Okay (sigh), you know all about the big flap over Amazon magically erasing George Orwell's books from people's Kindles now, right? Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos has apologized for this, but for some people that's not enough. According to the NY Times, "civil libertarians and customer advocates" are up at arms about it.
Now, in addition to the Orwellian disappearing book act, a new concern has been raised about hundreds of gay and lesbian authors' books being de-ranked due to a "glitch" in the Amazon sales-ranking system. So this op-ed writer is troubled by both problems (though no further explanation is given of what the glitch was, whether Amazon could have prevented it, why it de-ranked gay/lesbian-written books, etc.).
So . . . e-books. They can disappear on you (bad news for readers) or be de-ranked due to a "glitch" (bad news for authors).
But wait . . . regarding the Orwell books, one guy (Paul Carr) says Bezos has nothing to apologize for. In fact, he applauds Amazon's actions. After all, Amazon wiped out the books due to copyright problems. The company didn't have the rights to publish them, making their distribution illegal. Carr presents his argument here.
As an author, I have to agree that Amazon was right to yank the books if it didn't have a license to distribute them electronically. As a reader, I'd hope Amazon might at least notify its customers first. Like an e-book recall? Give notice that there's a problem, then take the book down. Might make the whole thing a bit more palatable.
But then I don't have a Kindle--yet. And while I can see their benefits, here's another drawback to owning one.
Along with the limited number of e-book titles, consider this--when was the last time you had to upgrade your print books or change their batteries?
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