Amazon sued, goverment conspiricy?

SEATTLE – A high school student is suing Amazon.com Inc. for deleting an e-book he purchased for the Kindle reader, saying his electronic notes were bollixed, too.

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The book that was deleted remotely by Amazon.com was in fact "1984" Published in July 1949. The interesting thing about this is the fact that the book is about a civil servent who becomes aware of the corruption of goverment robbing people of personal freedoms on a daily basis who starts a "revolution" and is rounded up, arrested and tortured.

I find it odd that such a book was removed at this period of time in our current political state. Amazon clearly violated it's own terms of service by deleting this piece of work from kindle users who payed for it.

Deleting things from peoples personal devices is wrong, even if you refund the money it is theft.

My question to ATS members is this. Is it just possible Amazon was told to "recall" the book by TPTB because such distribution makes the work too accesible to people at this time in our nation because there is such a great level of dissent by Americans?

Wow, can the grocery store come into my home and take back that piece of toast I ate earlier today? Can Wal-Mart come and take back the DVD I bought today?

Well, this is easily remedied .. just don't buy from Amazon ever again and put them out of business. BOYCOTT AMAZON.COM !!!

reply to post by Helious


There is no conspiracy, other books were delete as well and AMAZON refunded all of their money. The truth is amazon should have handeled their mess (that they got themselves in, by not having the rights to the book) and went about things very differently. Tell them that their books will be deleted by a specific time, so that way they have time to go and buy the hardback book. Amazon just messed up, business wise. No conspircay at all.

reply to post by TheMythLives


Hmm, as I understood it, there were only two books removed, both by George Orwell. Making a mistake by allowing content to be purchased and downloaded is one thing, deleting it remotely then issuing a refund after the fact is just awfull.

I still think this book just happening to be one removed is strange. I mean this book details what is basicly happening in the country now and the fact that so many people are currently reading a book written in 1948 on a kindle in 2009 is also telling.

reply to post by Helious


That makes no sense, if that was the case their would be mass burnings of the book. So far I have not seen that. I own a copy and nearly 80% of the population does as well (maybe not that much, but I think you understand my point). Its just a legality issue at least they had the desceny to return the people's money Thats about the only positive thing out of the hwole deal. But a book is better then reading it on the damn kindle, or at least I still think so.

reply to post by Divinorumus

just don't buy from Amazon ever again and put them out of business. BOYCOTT AMAZON.COM !!!

Or, you can buy the physical book. That is probably a better thing to do anyway as, you don't really have to worry about the digital copy messing up, being inadvertently deleted, and so on.

In my understanding this is a little but like De-Ja-Vu (or how ever you spell it, lol), hasn't this happened to Amazon in the past? I doubt any conspiracy lies beneath.

It isn't weird that Amazon deleted 1984 (at least this is what they want us to believe, may or may not be true). They reportedly deleted all copies of the book because the publisher had an illegal license to sell it. They refunded the money to the customers. However, if the student says he had some other things deleted from the kindle, thats interesting. It wouldn't surprise me that our government is interested in what goes on these electronic readers.

reply to post by shinjiikari2839


I think the question here is really about electronic or instant digital transfer of media the goverment does not like.

Going to a book store to search out a paperback is one thing but being able to provide mass amounts of people information instantly through digital format is probably something that is being deemed essential to regulate by TPTB.

With the level of dissent currently in America, the last thing I truly believe big goverment wants is a buch of digital savy "domestic terrorists" reading 1984 hehe. Seriously though, the implications of this extend beyond a mistake and simple digital resale rights, conspiricy or not.

Originally posted by Divinorumus
Wow, can the grocery store come into my home and take back that piece of toast I ate earlier today? Can Wal-Mart come and take back the DVD I bought today?

They can if the item you bought was originally stolen, which essentially was the case here. At least their money was refunded. It's a shame that the kid's notes were deleted, but he can at least repurchase a legal copy of the book on the Kindle with his refund. That's right, you can still get 1984 on the Kindle, just not from the same publisher.