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Dear Mr Kaufmann,
it is obvious to all of us now, that you are afraid of technology in your daily life. What you don't see is how different the world is now from what it used to be. Doesn't the Amazon "1984" incident show that people are speaking up and their voices are being heard? And why is people being hunched over screens reading books so different from being hunched over books or newspapers, as they did before they had these devices?
Yes, governments and corporations gained some control over people with new technologies. But the Nazis, the KGB and others had plenty of control and information about everybody before any of this was available. And what you do not realize is that at the same time people get control over governments and corporations. It is not possible for the few to monopolize news anymore. Everyone can get his message out and nobody is able to stop it. How can totalitarianism thrive in such a world as we have now? When so much power has been given to everybody?
You talk about privacy concerns with ebooks. A valid concern. But unless you buy all your books at various bookstores where you are not known and never use a credit card you are in the same situation. Nobody can take my books from me, ebooks or pbooks.
Your history has condemned you to see ghosts everywhere. It is good to be aware, but why be blind to the positive. Amazon did not remove "1984" because it is a political satire. It removed the book because they made a mistake and sold a version they had no right to sell. This removal was not a political statement, not a first step to oppress us. And you forget that it is exactly technology which also enabled users to just copy this book to another location and prevent it from being deleted. Back before technology, the Nazis could come to anyone's house and take their books. Now, thanks to technology you can keep it safe.
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