments

WOw...u coming to my house to burn my books next??? I thought Hitler was dead??

http://c-trainsentertainmentreviews.blogspot.com/ Posted by cj, USA
This is crazy. And the fact that I now know that have the aility to go on my Kindle and delete books is scarry. what else can they do?????

Thanks for the article I will not be buying a KIndle now that i know this. Posted by greedygirl1, US
I have a Sony Reader and highly recommend it.. although it can't connect to the internet, it's safe from Sony or whoever trying to take back your collection. Posted by Josh, USA
It will be interesting to see if this story impacts the sales of kindles. Maybe now would be a good time to pick one up cheaply on ebay? Posted by Steve Swift, England
Six months ago bloggers (notably Stephanie at UrbZen) warned about this kind of thing.

See:

http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/kindle-see-we-told-you-so/ Posted by Mike Licht, USA
"Maybe now would be a good time to pick one up cheaply on ebay? " ( Posted by Steve Swift)

Maybe next year will be the time to pick them up for nothing, as a flood of Chinese copycat readers with more 'relaxed' DRM engulfs them.

Except in China, ironically.

(See 1984, Animal Farm...) Posted by Rob Kent, 'I thought this was the UK...'