Re: Amazon remotely deletes 1984

I'd like to toss in some context here.

If you buy a physical item that's stolen, and the original owners or  
the police track it down, you will be forced to return it, whether or  
not you can get a refund from the seller.

Amazon made a mistake and allowed a publisher to upload an ebook to  
which it didn't have the rights. (I suspect that the company was a new  
one, and clueless, rather than malignant, but that's just a personal  
bias.)

Then the error was revealed to them (not sure how, but I suspect that  
the rightsholder protested), and Amazon acted in the way that they'd  
be forced to do if the book were in print: they recalled it from  
everyone that they could find to whom they had sold it.

Now, if it were a print book, the recall would affect bookstores, and  
maybe libraries, but not individuals, because the tracking info would  
be difficult, and the transaction costs would be too high (courts do  
try to be a little reasonable on these things). But with an ebook,  
they CAN recall from individuals, and therefore, they must.

This isn't a new thing, in principle, only in possibilities.

Still: it's a little unnerving.


Marion Gropen
Gropen Associates, Inc.
By-The-Question Consulting,  Tools for Publishers, & Classes
www.GropenAssoc.com
Her blog: www.GropenAssoc.com/blog





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