Some Sunday morning reading to share.
Amazon created quite an Orwellian stir this week. Apparently the publisher who they relied on for George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm for the Kindle didn’t own the rights to distribute those titles digitally. They got caught. Amazon deleted the books from its servers and magically, any Kindle owners who had purchased the titles saw the books disappear from their respective Kindles and their purchase price refunded into their accounts. From a rights standpoint if all is as Amazon says, it looks cut and dry. But the larger issue and the irony still remains. Does Amazon (or any other vendor) have the right to take something away from you that you legally purchased, whether or not they had the right to sell it? A real hue and cry is still raging over this, with ironic cries of “Big Brother” bouncing around the Internet as well as some interesting commentary about ownership in the digital age. Amazon has now said they won’t be deleting books this way in the future. Ownership in the digital age is even more of a tangle than it has ever been.
Scientists are working on an invisible flash for cameras using infrared and UV light. Sounds cool.
So much is wrong with our politics these days that it is just too easy say that, as it is too complex to begin talking about it. This article on Defense Department wrangles over the F22 demonstrates why.
Apple continues to have App Store woes of all kinds. Especially now that they have ratings for content that shouldn’t be available to kids. Apparently anything that can access info over the web should come with a warning. And then there’s this. A version of the Holy Bible got slapped with a warning for those under 17. Goodness knows the Bible is full of sex and violence, but we tend to ignore that in the world of all that is holy. And then again, these things were written in an age where testing your faith actually meant something.
Maureen Dowd says the Republicans are still practicing the the ancient political art of Tartuffery. I laughed. I doubt Moliere did as these days the targets are just too easy.
A reason to move to Australia? Down under legislators are considering forcing banks to be accountable and explain the excessive fees they charge to customers or eliminate them. The fees, not the customers.
