The removal of potentially offensive material from the works of 20th-century authors such as Roald Dahl, R.L. Stine, and Agatha Christie has been the topic of many a debate in recent times. However, as pointed out by The New York Times, there is a less discussed yet equally complex question that has to do with the manner the revisions were made. This has brought to the fore something that many might not be too aware of, you never own the e-books even if you have technically bought them. Rather, you are just licensed to read the e-books.
Further, e-book platforms such as Amazon are perfectly within their right to make any modifications that they deem fit to an e-book. Such changes will reflect in your copy of the particular e-book even if the changes have been made long after you have bought and downloaded the e-book to your device. The way this is done is included within the fine print that you consented to while signing up for the platform.
“Nobody reads the terms of service, but these companies reserve the right to go in there and change things around,” said Jason Schultz, the director of New York University’s Technology Law and Policy Clinic and a co-author of “The End of Ownership.”
“They make it feel similar to buying a physical book, but in reality, it’s 180 degrees different,” he added.
Many e-book platforms, such as Amazon’s Kindle and Google Play, have a feature that enables automatic e-book updates. These updates often involve changing a book’s cover art or adding new material to reflect changes in a story or adaptations for television and film. However, publishers can issue updates for any reason without explanation or identification of revisions. The recent removal of potentially offensive material from the works of authors like Roald Dahl, R.L. Stine, and Agatha Christie has raised concerns about the lack of transparency in these updates. For some e-book owners, the changes were made without their knowledge, bringing attention to the issue years after the revisions were made.
As a particular Kindle user by the name Derek Wheeler pointed out, it wouldn’t have been much of an issue if the revisions made were limited to fixing grammatical errors and such but any attempt to change the storyline altogether is surely objectionable. Wheeler referred to the manner a particular title, Stine’s Welcome to Dead House on his Kindle device was altered last year without him ever having an inkling of what happened. Among the changes made was bringing forward the story timeline by several years, something that can make the entire story seem different than the original or the print version.
Amazon, on its part, justified its actions by claiming users always have the option to turn off automatic updates in their Amazon preferences. The spokesperson also noted that publishers have control over the copyright for the books they publish and therefore control the content and updating of their Kindle books. On the other hand, Google Play automatically updates e-books without providing an option to opt out. A representative for Google declined to comment on this issue.
Terry Adams, a vice president who oversees paperback and digital publishing at Little, Brown and Company, said they frequently make “corrections” to e-books based on the editors’ and authors’ preferences. That includes fixing factual errors and typos, rephrasing sentences, and adding new passages, among other modifications. These revisions are usually not publicly documented, according to Adams, in keeping with industry standards. Little, Brown and Company boasts associations with authors such as James Patterson, Evelyn Waugh, and Donna Tartt, the company
Interestingly, licensing is a common practice in the sales of various forms of artistic content, including e-books, movies, TV shows, and video games. This allows the rights owners to set the terms for the use of their intellectual property. Even sales of physical media, such as print and disc formats, are governed by licenses. However, digital platforms provide publishers with more precise and easier content management capabilities than ever before.
“In the past there were restrictions to what you could do with media — you could only make a certain number of copies, for example — but there was no really effective way of policing that,” said Colin Gavaghan, professor of digital futures at the University of Bristol Law School. “Now the owner can just directly control what you do with these things.”
While post-purchase edits are most common in e-book publishing, experts suggest that they could be applied to other digital media that are stored on a platform that works with content owners. Customers have reported lost access to video content due to changes in copyright ownership or the removal of material deemed offensive. However, retroactive editing of films or television shows appears to be uncommon at present. Professor Gavaghan, who specializes in digital futures, believes that the legality of such a case will likely be decided in court in the future.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
