{"id":531,"date":"2009-07-22T15:04:51","date_gmt":"2009-07-22T20:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joeljmiller.com\/?p=531"},"modified":"2012-12-26T16:40:37","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T22:40:37","slug":"book-banning-in-a-digital-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Book-banning in a digital age"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><figure id=\"attachment_2252\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2252\" style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/276\/2009\/07\/oceana-flag-from-1984.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/276\/2009\/07\/oceana-flag-from-1984.jpg\" alt=\"Oceana flag from '1984'\" width=\"240\" height=\"240\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2252\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2252\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oceana flag from '1984,' Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Last week Amazon deleted copies of George Orwell\u2019s <em>Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/em> and <em>Animal Farm<\/em> from some of their customers\u2019 Kindles.<\/p>\n<p>This has happened before. In June, Amazon deleted some Ayn Rand titles. And it\u2019s happened with <em>Harry Potter<\/em> titles as well. Amazon\u2019s defense is pretty believable; they said the copies were pirated and that they were only acting to protect intellectual property. But as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/id\/2223214\/pagenum\/all\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Farhad Manjoo at <em>Slate<\/em> says<\/a>, \u201cThe Orwell incident was too rich with irony to escape criticism\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then Manjoo gets to the thorny problem:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The worst thing about this story isn\u2019t Amazon\u2019s conduct; it\u2019s the company\u2019s technical capabilities. Now we know that Amazon can delete anything it wants from your electronic reader. That\u2019s an awesome power, and Amazon\u2019s justification in this instance is beside the point. As our media libraries get converted to 1\u2019s and 0\u2019s, we are at risk of losing what we take for granted today: full ownership of our book and music and movie collections. . . . Like a lot of others, I\u2019ve predicted the Kindle is the future of publishing. Now we know what the future of book banning looks like, too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The rapid ascension of digital publishing and consumption has given the entire movement a juggernaut  feeling. That\u2019s not fundamentally a problem. But anything that moves fast tends to get established before it can be understood or its virtues critiqued. Not that people aren\u2019t trying. <\/p>\n<p>Public intellectual and novelist Stephen Carter recently wrote about the value of physical books as opposed to digital formats. Part of his argument (read the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/blogs-and-stories\/2009-03-17\/wheres-the-bailout-for-publishing\/full\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">whole thing here<\/a>) is that books are vital to democracy and other intellectual pursuits because of their permanence. <\/p>\n<p>His article was published before the Orwell incident, but I find his point intriguing in light of it because if there\u2019s any fact that stands out in the midst of the Orwell deletion, it\u2019s not related to copyright or intellectual property; it\u2019s the lack of permanence. A remote actor can delete your library. If he were reaching into your study or living room and raking books off the shelf, we would be as stunned as we were angry. <\/p>\n<p>And it points out another thing: A new and disturbing level of vulernability related to centralized \u201ctethered\u201d control as opposed to decentralized ownership.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week Amazon deleted copies of George Orwell\u2019s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm from some of their customers\u2019 Kindles. This has happened before. In June, Amazon deleted some Ayn Rand titles. And it\u2019s happened with Harry Potter titles as well. Amazon\u2019s defense is pretty believable; they said the copies were pirated and that they were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1270,"featured_media":2252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[71,91,92,107,174,197,272,305,395,561,641],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books-2","tag-ayn-rand","tag-book-banning","tag-books","tag-censorship","tag-digital-publishing","tag-ebooks","tag-george-orwell","tag-harry-potter","tag-kindle","tag-publishing","tag-stephen-carter"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Book-banning in a digital age<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last week Amazon deleted copies of George Orwell&#039;s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm from some of their customers&#039; Kindles. This has happened before.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book-banning in a digital age\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week Amazon deleted copies of George Orwell&#039;s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm from some of their customers&#039; Kindles. This has happened before.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Joel J. Miller\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-22T20:04:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-12-26T22:40:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/276\/2009\/07\/oceana-flag-from-1984.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joel J. Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joel J. Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/\",\"name\":\"Book-banning in a digital age\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-07-22T20:04:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-26T22:40:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/#\/schema\/person\/b481a8abcb28f825f4a759aa0ea9e11c\"},\"description\":\"Last week Amazon deleted copies of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm from some of their customers' Kindles. This has happened before.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Book-banning in a digital age\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/\",\"name\":\"Joel J. Miller\",\"description\":\"Where Christian Theology Meets Daily Life\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/#\/schema\/person\/b481a8abcb28f825f4a759aa0ea9e11c\",\"name\":\"Joel J. Miller\",\"description\":\"I'm the author of Lifted by Angels, a look at angels through the eyes of the early church. Click here for more about me or subscribe to my RSS here.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/author\/jmiller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Book-banning in a digital age","description":"Last week Amazon deleted copies of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm from some of their customers' Kindles. This has happened before.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Book-banning in a digital age","og_description":"Last week Amazon deleted copies of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm from some of their customers' Kindles. This has happened before.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/","og_site_name":"Joel J. Miller","article_published_time":"2009-07-22T20:04:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-12-26T22:40:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"240","height":"240","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/276\/2009\/07\/oceana-flag-from-1984.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Joel J. Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Joel J. Miller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/","name":"Book-banning in a digital age","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-07-22T20:04:51+00:00","dateModified":"2012-12-26T22:40:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/#\/schema\/person\/b481a8abcb28f825f4a759aa0ea9e11c"},"description":"Last week Amazon deleted copies of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm from some of their customers' Kindles. This has happened before.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2009\/07\/book-banning-in-a-digital-age\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Book-banning in a digital age"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/","name":"Joel J. Miller","description":"Where Christian Theology Meets Daily Life","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/#\/schema\/person\/b481a8abcb28f825f4a759aa0ea9e11c","name":"Joel J. Miller","description":"I'm the author of Lifted by Angels, a look at angels through the eyes of the early church. Click here for more about me or subscribe to my RSS here.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/author\/jmiller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}