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It’s 1984 At Kindle, Quite Literally

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Writer George Orwell wrote about the overweening power of Big Brother in his prophetic novel, 1984, probably never dreaming how close to the truth he’d come.

Bur Amazon has brought the reality of 1984 one step closer. They’ve deleted two Orwell titles, 1984 and Animal Farm, from Kindles – even from the units of those who’d bought the books, at the request of the publisher.

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Unsurprisingly, customers aren’t too happy after it appeared they were being sold without the copyright holder’s permission.

In an e-mail to customers, Amazon customer service said:

"The Kindle edition books were removed from the Kindle store and are no longer available for purchase. When this occurred, your purchases were automatically refunded. You can still locate the books in the Kindle store, but each has a status of not yet available."

DT Staff
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