I had 1984 on my Kindle and I am not upset that it has been removed. Truth be told, those that have replied bashing Amazon and DRM are the perfect candidates for bringing the fiction of 1984 into reality. I think that Amazon is trying to bring as much content to the Kindle as quickly as possible, they are doing this by allowing third parties to publish material to the Kindle. It was a third party that violated copyright of the books, Amazon did the right thing by honoring the copyright!
Downloading copyrighted material is stealing, you aren't stealing from Amazon or any other retailer. You are stealing from the artist or the estate of the artist that created the work. It takes talent and many hours of dedication (10,000+ if you agree with Malcolm Gladwell) to produce a book such as 1984. The artist's motivation may be the love of their art form, but it is the market for the art that sustains them and their family. You want a world devoid of art? Abolish DRM, encourage open piracy and when the majority enjoys art with out compensating the artist see how many choose to pursue it full time.
For everyone bitching about DRM, you can do something about it. Take your talent, spend 10,000 hours polishing your craft and then produce works that are free to the public.
Here is the message from Amazon:
Hello,
We have recently refunded your purchase of NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1984). This book was added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and refunded previous customers.
We are working with the authorized rights holder to make this title available in our store very soon. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Slashdot Mirror
I had 1984 on my Kindle and I am not upset that it has been removed. Truth be told, those that have replied bashing Amazon and DRM are the perfect candidates for bringing the fiction of 1984 into reality. I think that Amazon is trying to bring as much content to the Kindle as quickly as possible, they are doing this by allowing third parties to publish material to the Kindle. It was a third party that violated copyright of the books, Amazon did the right thing by honoring the copyright!
Downloading copyrighted material is stealing, you aren't stealing from Amazon or any other retailer. You are stealing from the artist or the estate of the artist that created the work. It takes talent and many hours of dedication (10,000+ if you agree with Malcolm Gladwell) to produce a book such as 1984. The artist's motivation may be the love of their art form, but it is the market for the art that sustains them and their family. You want a world devoid of art? Abolish DRM, encourage open piracy and when the majority enjoys art with out compensating the artist see how many choose to pursue it full time.
For everyone bitching about DRM, you can do something about it. Take your talent, spend 10,000 hours polishing your craft and then produce works that are free to the public.
Here is the message from Amazon:
Hello,
We have recently refunded your purchase of NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1984). This book was added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and refunded previous customers.
We are working with the authorized rights holder to make this title available in our store very soon. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Sincerely,
Customer Service Department
Amazon.com