Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos shows the future of reading, and, according to Slate's Farhad Manjoo, the future of censorship
I’m not one for thinking that we in the west are teetering on the edge of a police state, I must admit, but I’ve got such mixed feelings about the Amazon Kindle I’m glad that Farhad Manjoo’s piece in Slate came to my attention.
In case you didn’t know, Amazon deleted some George Orwell titles from Kindles a couple of days back, without the device owners’ knowledge or permission. So there you are, getting ready to fire up your e-reader, go looking for Animal Farm or 1984, but wait! It’s not there. It’s like a hooded, Milk Tray Man-dressed Jeff Bezos swung in through your window and swiped your copies of those titles (and other Orwell greats) from your bookshelves while you were sleeping.
Except it’s not. If Jeff had swung in and out of your window and pinched books from your bookshelves laughing maniacally all the while, you’d be able to do him for theft. You’d have bought them, and they’d be yours.
With Kindle, you haven’t bought anything except the rescindable right through licence to store and read the book. Amazon reserves the right to change the Ts&Cs, and, well, delete those titles from your reader if need be. Now, Farhad’s analysis of this is far better than mine, so I think you should read Farhad Manjoo’s take on Slate.