Sanders Media

The recent row over Amazon’s decision to delete readers’ Kindle copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm has highlighted a growing problem. Do we really own our digital content?

I find this to be a disturbing question to have to ask. In the traditional world of buying and selling, once you’ve paid, the product or service is yours to keep. The seller or creator did not have rights thereafter. You could do with the product as you pleased. Now, Amazon has changed that equation by remotely removing purchased copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from its customer’s Kindles. Here is Amazon’s statement to it’s customers:

The Kindle edition books Animal Farm by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi) & Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi) were removed from the Kindle store and are no longer available for purchase. When this occured, your purchases were automatically refunded. You can still locate the books in the Kindle store, but each has a status of not yet available. Although a rarity, publishers can decide to pull their content from the Kindle store.

I really have a problem with this. You wouldn’t have seen this happen with paper books. Therein lies another issue. Should merchants and content providers have the right to remove previously purchased content without the buyers permission?

Amazon tried to further explain themselves in this statement:

These books were 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 from customers’ devices, and refunded customers. We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances.

That still doesn’t address why the consumer should have to lose out because of Amazon’s mistake. In the end, I shouldn’t have to worry that iTunes, Amazon or any other digital merchant will remotely “disappear” content I’ve purchased. It feels like an invasion of privacy. Companies risk losing the consumer’s trust by acting in this way. Hopefully, they will soon understand that.

There has been a surge of lawsuits involving intellectual property and patent infringement recently. Many of them cross the border into the absurd. Here are a few examples.

1. A company called Psion filed suit against any company using the term “netbook”. Despite “netbook” being a generic term referring to small, very mobile laptops, Psion felt its trademarked “netBook” was being infringed. Never mind that their “netBook” was a completely different product. They had also ceased to manufacture their device several years ago.
2. A company in Texas is suing at least 20 companies for storing consumer payment information and allowing either stored value payments or one-click payments on their sites. Apple, MasterCard, Visa and Walmart are among the companies being sued. The company bringing the suit is a notorious patent hoarder. Their only form of income seems to come from lawsuits.
3. A very popular iTunes app store game, EDGE, has been forced out by a patent infringement lawsuit. The man bringing the suit has a history of bullying game developers with his numerous lawsuits. He claims to have the trademark on any software using the word “edge”.

These lawsuits may be merely an annoyance to larger companies, but they threaten to stifle the innovation that smaller companies have long provided. Another consequence is higher prices. How else do companies like Apple and Walmart make up for the millions paid out in these suits?

It’s a slow day, so I thought I’d talk about my current favorite things going on in the tech world. Here’s my Top 5.

1. iPhone: The so-called “Jesus Phone” is still a wonder. I’ve had both editions, and it’s still new and fresh. None of the copycats have come close to equaling it’s ease of use, sleek look and great features. I am really excited about the iPhone OS 3.0 due out soon.
2. Xbox 360: Despite it’s hardware issues, Microsoft (against all odds) has created a terrific gaming ecosystem. The online Xbox Live community is vibrant, and the game library is immense. The addition of Netflix streaming to Xbox Live has made it a can’t-live-without device in my home.
3. Gmail: I was once a Hotmail user who paid $20 a year to get a miserly 2GB of storage. Now, with Gmail, I get over 7GB for free. While there are some services that provide unlimited for free, I haven’t found any that match Gmail’s features. The creation of labels instead of folders is a great organization tool. I am also able to use Gmail as a web-based email client. It checks all of my email accounts, and brings the email to one place.
4. iTunes: This is still the best music organization tool for your music. iTunes enabled me to bring my music together better than any service I’ve come across. The recent move to DRM-free music, the App Store and the availability of movies and TV shows has made the iTunes store the best place to buy digital media.
5. Skype: This service has been around for awhile, but it’s still one of my favorites. I love being able to keep up with family in North Carolina and Colorado. In both places, there are new little ones that I’m able to watch grow up.

I’m sure I’ll think of 20 more things I love as soon as I post this, but it’s a good start.