To be annoyed when Kindle edits my books

[AlertCat]

I like to read books I enjoy over and over. I get to know the phrases and reading them is comforting and soothing. I recently re-read an old favourite (published in the 90s) on my kindle, and a lot of the more colourful phrases and terms have been removed. Sometimes for no good reason, eg they’re not offensive in any world; and sometimes their removal took something away from what was left.

I wish I had a paper copy of this book to read ☹️
the changes feel jarring and I can’t see the point- but more importantly, I bought the original, and Amazon have altered what I bought without notice.

wow i did not know that. really making me think it is time to still purchase my favourite books and movies as physical copies so i will always have them :(

I remember reading through "The Children of the New Forest" when I was about 8yo at my Gran's. It was a bit of a struggle because of the old language, but I loved the feel of the language.
What a disappointment when I got my own copy and found they'd updated the language. It was nothing like the original in charm and feel.

Yes, friends laugh at me with my huge DVD collection that I’m still adding to, but so many streaming sites edit stuff out of film and TV shows often with little reason!

I haven’t noticed this happening on kindle yet, but it shouldn’t be allowed!

You’re not being unreasonable as such because a lot of people don’t realise but this is in the Ts & Cs:

“Upon your purchase or access of Kindle Content and payment of any applicable fees (including applicable taxes), Amazon grants you a non-exclusive right to view, use, and display such Kindle Content”.

Basically you only ever buy a licence to view material and as such Amazon can change or update it as they like. I’ve had numerous books update, everything from language changes to cover changes eg
when a movie is released based on a book Kindle will often update the cover image to the movie tie in version.

This is true of all digital media so as a PP says, if you want to own it you need to buy a physical copy. But many people don’t realise this.

i noticed it once with a animate adaptation of ronja the robbers daughter (last time i checked it was still on the bbc it is so beautiful and still one of my cozy feel good shows i put on) they literally cut out the scene where in a argument ronja gives her friend a slap in the face. i had to rewind as i was confused to why one second later his cheek was red and remember the full scene

This is main reason why you need to buy physical copies of anything you love - so it can't be changed or even withdrawn at a moments notice. It's why we still have a video machine (as well as dvds) so we can watch Star Wars & the Muppet Christmas Carol without the later changes.

The other good reason is that the authors / musicians get paid more when you buy a physical copy of their work than the digital version. Let alone stream it.

You used to be able to rip & save Kindle books but they closed the loophole.

@MargaretThursday have you tried World of Books? They're good for clearly marking which version of a book they're selling?

Wasn’t it in the news recently about how they had updated the language of the Beatrix Potter books?
Made me irrationally angry. I read loads of old books as a child; it was great for my vocabulary and general grasp of language, and some of the words and phrases used were so poetic.

It’s really annoying, OP. As others have said, find actual physical copies of things you love!

Absolutely this. You are allowed to view, but don’t own the content on your Kindle. For that reason, mine is primarily a back/up or travel device for books I already own in hard copy.

I care less about updated movies (personal preference, absolutely understand why others do) but books are my “thing” and hence I keep my library of hard copies that are all mine. I still have a kindle but anything that has meaning is also in the house in hard copy. Including my childhood Narnia, Beatrix Potter, and Enid Blyton books.

One of the songs was cut from Muppets Christmas Carol, I missed it.

That should be illegal.
I would be incandescent.

Really annoying isn't it? I thought I was going crazy for a while because a lot of scenes from a lot of my favourite classic films had vanished, but when I popped the DVDs in, they were back again!

Disney Plus does it a lot with The Simpsons and it's infuriating!

This is true of all digital media so as a PP says, if you want to own it you need to buy a physical copy. But many people don’t realise this

If you buy a physical copy they can't update it which is a pretty good reason and also I like books and enjoy reading them more than I enjoy kindle.

The analysis here doesn't really work though, when you buy a physical book you own the object (same way you own the kindle as a device) but you no more own the work than you do with a digital copy - in both cases you have a licence to read it. If a book meant you owned the work then they'd only be able to sell one copy!

But no one is suggesting you own the copyright. The distinction being made is that you own a physical copy with is incontrovertibly yours, and which cannot be altered, in your copy, by the rightsholder.

Technically true but it’s too early in the morning to be this pendatic 😂

Catmum seemed to be drawing a distinction between a licence to view material (which you get with a kindle) and ownership of material with a book. I was just saying both are a licence.

This is very fair 😂

I think there would be more uproar if books were published on Kindle that used some words that are now considered racially offensive, but were once commonplace in literature.

I have an ebook reader, but it's not a Kindle. I also load all the ebooks on it in epub format (most of them came from the Gutenberg Project), but I hardly ever connecte my reader to the internet and if I do, I always make sure to have a backup of my files somewhere, in case something happens.

I selected my reader for this very specific purpose, because if you travel Amazon also removes books from your device. It's really annoying, but it's one of the reasons I avoided Kindle.

I get that, but I also think it's a bit off to censor things in this way. Better to see things as they were so we can see how things have changed and how far we've come, no?

Hey, not sure if you have updates turned on or not. As an author if my books get updated by myself then it helps the customer to get the newer copy, but in cases like yours I completely understand why you wouldn't want that.x

So Amazon make arbitrary decisions about what’s acceptable and feel they know better than the actual author of the book?

I think a reasonable argument can be made for this in the classroom, where readers are explicitly guided and encouraged to discuss and challenge the text and place it in context. I don’t believe that ordinary people buying a book for pleasure reading with no expectation of doing the above should be confronted by offensive and harmful language or narrative.

Thank you for this warning. I’ve stopped buying physical books years ago because I struggle with many fonts now, but I’m going to order some favourites before they vanish in their original form.
How can they get away with this? What about copyright?

They can do more than just edit books. They can wipe you're entire collection that you've paid for