Kindles and swindles

09/10/09 posted by Liz Niland

In a tale of David and Goliath proportions, a high school student has sued multi-national online retailer Amazon.com over the deletion of his electronic copy of 1984. Earlier this year, the e-commerce giant removed all copies of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 from users’ Kindle reading devices due to an authorisation issue.

The big problem for Michigan student Justin however, was that he’d been making in-text annotations on his copy for an assignment. When the e-book was removed without a word of warning, he lost the notes he’d pain-stakingly taken. In the end, Amazon’s deletion policies have had an overhaul, and young Justin has netted himself a tidy $150,000 for his trouble.

In other Kindle-related news, Amazon’s electronic reader, loved by everyone from Oprah to Stephen Fry, is now available for order by global book-lovers. Offering novels for download in a similar way to an iPhone application, the Kindle is the top-selling item on Amazon and will no doubt be snapped up by would-be Australian fans.

Following yesterday’s post Gone Phishin’, a researcher has revealed that the most commonly used password for the recently hacked email accounts was “123456” as well as first names. So here’s another tip to improve your security online: pick a more complex password than your name, the first six numbers on your keyboard, or your birthday. Ideally, your passwords should be a mix of alpha-numeric and other characters. For more help with creating a strong password, Macworld has some handy hints.