Today George Orwell is spinning in his grave.  Every single legitimately-purchased copy of George Orwells 1984 and Animal Farm have been remotely deleted from Amazon Kindles without their owners permission.  The deletion is a result of the publisher changing it’s mind about having electronic versions of Orwell’s two masterpieces available to the public.

“If there’s a better argument for dead-tree books and against the Kindle, I’d like to know what it is. If you can’t be sure that you own something after you pay for it, what’s the point? How many people were halfway through these books that they paid for and now are shit out of luck?

Amazon says this is a “rarity,” but even once is too many times for bullshit like this to happen. Once I buy a book from Barnes & Noble, I never have to worry about them breaking into my house and taking it back, leaving me a pile of singles on my nightstand.

And of course the fact that this happened to 1984, of all books, makes this even more surreal.” Big Brother Amazon Remotely Deletes Purchased Copies of 1984 and Animal Farm From Thousands of Kindles [Gizmodo].