Amazon on the 1984 deleting…

Craft & Design

Hi Im A Kindle Roo
A follow up to our Kangaroo Kindle how-to, Amazon’s CEO says sorry for deleting the 1984 books (and others) –

This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

Amazon likely earned a lot of customers back with this – good job Jeff and gang.

And here’s your solution going forward – just remove the ability to remotely delete anything off all Kindles. Next Kindle update, just kill it. It’s that simple and no one will ever need to worry about this again, Amazon will not need to promise publishers anything like this, it shouldn’t have been there to begin with.

19 thoughts on “Amazon on the 1984 deleting…

  1. nokindleforme. says:

    I still have a problem with buying a book that can be remotely deleted, let alone not loaned out or resold. I’ll stick with my paper books (or the internet archive downloads for free). One more case of a “benefit” to customers that is really a way to take away some basic functionality/liberty. (not even bringing up archiving, anyone got a 8.25 disk drive? someplace I still have one of the pre-8.25 the big monsters, a paper tape drive? cards? yah, can’t read those, but the book published in the 1700’s? no problem)

  2. Lonzo5 says:

    In the case of the kindle, Amazon doesn’t deserve customers. The device is utterly useless– obsolete by design. The DX does little to correct the fatal flaws inherent to this reader; PDF reading is not a “feature”. I would much rather take my chances with an AMOLED-equipped device (which can actually perform mind-boggling feats, such as browse the internet and DISPLAY COLOR) or even a regular backlit LCD. By the way, these things don’t even have a built-in light, do they? I feel very sorry for anyone who bought any model of this device, because they are going to end up either cracked or unused in two years at the most. I’m not the biggest fan of Barnes and Noble, but I really hope they leave Amazon in the dust in the eBook biz.

  3. Keith Brown says:

    I just got a new ebook reader yesterday, and I seriously was considering a Kindle. I ended up with a Sony PRS-505 instead, due to this incident.

    I wanted a eInk device because it is very low power (meaning less worry it’ll run out of power while I am away from a computer), and because it is easier on my eyes than a LCD screen (trust me, reading ebooks on a LCD hurts your eyes after a while). I just didn’t want a device that they could access. My Sony, I use open source software to manage, with the USB Mass storage device drivers. I’m in control of the device I paid for, not some company.

  4. gyziger says:

    With all the trouble that seems to be looming about eBook devices, if you’re having problems with the device wouldn’t it be easier just to buy the book itself?

  5. nokindleforme says:

    …and why is this on make? boingboing I get, other places I get, but make? How do I make something with/about this? Not make, unless make is now on kindle, and then, why?

    1. Phillip Torrone says:

      @nokindleforme – please read the post, you’ll see we did an article on how to *make* your own DRM-free ebooks, including a version of 1984.

      1. nokindleforme says:

        in this post there is nothing about makeing DRM free 1984 (am I missing something?), in the previous, yes, but this one was just an “apology” from Amazon. I agree with you about if they really are sorry, then kill the functionality that they can erase your doc’s remotely. My question is “is the the forum for this?” I don’t see a make (yes, the previous “how to put 1984 DRM free on your kindle is a make) but is this a make? what can I do with this information? not buy a kindle? buy a kindle? Now if this said “they say they apologized, but here is how you can disable the possibility of them doing this next time, yes. This I don’t get.

        (the only reason I post things like this is that really, really like make and REALLY don’t want it to “Omni”) thx.

  6. LOL says:

    The ignorance that protects capitalist business models with lobbyist subgroup DRM laws.

    Step 1:
    Ask your children if they think its normal for government to micromanage their lives.

    Step 2:
    Read 1984

    Step 3:
    Miss the book’s point — We agree most people have proven they don’t have the mental capacity to know freedom.

  7. Mystech says:

    While their attitude seems to be in the right place, apologies without corrections are ultimately not worth the pixels they are printed on when dealing with companies. Faces, voices and policies can change (or be redacted, as the case may be) in a moment’s notice.

    As Phillip so directly puts it, the solution is to remove this feature altogether. That is the only true, sincere and substantial way to correct this action.

  8. jayburnsztn says:

    This new Kindle – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007HCCOD0/?&tag=376-20&ie=UTF8 – is the best thing I’ve splurged on for a while. For the price you REALLY can’t go wrong. Great screen, thin and lightweight, such a great value.

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