Amazon’s Kindle store holds at least two books, 1984 and Animal Farm, for which it does not hold electronic copyright but somehow managed to sell to Kindle users.
When alerted, the company pulled it from the hands of readers (in this case, zapping the files off user’s e-Kindle libraries) and the latest bruhaha about e-books was ignited.
How dare they, wrote David Progue of the New York Times, who said it was “scary.” His blog noted that “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.“
OK, Dave, let’s just back up and take a deep breath. No one took something that didn’t belong to them. Neither Amazon nor any of the readers and buyers of George Orwell’s classics “owned” either book, and given there was no electronic copyright, no one had any right to download a version for reading pleasure.
What happened was that an author, Orwell, had his copyright protected. Amazon did the absolute right thing. Obviously it goofed when the e-book versions somehow landed in the Kindle library, and yes, it likely means some sort of audit should happen to make sure other authors who aren’t getting compensated for e-distribution aren’t being shortchanged. But, Amazon, acting like Big Brother? No.
Pogue made a big gaffe when he wrote that “these were books that they [readers] had bought and paid for — thought they owned.”
The notion that any reader who buys a book or an e-book owns that book is ludicrous. None of us owns any literature that we read or purchase a copy of to read. What we own, or receive in reading, is the personal experience that read provides.
I have 100 books on my shelves, and I don’t own any. What I’ve done is paid to have a copy of a book that was penned by an author. I have pages with words written by creative, talented and awe-inspiring writers and poets. I don’t own those words, any more than I own the thoughts those words convey.
So, let’s all take a breath. This isn’t Big Brother, this isn’t some privacy issue, this isn’t anything except Amazon doing exactly what it must do when it comes to copy righted material. Maybe it could have talked with Orwell’s estate or publishing house and worked out some quick deal. I mean it’s not like those books are still selling like hotcakes, and with a check to them instead of Kindle users, Amazon could have quietly solved this little issue. Then it could have pulled the versions off the shelves and put endorsed ones up in quick order.
In the rush to cover e-issues these days, we sometimes miss the very big picture as it’s not as sexy or fancy as the potential conspiracy theory. This illustrates one of those times.
Photo courtesy of amazon.com.
