In 2009, some Amazon Kindle users discovered that books they had purchased from the Kindle store platform, specifically versions of “1984” and “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, were deleted from their devices without warning. Despite Amazon explaining that this was due to those specific versions of the books being uploaded to the platform by a company that didn’t have the rights to sell the book, it still raised concerns over whether this was an abuse of power by the company.
In 2025, Amazon finally clarified on the Kindle store that “by placing your order, you’re purchasing a license to the content” of that particular book, not that you own the book. This raised concern among consumers and Kindle users about the increasing lack of control they have over their digital book media, including terminating the ability to transfer their licensed books onto physical hardrives. This essentially locks readers who own a Kindle into an Amazon ecosystem if they wish to keep reading the books they licensed; publishers argue that this discourages the purchase of physical media and puts more power in the hands of Amazon, which has been accused of placing a stronghold on low e-book prices across online booksellers.
The digital purchase and lending of book licenses has long been in use on digital library platforms such as Hoopla and OneDrive, and publishers expressed concern that “library lending of ebooks will ‘train’ readers that the value of ebooks is zero.”