Amazon alters the content of purchased ebooks: Difference between revisions
SinexTitan (talk | contribs) added some context on the publisher Puffin |
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==Post-purchase e-book edits== | ==Post-purchase e-book edits== | ||
In February 2023, {{Wplink|Puffin_Books|Puffin Books}}, a book publisher, was found to be automatically updating Roald Dahl e-books previously purchased by UK users on Amazon with new "sanitized" versions that contained hundreds of changes to the original text. Users who had purchased the e-books before the changes were implemented found their copies automatically replaced with the edited versions, without being given a choice or notification beyond the updates themselves.<ref name="times1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/roald-dahl-collection-books-changes-text-puffin-uk-2023-rm2622vl0| | In February 2023, {{Wplink|Puffin_Books|Puffin Books}}, a British book publisher, was found to be automatically updating Roald Dahl e-books previously purchased by UK users on Amazon with new "sanitized" versions that contained hundreds of changes to the original text. Users who had purchased the e-books before the changes were implemented found their copies automatically replaced with the edited versions, without being given a choice or notification beyond the updates themselves.<ref name="times1">{{Cite web |author1=Ben Ellery |author2=James Beal |date=25 February 2023 |title=Roald Dahl ebooks ‘force censored versions on readers’ despite backlash |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/roald-dahl-collection-books-changes-text-puffin-uk-2023-rm2622vl0 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250221094315/https://www.thetimes.com/article/roald-dahl-collection-books-changes-text-puffin-uk-2023-rm2622vl0 |archive-date=21 Feb 2025|publisher=Times Media |format=article}}</ref> | ||
In 2023, The Telegraph reported that '''hundreds of changes''' were made to Roald Dahl's classic children's books, including ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', ''Matilda'', and ''The Witches''.<ref name=":3" /> These edits were performed by the publisher Puffin in collaboration with a group called '''Inclusive Minds''', with the stated goal of ensuring the books ''"can continue to be enjoyed by all today."'' | In 2023, The Telegraph reported that '''hundreds of changes''' were made to Roald Dahl's classic children's books, including ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', ''Matilda'', and ''The Witches''.<ref name=":3" /> These edits were performed by the publisher Puffin in collaboration with a group called '''Inclusive Minds''', with the stated goal of ensuring the books ''"can continue to be enjoyed by all today."'' | ||
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<blockquote>When it came to children’s books, Dennison says Dahl didn’t care what adults thought as long as his target readers were happy. “‘I don’t give a b----r what grown-ups think,’ was a characteristic statement,” Dennison says. “And I’m almost certain that he would have recognised that alterations to his novels prompted by the political climate were driven by adults rather than children, and this always inspired derision, if not contempt, in Dahl. | <blockquote>When it came to children’s books, Dennison says Dahl didn’t care what adults thought as long as his target readers were happy. “‘I don’t give a b----r what grown-ups think,’ was a characteristic statement,” Dennison says. “And I’m almost certain that he would have recognised that alterations to his novels prompted by the political climate were driven by adults rather than children, and this always inspired derision, if not contempt, in Dahl. | ||
“He never, for example, had any truck with librarians who criticised his books as too frightening, lacking moral role models, negative in their portrayal of women, etc,” he continues. “Dahl wrote stories intended to kindle in children a lifelong love of reading and to remind them of the childhood wonderlands of magic and enchantment, aims in which he succeeded triumphantly. Adult anxieties about political niceties didn’t register in this outlook. This said, although Dahl could be unabashed in offending adults, he took pains never to alienate or make unhappy his child readers.” <ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/17/roald-dahl-books-rewritten-offensive-matilda-witches-twits/| | “He never, for example, had any truck with librarians who criticised his books as too frightening, lacking moral role models, negative in their portrayal of women, etc,” he continues. “Dahl wrote stories intended to kindle in children a lifelong love of reading and to remind them of the childhood wonderlands of magic and enchantment, aims in which he succeeded triumphantly. Adult anxieties about political niceties didn’t register in this outlook. This said, although Dahl could be unabashed in offending adults, he took pains never to alienate or make unhappy his child readers.” <ref name=":3">{{Cite web |author1=Ed Cumming |author2=Abigail Buchanan |author3=Genevieve Holl-Allen |date=24 Feb 2023 |title=Roald Dahl rewritten |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/17/roald-dahl-books-rewritten-offensive-matilda-witches-twits/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260116000956/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/17/roald-dahl-books-rewritten-offensive-matilda-witches-twits/ |archive-date=16 Jan 2026|publisher=The Telegraph |language=en |format=article}}</ref></blockquote> | ||
==Company response== | ==Company response== | ||