As many know, conservative Catholic political philosopher and ethicist Ryan Anderson (PhD, Notre Dame) had his book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment removed from Amazon mere days ago. This represents the latest battle in the culture wars. A battle which is all the more pressing in light of Biden's Equality Act. The left and its sympathizers will seek to cancel even the most reasonable, informed, and charitable voices if the voices dissent from leftist convictions or commitments. Anderson writes about all this and more in his First Things article "When Amazon erased my book". I don't agree with everything, but it's still worth a read.
For now, people can still purchase Anderson's book on Encounter Books (the book's publisher), Christian Book, Barnes and Noble, and other bookstores.
Update. From Ryan Anderson:
Update 2. From Abigail Shrier:
Interesting, I bought the book, so I can see it in my order history. but I get an error page with a giant dog on it when I try to go to the book's page.
ReplyDeleteI do think showing the laughable lack of any rule being applied is valuable (though it would be more so if, say, the media cared to report the news instead of take at least the next four years off. David Wood tried to sell his Quran Origami on Ebay, but it was taken down for rules that don't exist (you can buy anti-Christian clothing and Piss Christ replicas). Then when he put it in a "mystery box" it was removed because of a new rule that also isn't real because Ebay is full of mystery offerings.
DeleteWow, the lack of standards or even double standards (which always seem to favor the left and disfavor conservatives including conservative Christians) by these companies is really quite galling. I mean, I can't even. Anyway I really hope tons of people move away from these companies to alternative companies that treat their customers right.
DeleteBy the way, it seems really messed up that you can pay for and buy a book, but then you can't read the book you just bought but instead get "an error page with a giant dog on it"! At the very least, you should get a refund if you can't read the book you just bought!
To clarify, I have a physical copy, but I was curious how well they deleted the book from amazon. They haven't (at least not yet) modified my purchase history, but who knows, maybe they'll update that too and remove the image and replace the title with something like ERROR.
DeleteGuess you were ahead of the curve when you asked about DRM. Wonder if anyone bought a kindle edition and if they did anything, or if stopping new sales is all they wanted to accomplish.
I need new air filters, instinctively went to amazon, then went to lowe's. Hey, they ship too. Neat.
Ah! Sorry, TFC, I misunderstood! But that makes sense now. :)
DeleteGood question about if anything happened to people's Kindle editions of Anderson's When Harry Became Sally book. I wonder too!
I guess I'm of the mindset that if someone has purchased an ebook, then they should own it in a way that a company like Amazon can't just have it removed or disappeared suddenly (which I've read has apparently happened to people in the past for various reasons, not all of which were necessarily fair).
Nice about buying from Lowe's instead of Amazon! I've been trying to steadily move away from Amazon too. They're so ubiquitous, affordable, efficient, and so on that it's kind of hard, but maybe over time I can find different options. It'd be good if there was a true challenger to Amazon that's just as good. But of course Amazon either buys out or obliterates their competition. Sad.
One of the more famous pro-life websites, LifeSiteNews, said they have been "financially kneecapped by Google".
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be surprised if a lot of this sort of thing is happening but it never gets reported in the mainstream media.
How is this working with Kindle purchases? If someone purchased it on Kindle on Amazon, is it still readable? I wonder if it depends on whether you used the "cloud reader" option or did the "deliver to my device" option.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been able to find a good answer to this question. Maybe someone else knows? I think Ryan Anderson also asked people to respond to this question and others are wondering about it in his tweet too (e.g. here).
DeleteBy the way, Ben Shapiro recently mentioned that he believes Amazon has in fact "disappeared" Ryan Anderson's When Harry Became Sally even if someone purchased it.
DeleteA couple of comments:
DeleteLiz Genter
If a book I purchased from Amazon is removed from my Kindle I better receive a refund. Otherwise, they are guilty of larceny.
Rhymes with Oranges
In a moral sense. They sometimes lose the rights to books, so they can disappear from your Kindle, which must be covered in the TOS. All you bought was a license to read it while it is available (I've had music on bought on Amazon disappear with no refund, which is how I got wise). I'd bet they include just sufficiently vague wording to also include books they determine a threat/hateful/whatever can be removed at a future time. But they would say your license to it is still valid, and you will get it if they every decide to carry it again, so you aren't entitled to a refund. Good luck suing them. I don't like it either, but it is why I have gone back to "physical media" where possible.
Lydia,
DeleteI bought the Kindle version when it was initially available and I was able to download it onto my phone from the Kindle app, so at least it's still available to those who already purchased it.
Only today Abigail Shrier found out her book disappeared from Target.
ReplyDeleteAs a twisted joke of sorts I bought it off of Amazon because I haven't bought it yet and it's still available. Yes this goes against avoiding buying from Amazon, but at this point me avoiding amazon is like Tom Hank's character shooting the German tank with his pistol at the end of Saving Private Ryan. Sends a message, but not effective. Plus, as long as my average payments go down, I think I'm fine...
DeleteLol, TFC. I'm trying to wean myself off Amazon too, but they're so ubiquitous and also so good at what they do that it's hard to avoid them. Same or similar with big tech companies in general. For example, I use Signal instead of WhatsApp, since I don't want to support Facebook, but there are a couple of things that I miss about WhatsApp. Heck same goes for Triablogue being on Blogger which is owned by Google. I guess at any point Google could take us down. I don't really know what we'll do if that happens. Even though we should probably have some kind of backup plan.
DeleteAaaaand that's why I de-DRM my books. Including that one. Audiobook too.
ReplyDelete