Post: #1

I don't know how I missed this story: , but find it rather interesting, and upsetting!

Amazon broke into peoples Kindle's and deleted books that they had purchased!

Apparantly, Amazon either installed a backdoor type of Trojan to enable them to do so, or the Kindle's already came with back door access for Amazon to install/view and delete anything on the Kindle.

What's scary is that if they are allowed to get away with it, nothing we buy can really be considered safe!  Can you imagine buying a new computer, only to find that one day you go to turn the computer on and the operating system has been deleted?  Or, your favorite songs have been wiped from your Ipod or cell phone?

I found the quote below on a conspiracy site that I frequent and decided to dig a little deeper, which led me to numerous newspaper articles:

Quote:In an ironic twist of fate, in 2009, Amazon.com's electronic book, the Kindle, was purged of copies of Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm. Customers who earlier downloaded those books, found them surreptitiously erased from their Kindles, in what some said was the books' being "sent down a memory hole."[4] The book retailer denied accusations of "Big Brother-like behavior", and stated that the books were uploaded to the Kindle store by a publisher who did not have reproduction rights, thereby necessitating the deletion. "We removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers' devices, and refunded customers," a spokesman said.[5] Some critics likened this to Barnes & Noble selling a book, then burglarizing a house to reclaim it whilst leaving a check. Amazon.com stated that they might not repeat the actions in the future.[6] A Shelby Township, Michigan student is the lead plaintiff in a proposed class action lawsuit, which claims that his annotated notes for a class were rendered "useless" when his Kindle's copy of 1984 was purloined using secret technology to invade his computer via an undisclosed Trojan horse.[7]

Post: #2

Ahhhh, that explains a weird post I read on a forum yesterday that told someone they would enjoy 1984 but don't get the Kindle version, buy a hardcopy LOL. I wondered what that was all about.

If Amazon had sold hardcopies of an unauthorized book would they have been liable for it? Seems to me the responsibility lies with the unauthorized publisher not the distributor. I bet the guy filing a suit has a case here. I don't know what's involved in the fine print of a Kindle contract though. This is a pretty strange thing for Amazon to do.

Post: #3

So is it just the Amazon Kindle, or can other brands of book-readers do this too (get into your stuff)? Like Sony, etc.

I actually saw one of those for the first time, a couple of weeks ago, a Sony one. I was impressed, and of course now I want one, lol. But not an Amazon one, at least.

Post: #4

(01-02-2010 3:04 PM)Sillykitty Wrote:  

So is it just the Amazon Kindle, or can other brands of book-readers do this too (get into your stuff)? Like Sony, etc.

well, any product that operates over the internet, wi-fi, or G networks are capable of being compromised by the manufacturer, distributer or content provider, and if Amazon's not held accountable for their actions we may start seeing more of it, but it's my hope that Amazon does get hammered and hammered hard, so that the message goes out that as americans and consumers we will not tolerate these type of invasions!

If we let Amazon slide, it could be your cell phone provider yanking pictures out of your phone next, because they felt you had copyrighted images on it.  Or Apple wiping your IPod because you had music on it that you didn't buy from them.

And don't even get me started on what kind of abuses the Federal Government could capitalize on, if given any opportunity.

Post: #5

Ah, well....I think I'll just stick to the library for now then......

Post: #6

One reason I'm waiting for Barns and Noble's "Nook".