So this is funny

[benlehman]

Apparently the Kindle does a thing with pirated PDFs where it makes them disappear and then refunds you your money.

Now, this isn't really a bad thing. If it were possible to make all trafficked stolen goods in the world disappear and be replaced by a pile of cash that was exactly equal to the purchase price, that'd absolutely be a good thing. But it has electronic freedom hobbyists, uh, acting like total ninnies. Doing things like posting long off-topic screeds to role-playing game sites.

I read this and I think about all the people who write about the death of newspapers with a certain amount of glee: yeah, well, there you go... It's a new electronic world out here. Bits are not like physical objects: there are new rules. Adapt or die. This goes for individuals as well as for corporations. Don't like it? You could always just buy a paper copy.

Comments

[the-tall-man.livejournal.com]

I don't like owning tools where someone else has executive control over them. They bug me.

So, uh... I don't buy such tools.

Seems simple.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Word.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering where all electronic freedom folks were a few months back when Amazon shunted LGBT or women's health books off their radar. Or continued issues with similar books getting availability on Kindle.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Slightly different iss, I think. What's with the continued availability problems?

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

There's a couple of authors whose books were being "unavailable" through Kindle, despite supposedly set up to be available through it. This was almost a year before the drama this year, and still hasn't been resolved.

(one author resubmitted her work except took out any reference to "lesbian" and it was up the next day...)

[misuba.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering where all electronic freedom folks were a few months back when Amazon shunted LGBT or women's health books off their radar.

Weren't they screaming like hell? That's how I remember it, but maybe that was just Twitter.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

It was primarily LGBT activists - the electronic freedom folks were mostly absent.

[apollinax.livejournal.com]

I actually think Slate had a good article on the Kindle fiasco:

http://www.slate.com/id/2223214/

I.e., the transition to a world where do not own any media, and so any of it can be revoked at any time.

[aumshantih.livejournal.com]

The fact that it was Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm" makes it even zanier.

[majcher.livejournal.com]

I love my Kindle, but I do hate the iTunes-y control they have over the content. So, I treat my electronic reading material the same way I treat my graphics/audio/video media - buy it when I can, then grab copies of it for my own personal use. Especially with game books on the Kindle, I buy the PDF (and the physical book, usually, because I like a full game shelf) and then use MobiPocket Creator or something to convert the PDF to Kindle format, and just move it over. Totally owned by me, Amazon could nuke their entire catalog and go out of business, and I'd still be good. Granted, you can't do this with everything, but I'm confident that very soon, you will be able to.

[sirogit.livejournal.com]

Man, by trafficked stolen goods I hope you mean AVI's of MacGuyver and canadian children's D&D gameshows, because then I would be suddenly covered in money.