Amazon Article Response

David L. Ulin, a book editor for The Times, brings up some very interesting points in his article titled, “Amazon’s troubling reach.” In this article, he talks about certain issues with Amazon that occurred back in 2009. He explains how they attempted to control certain user content by deleting e-books like 1984 and Animal Farm straight off of people’s Kindles and other electronic devices after finding out that the publisher did not have rights to them. He also reminds us of another time a few months earlier when Amazon experienced a glitch that de-ranked over a hundred gay and lesbian books (Ulin). In his own words he states the issue with Amazon’s actions by saying this, “The issue, in other words, isn’t that Amazon has erased material from people’s Kindles, or de-ranked gay and lesbian writers, but that it can.” (Ulin).

At first when I read this article and statement fully, I did not understand what issues Ulin was getting at, but then I read them both again, which is when I realized the problem Ulin was presenting. When he questions Amazon’s motives as a company possibly trying to control or censor specific literature from the people for its own self-interest at the end of the article, it really got me thinking (Ulin). Although I understand why Amazon had to delete those books and things happen with technology that caused the de-ranking of the gay and lesbian books, it still puzzles me to think that we are only exposed to knowledge that Amazon approves of us to see and that most of us do not think it is a big deal. As a human being, I believe we are entitled to learn about anything we want to learn about, and we should be allowed to gain as much knowledge as our brains can take in. Nobody should be allowed to tamper with that, and that is why I agree that others need to see Ulin’s point and action needs to be taken.

Works Cited

Ulin, David L. “Amazon’s troubling reach.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. 28 July 2009. Web. 13 February 2013.