Yes, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos has apologized for the Orwellian removal of Orwell from digital book readers tucked inside the pockets of American citizens. And yes, the new-age retailer has promised not to repeat its Big Brother moment. But that’s not a promise it can promise to keep.
[…]
Amazon doesn’t distribute books to the Kindle over the public internet. Etexts are downloaded via a private wireless network dubbed “Whispernet,” and the company has shown it has the technical power to vanish those titles at any time. If a copyright holder sued for the removal of a title, a judge may very well force Amazon to remove it.
“Amazon has the capacity to control the bits after they’ve left the store,” says Santa Clara University law professor and tech law blogger Eric Goldman. “I’m reasonably confident that what promoted Amazon to wipe the bits off of people’s devices was them asking themselves ‘How are we going to explain to a judge that we have the capacity to wipe bits from the device but we sat back and chose not to use it?'”
Read more on The Register.