Comments on: Amazon Goes All 1984 on Kindle Owners http://www.thelateageofprint.org/2009/07/20/amazon-goes-all-1984-on-kindle-owners/ Beyond the Book Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:52:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Big Brother Riles Kindle Customers http://www.thelateageofprint.org/2009/07/20/amazon-goes-all-1984-on-kindle-owners/comment-page-1/#comment-325 Big Brother Riles Kindle Customers Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:59:03 +0000 http://www.thelateageofprint.org/?p=408#comment-325 [...] book had mysteriously disappeared from their Kindles, it didn’t take long for their complaints to spread like wildfire across the Internet. The average Kindle owner understandably assumes that when they buy a Kindle book it is theirs to [...] [...] book had mysteriously disappeared from their Kindles, it didn’t take long for their complaints to spread like wildfire across the Internet. The average Kindle owner understandably assumes that when they buy a Kindle book it is theirs to [...]

]]> By: Greg http://www.thelateageofprint.org/2009/07/20/amazon-goes-all-1984-on-kindle-owners/comment-page-1/#comment-324 Greg Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:03:01 +0000 http://www.thelateageofprint.org/?p=408#comment-324 It's not Orwellian, though since it was Orwell and they were constantly retracting and rewriting books and newspapers in Oceania (interesting parallel here with the re-issue of Hemingway's A Moveable Feast--article about it today I think in the NYT), there's a nice irony there. It's more about control; control in the Deleuzian sense more than the Lefebvrian perhaps; society of control as about access and passwords--access to content, or not. It’s not Orwellian, though since it was Orwell and they were constantly retracting and rewriting books and newspapers in Oceania (interesting parallel here with the re-issue of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast–article about it today I think in the NYT), there’s a nice irony there. It’s more about control; control in the Deleuzian sense more than the Lefebvrian perhaps; society of control as about access and passwords–access to content, or not.

]]> By: Adam http://www.thelateageofprint.org/2009/07/20/amazon-goes-all-1984-on-kindle-owners/comment-page-1/#comment-323 Adam Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:30:16 +0000 http://www.thelateageofprint.org/?p=408#comment-323 It is surprising because it is unprecedented. In theory Apple could code something into iTunes such that certain songs would be deleted the next time you synched with your iPod, but why on Earth would they want to do such a thing? I know my reaction, which is shared by many I've read and talked to, is "well there goes my temptation to buy a Kindle, right out the window." It's not surprising because we thought Amazon was run by liberal idealists, but because at the end of the day the only one that's been hurt by this is Amazon. They shot themselves in the foot; any eReader that is not connected to whispernet seems so much more attractive right now than it did just last week--which is to say, any eReader but the Kindle. It is surprising because it is unprecedented. In theory Apple could code something into iTunes such that certain songs would be deleted the next time you synched with your iPod, but why on Earth would they want to do such a thing? I know my reaction, which is shared by many I’ve read and talked to, is “well there goes my temptation to buy a Kindle, right out the window.”

It’s not surprising because we thought Amazon was run by liberal idealists, but because at the end of the day the only one that’s been hurt by this is Amazon. They shot themselves in the foot; any eReader that is not connected to whispernet seems so much more attractive right now than it did just last week–which is to say, any eReader but the Kindle.

]]>