A decade ago, in suitably ironic fashion, Amazon reached into customers’ electronic shelves and deleted copies of Nineteen Eighty-Four which it had sold to them. Now another Big Tech firm is gearing up for a spate of digital text destruction. When Microsoft closes its ebook store later this month, every novel, biography, self-help guide and history book it sold will cease to work.
These stories of vanishing books reveal the unpleasant reality behind the convenience of online purchases. In the information age, consumers are often renters with limited control of digital products, even if these have apparently been “sold” to them. The case of the Microsoft store also demonstrates how systems for protecting copyright can penalise customers who have made legal purchases.
Amazon’s decision stemmed from the publisher not having copyright for George Orwell’s dystopian classic. Rather than informing customers of the problem, the e-commerce giant simply deleted the offending books and sent refunds without a warning. Microsoft has learnt from the resulting backlash, warning its readers so that they could finish their books before they are erased.