Meanwhile, the Ironic News Network reported over the weekend that after Amazon's Kindle store lost the rights to carry a particular edition of George Orwell's 1984, the company acquiesced to the publisher's wishes and electronically removed the book from the Kindles of customers who'd already bought it. Amazon gave those customers credit for their purchases (and have reportedly promised not to make such a dramatic move in the future), but as Medialoper's keen analysis of the situation points out, Amazon might not be able to avoid similar snafus as the electronic book market expands. When it comes to the digital marketplace, who really owns what often remains an open question. We're likely to see a lot more sudden shutdowns—and thus a lot more piracy—before the dream of total digital availability of books/movies/music/etc. becomes a reality.
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