If publishers can give Amazon orders, why not the courts? Why not government? The very existence of Amazon’s book-deleting system could be used to enforce libel judgments, execute injuctions, or simply to ban books at the state’s behest.
Farhad Manjoo plots out this depressing vision of 2024, at Slate.
Photo: n8agrin
Why 2024 Will Be Like Nineteen Eighty-Four [Slate]
Better yet, delete the original and replace it with a more palatable version. For instance, where Winston and Julia live happily ever after in the worker’s paradise.
More subtle that way.
-or what they did to “The Hardy Boys”.
These would be fatal consequences, but you’re right by saying that could happen!
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At the moment I’m completing an Internship at NCAC- National Coalition Against Censorship. It’s dedicated to protect free expression and access to information by providing for example educational resources and advocacy support to individuals and organizations responding to incidents of censorship.
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Greetings
Jana
Ok so Amazon has some protocol for talking to _your_ kindle.
I wonder if that protocol is encrypted securely.
It seems theoretically possible that you could make a kindle firewall that protects your kindle from Amazon.
Maybe you could do the same thing with the iPhone.
Ideally it could prompt you during updates.
“Would you like to remove text to speech capability?” (y/n)
“Would you like to delete the book ’1984′ and receive a refund?” (y/n)
I can imagine a future corporate state where you buy black market firewalls to protect your personal electronics from corporate policy revisions.
RMS may be a bit of a wingnut at times, but he’s worryingly prescient at times. It’s been brought up in almost every discussion on the Kindle I’ve seen this weekend: The Right To Read.
Paves the way to banning? Bah. It only works within the DRM. DRM paves the way to banning. Wow, big surprise, DRM is evil.
J Random device and torrented PDFs and text, please.
If you try to sell broken stuff, people will steal the free unbroken stuff and they’ll be right.
OolonColluphid @3: If you want to be able to quote someone who has a bit less of a wingnutian reputation, but with lots of annotations and footnotes, search for:
“A Right to Read Anonymously: A Closer Look at “Copyright Management” in Cyberspace.”
Julie E. Cohen*” – 1996
Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Law. J.D., Harvard Law School, 1991.
For the record, I don’t think RMS is a wingnut.
If you want a kindle firewall, turn the wireless off and tear the button off. Done!
You need to load content on via a USB cable, now. That’s about the extent of it.
It may just have been me, but wasn’t the publisher found to have not actually had the rights to the books? And so Amazon was (legally?) compelled to recall the books… in this case, digitally? Or something along those lines.
Here’s the NYT link on the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html?_r=1
Nice to see that Mr. Pogue’s blog has a correction at the very top of the article:
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/some-e-books-are-more-equal-than-others/
Now, before everybody flips out; yes, the mere existance of the system is cause to hesitate. Perhaps even worry. But let’s stop throwing such a fit about this incident until we get our facts straight. Amazon did do this on a whim. It’s only been, what, two days since the story broke? And Amazon is now the unholy, evil, digital fireman?
Isn’t the spread of knowledge, not hatemongering, what the internet is for?
Andy- this is beyond DRM. Who’s to say that the ability to remotely delete files is limited to DRM-laden files bought through Amazon?
Paperbacks will still work, and you can hand them to a friend.
Isn’t it about time the mainstream media start flaming in outrage? I mean, this is akin to someone breaking into a private library and stealing your books, and leaving a couple bucks on the table.
Can’t BoingBoing “encourage” some of the bright minds with laser graffiti rigs to project, in big letters, “FUCK YOU AMAZON” on their corporate headquarters? That would get their attention more than us whining on a blog. Show rightous indignation in the real world, and make them see it.
Finally, how many times in the last 8 years alone have DRM laden things been used in ways exactly like this, only after people cried, “but they’d never do that/we’d never do that”? A lot. How many fucking times do we have to see rapacious things like this before people GET IT? It’s not the local hipster bitching about obscure tech issues people, anyone using iTunes or a Kindle should have seen this by now, personally! DRM IS BAD. VERY, VERY BAD. Can’t we outlaw this shit already?
This is book theft, repaid or not. It’s still theft if it’s bought against your will. I really, really wanted a Kindle DX, but now, I’m saying fuck it. If they have the ability to delete things on MY DEVICE, those Stasi fuckwits don’t deserve to even hold my wallet.
In short, fuck them! >:[
Somehow — somehow, over the last two years, we won the copyfight for music. We went from a world where it looked like only shackled, remotely-activated files would remain when stores stopped selling audio CDs, stunting the historical record of music, to instead a world where everyone that’s anyone sells DRM-free music. Thanks to Amazon and Apple on that amazing turnabout.
Now we need the same to happen with books. We need someone to beat the Kindle to the punch with a DRM-free solution just like Amazon forced iTunes to go DRM free.
It can happen. There’s still time.
name the one book early adopters of a new technology in book reading will all have read.
yes, 1984. such a vey basd move.
what other e readers are there?
@#12: Thanks to apple? They had to be dragged kicking and screaming every inch of the way – the only reason they finally removed DRM from their store is because everybody else had already done it and they were scared they might lose a percentage point or two of their market share.
Fortunately they still have the incredibly DRM-like iTunes/iPod lockdown/lockin to keep control of their users.
yer_maw – There are loads on the market. All the screens use the same technology and actually come out of the same factory, so you can be sure the screen is just as good as the Kindle’s. You just need to choose a body and firmware that you like.
This wiki has detailed specifications and reviews of all readers currently on the market or merely announced. The forum that the wiki is attached to is a great place to get advice about various reader devices.