When Kindle owners purchase an e-book the book is merely licensed and not truly owned. Some people opt to strip the DRM from their books to have a backup, whereas others take a more novel approach.
Artist Jesse England decided that stripping the digital rights management from his copy of George Orwell’s 1984 was too simple. Instead, he painstakingly photocopied each page of the e-book and made a print version of it.
What prompted him to do this? Well, In 2009, some Amazon Kindle users found their copy of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm had been removed from their Kindles without their prior knowledge or consent; those particular copies were offered for sale by a publisher who did not have the proper rights to do so. After consumers spoke out about having a book taken from them without their consent, Amazon later reinstated the copies taken from those who purchased the book or offered gift cards as compensation for the inconvenience, and promised never to repeat such an event in the future.
Jesse thought this whole situation was rather ironic and was the catalyst for making a print version of his photocopied e-reader.
To make things even more meta, after making his physical copy England then uploaded the scanned version back to his Kindle, creating a hall of mirrors effect and one very hard to read book.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.