George Orwell’s incinerator
In 1999, writing about digital restrictions management on the now thankfully defunct DIVX format, I said “They can’t stop you from viewing an already-purchased videotape of course, or an already-purchased DVD video. With DIVX, they can.” The same applies to DRM on music and to books. Any server-based restrictions management can and will be used to retroactively remove things people thought that they paid for. Amazon just did it with, of all things, an edition of George Orwell’s• Nineteen Eighty-Four• and Animal Farm•.
It doesn’t matter why Amazon erased Orwell’s books from other people’s e-readers. What matters is that they can, and they are willing to, and they would not be able to do this with paper books. This is why I don’t buy restricted music, and will not buy restricted books. I don’t want to wake up in the morning to discover that Orwell has disappeared down his own memory hole. In my review of Eucalyptus, I wrote that I’d like to highlight sections of the books I read. What happens to those highlights when the text they’re highlighting disappears?
If I absolutely must buy restricted stuff, it will be something like DVD, which doesn’t check back with a server or require changing keys (unlike Blu-Ray, which does require changing keys). But I’ll do my best to avoid DRM altogether.
- Animal Farm•: George Orwell (paperback)
- “Animal Farm” is a critical look at anyone who wants to keep us down “for our own good”. It is brilliantly written and easy to read on many levels.
- Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four•
- This hardcover edition combines Orwell’s most famous works, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.
- Nineteen Eighty-Four•: George Orwell (paperback)
- George Orwell’s classic novel of a cog in the wheel of the thought police getting caught up in the machine.
- Obligatory Anti-DIVX Editorial
- While researching the purchase of a DVD player, I also researched the usefulness or lack thereof of the DIVX format.
- Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others: David Pogue
- “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.” (Hat tip to Eugene Volokh at Volokh Conspiracy)
More Amazon
- Notes on publishing ebooks, including scripts
- I have several scripts that make it easier to manage the translate from word processor to ePub or print, and I use them in different ways depending on what kind of a book it is.
- California threatens Amazon, kills affiliate programs
- By this time, California had to know that its new law would not bring in new tax revenue. The tax headaches aren’t worth the trouble of maintaining affiliate programs. The only reason to pass the law was to kill affiliate programs at places like Amazon and Overstock. I don’t understand; what is it about affiliate programs that states don’t like?
- Regulations cost money
- Regulations cost money. Do politicians really not understand this?
- Why does Amazon get the links?
- Why, when I love independent games, independent music, independent movies, independent comics, and independent books, do I link to Amazon.com for all of those?
More e-readers
- A gaming library in my pocket?
- The iBooks application, like, I suspect, all good e-reader software, lets you drag and drop PDFs and images into it.
- Eucalyptus, revisited
- Eucalyptus is a great replacement for the paperback, not so great at using the fact that it’s a computer. But if you enjoy classics, I highly recommend it; it’s a beautiful e-reader for your iPhone/iPod Touch.
- Apple censors Kama Sutra
- Apple denied the beautiful e-reader Eucalyptus because it lets you search the web and find classics works of pornography… like the Kama Sutra. They’ve rejected the app because… you might use it to read Victorian porn.
- Kindle owners are people who still want to read books
- Maybe it seems like a tautology to say that Kindle is for people who want to read books. But what if reading books is not the future of reading?
More Orwellian
- Apple’s FiVe Minute Crush
- Between 1984 and 2024, Apple’s advertising has gone from ridiculing 1984 to being 1984.
- How many fingers, America?
- The Orwellianization of the left continues.
- Pluto is not a planet, and other respectable murders
- If Pluto is not a planet, and tomatoes are not vegetables, then austerity can mean higher taxes and more spending.
- Divisive double standards
- It’s a hypocritical form of divisiveness, calling for togetherness and reason whenever your side commits a crime, and engaging in unreasoning partisanship when you can find some way to pin it on others.
- Black is White
- Have we finally flipped the switch into full Orwell mode?
- Two more pages with the topic Orwellian, and other related pages