Users of Amazon.com's e-reader device were surprised and unsettled over the past day to receive notice that George Orwell works they had purchased, including "1984" and "Animal Farm," had been removed from their Kindle and their money refunded.

Herdener's explanation differed from what Kindle users were told by Amazon's customer service, which made no reference to piracy, but implied that the removal was the publisher's choice.

An update pushed out to BlackBerry users on the Etisalat network in the United Arab Emirates appears to contain remotely-triggered spyware that allows the interception of messages and emails, as well as crippling battery life.

Closer examination (as reported by itp.net) seems to indicate that all instances of the application were expected to register with a central server, which couldn't cope with the traffic - thus forcing all the instances to repeatedly attempt to connect while draining the battery.

The 10 inkblot images that form the classic Rorschach test have fallen into the public domain, and so including them on Wikipedia would seem to be a simple choice. However, some editors have cited the American Psychological Association's statement that exposure of the images to the public is an unethical act, since prior exposure to the images could render them ineffective as a psychological test.

A report from printer manufacturer Lexmark claims the federal government wastes $440 million dollars a year (almost $1 million per day) on unnecessary printing.

Overall, 69 percent of federal employees said they believe their agencies "rely strongly on paper trails."

Although 80 percent of respondents said they believe that they personally make conscious efforts to monitor their printing habits, 92 percent admitted they do not need all of the documents they print in a day.

Defunct American airport security lane service Clear said on Friday it may sell its sensitive customer data to a similar provider if it's authorized to do so by the US government.

The company adds that its customers' personally identifiable information could still be used by a similar provider, presumably if Clear's assets are sold later on.

Marx issued a strong statement against the "greedy actions of the major labels" after hearing about the $1.92 million Jammie Thomas-Rasset verdict.

In the wake of the RIAA win, the organization's legendarily poor public image somehow got even worse. Chicago Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis called the Thomas-Rasset ruling "infamous as one of the most wrong-headed in the history of the American judicial system - not to mention that it will forever stand as the best evidence of the contempt of the old-school music industry toward the music lovers who once were its customers."

As a whole bunch of you have sent in, the musician Moby has put up a blog post where he suggests the RIAA should be disbanded for its $1.92 million win over Jammie Thomas.

"maybe the record companies have adopted the 'it's better to be feared than respected' approach to dealing with music fans. i don't know, but 'it's better to be feared than respected' doesn't seem like such a sustainable business model when it comes to consumer choice."

Anti-America?!? How? Martin's claim is apparently "Media companies will lose a lot more revenue by giving shows away for free online than they will from pirates."

On top of that, Martin apparently hasn't looked at much of the actual research out there if she thinks that online shows are somehow cannibalizing TV revenue. In fact, most studies have found the opposite.

If you don't understand basic media economics, how can you be a media analyst?

If you like the Web content offered by German public broadcasters ZDF and ARD, you can thank the German newspaper industry for the upcoming reduction in offerings. Because of a loud outcry over unfair competition, public broadcasters have agreed to reduce the amount of stuff they put online, as well as the amount of time it stays online.

But, in the case of German newspapers, they would rather convince public broadcasters to take down their offerings than refit their business models to more effectively compete.

Sparked anew by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's call for the state to study the legalization of marijuana, both sides in the smoldering pot debate point to research to bolster their positions.

Yet when the arguments for legalization of marijuana, both for medicinal and recreational use, are put forth, solid medical science often gets clouded in an ideological haze.