In an attempt to avoid a lawsuit over rights, Amazon decided to delete already-purchased copies of George Orwell’s most famous novels – “1984” and “Animal Farm.” source
People loudly complained, saying that it was unfair to consumers and that the deletions set a pretty sad-slash-hilarious example, considering the books’ context. source
A ticked-off high school student sued Amazon, saying that he had his notes on the book for school ruined because of Amazon’s, well, Orwellian way of handling things. source
Amazon says this is a ‘rarity,’ but even once is too many times for bull$*(% like this to happen. … And of course the fact that this happened to 1984, of all books, makes this even more surreal.
Gizmodo writer Adam Frucci • Regarding Amazon’s latest struggle with the Kindle – the fact that they deleted copies of George Orwell’s “1984” and “Animal Farm” remotely. While it appears to be a rights issue more than anything else (i.e. the publisher didn’t have those rights), the truth of the matter is, Amazon deleted books in the very style that makes them look like Big Brother, which should concern Kindle owners. • source
A poor blogger found out the hard way. Dan Cohen of GearDiary found out the other day that some books he downloaded for his Kindle/iPhone had a limit to how many times they could be downloaded and on how many times they could be shared. Worse, it seemed this number was arbitrary and was, until now, not communicated to customers. After talking to a number of Amazon customer service reps, he confirmed it was set by publishers, though it was very confusing to get to that point. Granted, Cohen posts on a site that checks out tons of devices, so it’s possible that his case is extraordinary, but why is it even there in the first place? source
I implore newspapers not to put too much stock in these big screen Kindles. I know the options are awfully thin as to what can save you, and the Kindle is a potentially sexy savior; but it is not the answer.
MG Siegler • Techcrunch blogger, on the possibility of Amazon throwing a hail-mary pass to newspapers in the form of a wide-screen Kindle this week. It won’t work, he says, mainly because newspapers are a different kind of beast from books. He notes that it might cost a lot more and that the place a type of product like this could really help consumers is textbooks. We’re prone to agree. By the way, Hearst is working on something like this. By the way, super-smart newspaper consultant Steve Yelvington agrees. • source
$359The amount that Amazon charges consumers for the pretty popular Kindle eBook reader; the online superstore also charges consumers for the books themselves source
I record a massive amount of fragments and random sentences, and they’re able to chop them up in a way that allows my voice to speak whatever is written down – that’s an over-simplification, since I don’t understand all the intricacies of how it works.
Tom Glynn • A Boston-based voice actor who’s also the voice of Bank of America and the National Weather Service, among other things. Now he reads books to you like your mom used to. • source