Sunday, July 26, 2009
I Stand Corrected
In my last post I stated, “Idiots don’t like to read”. I was wrong. Apparently some idiots do like to read, unfortunately, they don’t have any reading comprehension skills to save their lives.
I don’t mean to turn this into an, “All Kindle, All The Time” blog, I just have to get this out before I internally combust. And since I have to be kind and pleasant on the Amazon forum, I will say what I really want to say, here.
Everything was going along smoothly until the book, “1984” by George Orwell was pulled from the Amazon servers. God, where do I even begin with this? Ok, when you purchase a Kindle, any book that you buy from the Amazon store is backed up on their servers for you. You may also back up your books on to your own computer if you wish but Amazon will keep a copy of all of the books you purchased from them on their servers.
You purchase a book, it will show up in your “Media Library”. It will forever stay in your Media Library, (on the Amazon site), unless you actually ask for a refund for that book within 7 days of purchase. (Say you accidentally clicked on the buy option...very easy thing to do.) You may download these books that you have purchased from Amazon to your Kindle to read. The Kindle 2 can hold up to 1500 books but it can be difficult to navigate through all 1500 books on the Kindle so what many do is read a few books on the Kindle and delete them from the Kindle. Because of the Media Library on Amazon, you may redownload that book as many times as you wish forever.
So, let’s say I read “Call of the Wild” and was now finished. I don’t want it on my Kindle anymore right now but I may wish to read this book later. I delete it from the Kindle but it stays on my “Media Library” page on Amazon and I can put it back on my Kindle in say, 6 months or whenever the hell I feel like reading it again.
One way to d/l books from Amazon to your Kindle is through a service, (from Sprint), called “Whispernet”. It is free. You turn on the Whispernet feature, hope you have a signal, (like trying to get a cell phone signal), and you are able to shop in the Amazon store or have your books from the Amazon Media Library d/l to your Kindle in less than a minute. It’s wonderful!
If you cannot get a signal, you can still d/l books from Amazon via your computer.
With me so far?
Alright.
Now, Amazon also has a page for indie authors or self published authors to upload their books for sale. You do not have to be published by a big house publisher, you can write a book and load it to the Amazon page and hope for sales. I have found many new reads this way and a handful of them are going to be terrific and well published authors in the future. Tens of thousands of books are uploaded through the self publishing author page on Amazon. Many indie authors offer their books for 99 cents just to get an audience.
(I am telling you all of this for a reason. Stay with me.)
Also on Amazon and other places around the internets, you can find many classics for free. This is because those classics are no longer copyrighted. (Think Project Gutenburg.) Jack London, Mark Twain, Homer, Jane Austen, on and on and on. Free.
It is also well known that many authors do not want their books in digital format. The most famous one is J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame. She does not want her books available for e-readers because she does not want her books being pirated. Unfortunately for her, this has caused her books to BE pirated and sold or just given away for free in .pdf.
Ok, now that you know all of that, let’s get to the meat of the matter.
In the one month I’ve had the Kindle, I’ve seen Ayn Rand books be published on the Amazon page for 99 cents. I’ve seen Harry Potter books being sold for 99 cents. I’ve seen George Orwell’s books be sold for 99 cents.
In the case of Ayn Rand books, I was very new to Kindle and did not know that there were still in copyright. I saw them, even though I had purchased and read them in hard back, I no longer have them and want them again. I purchased “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead” for 99 cents each. Hurray! I thought. This is cool!
Well, about two days later, I received an email from Amazon telling me that they were refunding me my 99 cents each and that the next time I turned on my Whispernet, the books would disappear from my Kindle. Come to find out, the Ayn Rand Institute did NOT authorize these books to be sold for 99 cents. These were illegal copies. Oops!
Now, if I wanted to be a thieving little asshole, I could keep my Whispernet off and not lose those books. The ONLY way they can be taken from my Kindle is if Amazon removes the book from THEIR servers and I turn on my Whispernet. It has to do with synching. If Amazon has removed the books from their servers, the next time I turn on Whispernet, it looks for those books. If it does not see those books, those books disappear from my Kindle.
However, as I stated, if I wanted to keep illegal copies of something, I could just never turn my Whispernet on again. OR, I could d/l those books to my computer from my Kindle and then turn on my Whispernet later. They will disappear from my Kindle but I now have them on my computer. At this point, I can turn off the Whispernet and load the books from my computer back on to my Kindle. And I can read illegal copies of Ayn Rand’s books. And before I turn the Whispernet back on, put them back on to my computer.
Amazon itself canNOT go to my Kindle and remove books left and right. Amazon can only remove books from their servers. Please remember that statement. In comes in handy in a little bit. Amazon will ONLY remove books from their servers if they find out the book is an illegal copy OR if the book has so many formatting errors and customers have complained. They will then remove it, tell the publisher, give the publisher the opportunity to clean it up and then they will put it back on their servers. They do not remove books just because they feel like it.
The only other time they will remove a book is from the store. And that is because the publisher no longer decides they want to sell it in digital format. However, when that happens, they don’t remove it from their servers so those who did buy it can still read it over and over again and will always find it in their Media Library. It just will not be available anymore in the store. (This has happened a few times to me already.)
E-reader technology isn’t necessarily new, but the Kindle and Sony e-readers have made it something to look at and other companies are starting to jump on that bandwagon now.
Alright, you now have everything you need to know to understand why I said, at the beginning, that I stand corrected; some people who read ARE idiots.
Recently, the George Orwell books, “1984” and “Animal Farm” became available for the Kindle for 99 cents each. Some people bought them. I had them on my WishList. I was going to buy them later. About two days after I put them on my WishList, (back in early June when I was compiling a WishList for my Kindle), they showed as “no longer available”. They were not pulled from the servers, you just couldn’t buy them.
At first I was upset. Then I thought, “Well maybe there are formatting issues.” So I kept them on the WishList hoping for their return. About a month later, all hell broke loose. Amazon started sending emails to customers who bought the 99 cent books telling them there were “problems” with those books and that they were refunding them their 99 cents. The books were then completely removed from the Amazon servers. The next time a customer turned on their Whispernet, those books would disappear from their Kindles.
And everyone went stark, raving mad.
Blogs and media who once poo-pooed the mere idea of an e-reader were now all experts on e-readers. See Idiot Spouts Off About Things He Doesn’t Know
This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned."
First of all, twit, you don’t OWN the books. You are licensed a copy of the book. You do not OWN it. Read the fucking User Agreement, it tells you right in them that you don’t OWN the thing.
But no, apparently the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic edition, and apparently Amazon, whose business lives and dies by publisher happiness, caved. It electronically deleted all books by this author from people’s Kindles and credited their accounts for the price."
Sigh. NO, asshole. The publisher did NOT change its mind and Amazon caved. These were illegal copies of the books. The LEGAL copy of “1984” is ready and available for anyone to purchase. For $9.99 they can have the LEGAL copy. These were illegal copies being sold by Mobibooks for 99 cents. And, Amazon did not delete the books from the people’s Kindles, they deleted the books from their servers. BIG difference.
As one of my readers noted, it’s like Barnes & Noble sneaking into our homes in the middle of the night, taking some books that we’ve been reading off our nightstands, and leaving us a check on the coffee table.
And here’s where the mass hysteria started. It is nothing like breaking and entering in to someone’s home and taking a book back. Amazon discovered that the copies were illegal and deleted those illegal copies from their servers. They also refunded the 99 cents to those people who bought the copies. Amazon has a legal obligation to remove illegal copies of books from their servers. They can’t rightly keep illegal copies on their servers. They are ILLEGAL!!!!!! What part of this do these entitlement fags not understand?
You, nor anyone else has the RIGHT to keep an ILLEGAL copy of anything. If you want the copy of “1984” buy it LEGALLY!
Now, what happened is that the company, Mobibooks, (that no one seems to be paying attention to in all of this), uploaded “1984” and “Animal Farm” through Amazon’s self publishing system. In some countries, there is no copyright for these books. For example, if you live in Australia, you have the legal right to copy a .pdf of these books to your computer and read them. However, in the US, that is not the case. So Amazon had to pull them from their servers. As I explained before, when those books are pulled from the servers, the next time Whispernet is turned on, it will synch with Amazon and if it does not find those books, they will disappear from the Kindle. Amazon did not go in to anyone’s home and take the book back. Ridiculous analogy.
Also, again, tens of thousands of books are uploaded through the self publishing system. Amazon asks each person if they have the right to load that book. If that individual states that they do have the right, it is loaded. Amazon was using the honor system. They do not have the manpower to go through each and every single book loaded through the self publishing system; they were trusting people to do the right thing.
As has been illustrated, some people cannot be trusted. Amazon was a victim here, as well. And with all this bitching and moaning, it’s going to make things harder for self published authors to get their books loaded to the system if Amazon is forced to go through each and every book uploaded for sale through this system. And that may keep some indie authors away. That would be a big disadvantage not only to the authors but to the customers and Amazon.
Further, all this bitching and moaning will make authors such as J.K. Rowling stand even more firm on their decision NOT to allow their books in digital format. Do you think for one second that J.K. Rowling is going to look at the hysteria over this George Orwell incident and change her mind? See, after all the spitting and crying, Amazon has stated it will never do this again. If people purchase an illegal copy, Amazon won’t remove it. GREAT! I’m sure J.K. Rowling is ready to jump right on in and allow her books in digital format now! Sure, some people are pirating her books already but hey! Now we can reach more people through the Amazon self publish page and earn some money out of it all, NONE of it going to Rowling! Well where the hell do I sign up for that?! I’m sure that’s what she’s thinking right now.
If Amazon does get the man power to go through each and every copy uploaded through the self publish page, you can bet book prices are going to rise. This will inflame those who ALSO do not fucking read and are currently part of a $9.99 boycott. (God don’t even get me started on that nonsense.) These people claim that Jeff Bezos said that no ebook would cost more than $9.99. Yet, oh MY GOD! HE LIED! There are about 30% of books that are over $9.99. Fuck that! We’re boycotting! He did NOT say this. He said that books in the top 15, (I believe is the number) of the NYTimes best seller list would be at $9.99 as well as some, SOME, new releases. He never said ALL books. But hey, let’s not let facts get in the way of reality.
In the end, all this fucking carrying on is only going to hurt the customers themselves and indie authors possibly. Wow people are fucking genius aren’t they?
Many blogs and newspapers wrote about this and if you have nothing better to do and want to watch idiots work up a froth, read those articles and the comments that go with them. (And might I say, I’m surprised at Glenn Reynolds. GLENN REYNOLDS? Really?!!?!? Are you serious, Glenn? I’ve long respected Instapundit but he, too, worked himself up into an hysterical moment and decided that perhaps he shouldn’t be touting the Kindle as he was doing. C’mon, Glen. You are much smarter than this!)
People are all upset about the fact that these books were pulled. Screamings about “book burning” and “how ironic that it’s 1984, Orwell would be spinning in his grave” are popping up everywhere. Let’s take a moment to talk about what Orwell wrote. I will use the words of a member on the Amazon forum as he put it precisely and better than I:
“The way this is being blown so far out of proportion by being compared to Orwell’s forced totalitarian state versus a mistake made by a company which resulted from a voluntary business transaction. In 1984, the citizens had no choice and no recourse and the violations were pervasive and often. Amazon is a company which at least made an attempt (user agreement) before buyers bought their product to let them know that Amazon has some level of control over the device they are purchasing so they do not have to purchase it if they don’t like the arrangement or they can return it for a full refund if they don’t like the arrangement. No such quarter was possible in Orwell’s vision of the GOVERNMENT, not a private business.
The paranoid hysteria from this is just mind-boggling.”
Exactly.
People are yelping that Amazon “stole” their books from them...now THAT is ironic, no? They are claiming that Amazon stole their stolen property. They want full compensation..no, NOT the 99 cents they were refunded, the 99 cents they spent on the illegal copies of the books. NO! They want not only the 99 cents back but they also want Amazon to BUY THEM the legal copy. Nevermind that they got their 99 cents back and are able to purchase the legal copies themselves for $9.99, they want Amazon to give it to them since Amazon STOLE their stuff. They want an apology, they want Amazon to keep their mitts off the Kindle. “Out of my bedroom!” “How DARE you keep a copy of everything I’ve purchased! This is an invasion of privacy!”
Are these people fucking mental? Any time you purchase anything from any store, if you don’t use cash, there is a record of what you bought. Shall we all scream about the invasion of privacy to Target, Wal Mart, Publix, Safeway, Netflix, etc? Most of the time, this is called a “receipt”. There will be a record of that receipt in each and every store where you purchased something with a credit or debit card. How dare they!
A number of people turned in into a political argument with one Amazon customer going so far as to call all of those who accepted what Amazon did and like their Kindles, as right wing shills for the company. Here is an example of things she’s said:
"Most shills are confused, so I’m not surprised that you are. Amazon created their doomed Kindle out of greed. They’ve used it to destroy books out of sheer stupidity. And then they and their shills lied about it. Corporations and other dictators frequently act this way.”
“Nothing can penetrate your shield of shilldom. In your world, Amazon can do nothing wrong, and all critics are “trolls” or self-interested competitors. Anyone who disagrees with you is “irrational,” even after they have completely skewered you on the facts. This sort of attitude is well known. You see it on far-right wing websites and, in a different guise, among oppressive governments the world over.”
“I’m not going to convince you. I knew that a long time ago. You’ve long since drunk the Kool-Aid. Tell us about your activities in the high-tech business, including any relationships with Amazon. Come on, ‘fess up. How “close “ are you to these uber-geeks?”
“You still haven’t disclosed your ties to Amazon. What’s the matter, cat got your tongue?”
“So you’re shilling for free, then? Come on, far-right wingnuts like you shouldn’t be working for free. Haven’t you heard?”
“Supercilious right-wing twits don’t just shill. They also don’t get sarcasm.”
“Amazon lied, cheated, and stole from its customers. And you think it’s “not wrong.” No wonder you have a far-right wing reading list. Your heroes are cut from the same cloth. You’re probably a big Fox News fan, too.”
“You have long since drunk the Kool-Aid. You’re nothing but a wingnut shill. You and Amazon are made for each other."
And there lies the evidence. You see, the people who are reasonable have been talking about “personal responsibility” and that they don’t want illegal copies on their Kindles. Their biggest complaint was that Amazon was not forthcoming in the beginning. They were upset about the email stating there was a “problem” and wanted the truth. They stated that in the future, they would like it if Amazon would write them first, telling them the books are illegal and they have to remove them in x number of days and that a refund would be coming. Most, however, understood why Amazon did what it did.
The unreasonable people, like the one you see above, are the ones who have been talking about corporate greed, shilling, right wing nuts and have been howling for free copies of this book, how dare Amazon break in to their homes and steal their things, Amazon wants to control what we read, isn’t it so IRONIC that it was “1984”, (although NOT ONE FUCKING PERSON SAID A DAMN WORD when it was Ayn Rand or Harry Potter now did they?!?!?!?!! NO! Fucking hypocrites), how Jeff Bezos’ apology was bullshit and didn’t prove anything but PR clean up, (read the apology, if ever there was a more heartfelt apology from a CEO, I beg you to find it for me--apology can be found here), that they will never trust Amazon again, they will never buy a Kindle and they were JUST ABOUT TO, (total bullshit), why they had NO IDEA that Amazon had this “power” and were shocked and dismayed by how “Big Brother” it all was, (the hell they didn’t know Amazon had this “power”...Amazon can remove a book if you want a refund, you FUCKING IDIOTS!), on and on and on and on it went.
Some said apology was accepted BUT they would not buy a Kindle or any more books until Amazon did away with the ability to remove books “from our Kindles”. When asked what about when you want to return a book for a refund, they stated that Amazon should TRUST them to remove the book from their own Kindle. Right. These people are screaming about the removal of a 99 cent illegal copy of a book but now want Amazon to trust them to remove legal copies of books from their own Kindles while Amazon gives them their money back. Sure. Sounds TOTALLY reasonable.
All this over a fucking 99 cent copy of a book. A 99 cent illegal copy of a book. A 99 cent illegal copy of a book that they got a godamned refund for and can purchase, legally, in the Amazon store for $9.99. But you can’t tell them that, see, to them, it’s not about the price of the book, it’s all about the fact that Amazon won’t let them keep an illegal copy of the book. They bought it for God’s sake! It’s THEIRS!!!!!! Amazon stole it back and of course because Amazon had to remove an illegal copy of that book from their servers, well NATURALLY the next step is for Amazon to ban books left and right if they don’t toe the right wing party line! OF COURSE!!!
In the end, it has been proven to me again that those on the left are a bunch of selfish, entitlement seeking, ludicrous, insane dirtbags. Those on the right are calm, reasonable and accept that sometimes mistakes are made, apology accepted, no harm, no foul.
Honestly, I often wonder what side of the fence people sit on when it comes to many things in this life: Those in jail, people who drive a certain way, act a certain way, when they complain about something...I wonder if they are left or right wing. I don’t, however, accuse people who don’t agree with me as being one or the other, I wonder, but I don’t accuse. In this particular case, it has been brought up quite a bit, all over, EXACTLY what side of the fence people sit on.
An apology. Hmm. If only Nixon had done that.
Classy...like the president we FINALLY have that is deserving of our respect! You were wrong and it’s refreshing when a company can step up and admit that.
When I first started reading about this issue on the Amazon forums, I never thought I’d be writing about left and right. However, other Amazon customers felt the need to let those of us who are sharing in the “love fest” for Amazon, know that we are just a bunch of right winging shills, I had no choice but to focus on that. And it proves to me again that many of those on the left are fucking mentally insane and do not care about anyone else but themselves. To hell with the copyright holder! TO HELL WITH THEM and their money. These people should be allowed to keep that 99 cent illegal copy. And the strawman arguments that followed is a good learning lesson for those who don’t understand what a strawman argument is. Leaping to conclusions based on a company protecting the LEGAL COPYRIGHTED ownership is jaw dropping.
Amazon has been put through the wringer in the past week over this. It was unnecessary and those who wrote about it in the NY Times, (piece of shit paper if there ever was one), and other outlets should be ashamed of themselves. Know what the fuck you are talking about before you open your pissy little pie hole. Right, Pogue?
