E-books may not be as blissfully simple as we all once thought. When Amazon first introduced the Kindle reading device, and then recently upgraded it, (see “E-book Supremacy”) the idea seemed genius. Why not provide books online in the same manner that iTunes provides digital music? Jeffrey Bezos, chief executive of Amazon, may have an answer to why it isn’t quite that easy.
The response to an incident involving digital copies of George Orwell’s “1984” has caused uproar from Kindle users who are demanding that Amazon fundamentally change the way it sells and manages digital manuscripts online. The debacle began when copies of “1984” were sold by an unlicensed bookseller. Amazon’s response was to remotely delete copies of the story from costumers Kindles. While Bezos has since apologized for the outcome and called the company reaction “stupid,” the public has not been satisfied.
Even after a sale of e-books through amazon.com is complete and final, Amazon maintains control of all Kindle devices, allowing officials to delete consumer’s content at anytime. Thus, people are advocating for a fundamental change in how Amazon manages its Kindle books. The New York Times has reported that the Free Software Foundation is “soliciting signatures from librarians, publishers and major authors and public intellectuals,” and has plans to “present a petition to Amazon asking it to give up control over the books people load on their Kindles, and to reconsider its use of the software called digital rights management (D.R.M.), the software which allows the company to maintain strict control over the copies of electronic books on its reader” while simultaneously “prevent[ing] customers from copying or reselling Kindle books — the legal right of ‘first sale’ that is guaranteed to owners of regular books.”
This tumult comes on the heels of an announcement by USA today that it had begun collecting data from the sales of Kindle books to be considered in the weekly best-seller list rankings. Additionally, Barnes & Noble only just announced its plans to launch the sale of electronic books. As of now, it is unclear how the Amazon concerns will affect further advances in these and other new E-book developments but writers, publishers and readers are all waiting to see how this changes the industry.