Unrounded Circle

In what is perhaps the ultimate twist of irony, Amazon.com decided it would be a good idea to go all Nazi on kindle users who had legitimately bought George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four and Animal Farm and delete them from their e-book readers, citing a conflict between the publisher and the copyrights holder in the US, where the books haven’t gone into the public domain, presumably thanks to the abomination that is the Sonny Bono copyright extension act.

Now, I don’t care if readers were reimbursed and I most certainly don’t care whether or not Amazon is allowed to do this by the Kindle’s terms of service. It is just plain wrong.

To start, the act of going into your legally-purchased machine and deleting your legally-purchased e-book feels like a violation of your most private space. Imagine if Penguin Books or your neighbourhood bookstore decided that they no longer want you to have a copy of that book they sold you, so they decide it’s OK to send someone to break into your house, retrieve the book and leave a check by the door. That’s what you can be subjected to when you purchase a Kindle —and more incredibly— that’s what Amazon actually decided to do to keep the publisher and the copyright holder happy, all at the expense of those foolish enough to purchase an e-book to read on their shiny new Kindle.

This is just a symptom of how twisted DRM technologies are. Content industries, namely film & television, software, music and increasingly book publishers have become so obsessed with anyone copying their stuff that they are willing to step on the very people that make them money. By wanting to exercise such tight controls, they end up abusing their legitimate customers, invading their privacy and treating them like criminals.

Sorry, Amazon, it’s unrestricted formats or good ol’ paper books for me. I think I might give my dog-bitten paperback copy of Nineteen Eighty-four a re-read, just in case I ever feel tempted to buy a Kindle.