Adrian Lamo On The Stand: 'Did Manning Ever Say He Wanted To Help The Enemy?' 'Not In Those Words, No.'

Amid NSA Scandal, Orwell Books Rocket Up The Sellers Lists

from the i-thought-nobody-cared? dept

Tue, Jun 11th 2013 7:58pm — Timothy Geigner

As the NSA spying scandal lumbers along, or as some reports suggest, begins, reports of American apathy have already rolled in. Of course, those supposed indifferent shrugs tend to amount more to how the questions are being asked than actual viewpoints. Couple that with how social humans are as a species, is in my opinion quite dangerous. It'd be all too easy for people to hear reports that nobody really seems to care about any of this intrusive data gathering business and decide that they should feel similarly.

Fortunately, there's at least some evidence that such an effect isn't occurring. Otherwise, we're going to have to come up with a whole new logical reason as to why George Orwell's books, particularly 1984, are skyrocketing up the hot sellers lists. As Gawker notes:

According to Amazon's Movers & Shakers countdown, three different editions of George Orwell's alt-history book Nineteen Eighty-Four have shot up hundreds of spots on the chart since news of the NSA's clandestine spying program PRISM broke late last week. One edition in particular — the Centennial Edition — has exploded in popularity, increasing its sales rank by 7,000% in days.

Now, before you cheer this on, it's worth noting that other books on the "Movers and Shakers" list aren't so politically-minded, unless books on being a gentleman (pshhh!), books on calorie counting (pshhh!), or books by Glenn Beck (PSHHH!) actually have some value there that I'm not aware of. Still, it's encouraging to see signs that people are paying attention. That, after all, is how change actually occurs. I might suggest some lovely texts by Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine as well, but Orwell is certainly a start.

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Filed Under: 1984, books, george orwell, nsa, nsa surveillance, privacy

55 Comments

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Christopher Smith (profile), 11 Jun 2013 @ 8:09pm

Glenn Beck?
For all the legitimate criticism, unless you were making a joke I didn't get, I'm not sure how Glenn Beck qualifies as non-political, especially in this particular context.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2013 @ 8:13pm

Part of the plan
Obama has been about "clean" energy. Orwell's corpse has already been connected to a dynamo and is powering a small town.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2013 @ 8:15pm

Milk it for all it's worth
While it lasts..
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out_of_the_blue, 11 Jun 2013 @ 8:18pm

How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
It's a vital stat for your target audience here. You should provide a torrent link.

I actually tried to find out! But it's down for me at the moment.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2013 @ 8:20pm

Re: Milk it for all it's worth
I really don't think the dairy industry is getting their money's worth from you.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2013 @ 8:26pm

Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
Put up a torrent to pirate a book, suddenly the site is abducted by motherfucking eagles.
Nice try Blue.
Are you advocating piracy?
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2013 @ 8:26pm

Re: Milk it for all it's worth
7 of the 13 articles on front page of the WP mobile app are about this, but yeah, they're just milking it too.
Please, we've put up with you during your time in law school trying to audition for one of the *AA's. You didn't get the job. You're not going to get the job. Maybe you should just go out and get a real job.
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 11 Jun 2013 @ 8:26pm

Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
"I actually tried to find out! But it's down for me at the moment."

It must be down for everyone since people are buying it in droves. You can't compete with free so there must not be a free option.

The king of tin foil hats does bring up a valid question (though he asked it in a profoundly stupid way). I wonder how much that book has been downloaded illegally. Can you even buy an ebook version of 1984? After that Amazon thing, I figured there were no ebook versions.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2013 @ 8:32pm

Couple that with how social humans are as a species, is in my opinion quite dangerous.

What ?????
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jupiterkansas (profile), 11 Jun 2013 @ 8:35pm

Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
Don't pirate it. Buy it - because George Orwell needs the money.
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jupiterkansas (profile), 11 Jun 2013 @ 8:38pm

Re: Milk it for all it's worth
The moment TechDirt skips a story because they feel they've covered something too much is the exact moment you come here saying "why didn't you mention this? Are you self-censoring again?"

I want TechDirt to cover every nook and cranny of this story, so yes, keep on milking it.
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 11 Jun 2013 @ 8:47pm

Re:
Humans are pack animals by nature, they tend to go with the herd. It's why we have things like flash mobs and sheeple. Individually, when confronted with the facts, people would not act that way. Put them in a group where they see others acting that way, they think they're allowed to as well. Not only can they be given permission to act wrong or to not act, most people will also try to fit in with the crowd, to be socially accepted.

I could go on, but at this point, I don't think I need to.
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Anonymous, 11 Jun 2013 @ 8:59pm

Re: Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
Or one could simply download a text file.
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horse with no name, 11 Jun 2013 @ 9:03pm

Tin Foil Reading List
The tin foil hatters have to read something to stoke their fears. I hope they can concentrate with those helicopters above the house.

You guys need to get out more.
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Anonymous, 11 Jun 2013 @ 9:05pm

Re: Re:
Not me. I enjoy being anarchist anti-Amerikkka girl-loving rebellious me.
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Big Al (profile), 11 Jun 2013 @ 9:11pm

Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
Why should I go to the Pirate Bay when it's out of copyright?

Oh - that's right. I live in Australia, not the US
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2013 @ 9:11pm

Re: Re: Milk it for all it's worth
Yeah, its tough to get milk from a steer (the milky/AC dolt).
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2013 @ 9:26pm

Re: Tin Foil Reading List
You mad, brony?
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Cyber Killer, 11 Jun 2013 @ 9:33pm

Re: Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
Yup, the book is in public domain, so enjoy → http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwell/george/o79n/ :-)
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2013 @ 9:35pm

Amazon, eh? How cuddly are they with the NSA?
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horse with no name, 11 Jun 2013 @ 10:09pm

Re: Re: Tin Foil Reading List
No, why would you think that? It's hard to be mad at anything when you are laughing so hard.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2013 @ 10:17pm

Re:
Don't worry. You're one of the least social humans (if that's what we can call you, such as you are) ever. Unless you start talking to people that aren't solar panels you should never be at risk.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2013 @ 10:18pm

Re: Re: Re: Tin Foil Reading List
He's not mad. horse with no name just hates it when due process is enforced, that's all.
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Alana (profile), 11 Jun 2013 @ 10:42pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Tin Foil Reading List
Isn't that the same thing as being mad
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2013 @ 12:17am

Re: Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
Its public domain isn't it?
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2013 @ 12:18am

Re: Re: Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
Whoops (should have checked before posting) it will be in 2020
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2013 @ 12:22am

Re: Tin Foil Reading List
1984 is very a good book.

You are the only one around here with the foil hat on.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 12 Jun 2013 @ 1:20am

Re: Re: Milk it for all it's worth
Can we have a double insightful button for your first paragraph?
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Zakida Paul (profile), 12 Jun 2013 @ 1:23am

I am not surprised. People are rushing out to buy 1984 because they want to see what kind of society they will soon be living in.
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jameshogg (profile), 12 Jun 2013 @ 2:04am

Re: Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
Tell that to the Soviet dissidents of the 20th century who were forced to pirate the book in order to evade the secret police.

And the Iranians now who are forced to pirate copies of Animal Farm.

Not to mention a lot of the Chinese who need to smuggle goods underground in order to a) avoid the eyes of the secret police and b) get by the government's trade restrictions that are deliberately designed to take advantage of copyright law's existence.

I keep saying - to attack the Chinese government's cheating of free trade through monopoly of piracy, you need to get rid of the monopoly system that is causing it, which is copyright law.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2013 @ 3:00am

Re: Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
The book is out of copyright and in the public domain in the rest of the english-speaking world, only the US increased the term of copyright to make more pirates. really if you can't make a hansom profit in under 50 years on a book, you shouldn't be in publishing.
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Liz (profile), 12 Jun 2013 @ 3:53am

Re: Glenn Beck?
Have you read anything from Glenn Beck? Agenda 21, Being George Washington, Common Sense, The Overton Window, and two kids books The Christmas Sweater and People Behind the Patriots.

He writes some interesting speculative fiction and alternate history books not unlike Ray Bradbury or George Orwell. I mean, if you toss out your suspension of disbelief, his writing is almost passable!
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2013 @ 3:59am

it's not just because of what is in the books, particularly '1984', but because everywhere people look, they can see how things are moving in the direction written about. if we get to that point and i believe that we are much closer to it than we would like to think or admit, then we are it deep shit! governments are not trusted by the people any more, so governments force undue hardships. anything that can be done to keep the people suppressed is brought into play. censorship then begins, not because of anything other than to try to stem the flow of information of what is happening in one country or to one people from being relayed to another. those in charge are behind the times, certainly in the majority of cases, with today's technology. the only way is to stop what they can from developing and ban what has already been developed. that is their way of maintaining control!
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PaulT (profile), 12 Jun 2013 @ 4:34am

Re: Re: Re: Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
According to Wikipedia, it will be in the public domain in Europe and Russia in 2020. Americans have to wait until 2044, while it's already public domain in some other countries.
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larry, 12 Jun 2013 @ 4:40am

Download free (legal)
Public domain so available free: http://archive.org/details/ost-english-1984-george-orwell-1937-dystopia
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PaulT (profile), 12 Jun 2013 @ 4:46am

Re: Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
"I wonder how much that book has been downloaded illegally."

Probably lots, but that's really irrelevant to any point. ootb can't attack Mike for talking about the legal version though, so he has to make some stupid attack based on some tangential fiction. He has to tread lightly, because he can't admit that he agrees with Mike on the basic facts (it doesn't necessarily matter since the legal copy is doing very nicely). He also can't pull a morality spin about stealing from Orwell, since he probably died before anyone commenting here was born. So, he has to come up with some barely comprehensible rubbish that only makes himself look like an idiot - SOP for him.

"Can you even buy an ebook version of 1984? After that Amazon thing, I figured there were no ebook versions."

Yep, it's definitely for sale from various publishers. The scandal at Amazon was just over one particular publisher who they discovered didn't have the US publishing rights for the book (although they had rights elsewhere). Only that particular version was affected, the copies from other publishers were still OK. The scandal itself was more about how Amazon handled the issue (they deleted paid copies without warning from peoples' Kindles) than the fact that they pulled that version.
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PaulT (profile), 12 Jun 2013 @ 4:51am

Re: Re: Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
Oops... and by Mike I mean Tim, sorry Tim! My excuse is... I have none but at least I'm not afraid to apologise for it unlike those who attack the authors here :)
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2013 @ 5:20am

Re: Re: Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
Look on the bright side, I'm pretty sure George is making more money off Americans than ever before. No idea how he's benefiting from it but he must be, right? Copyright law said so!
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Plum, 12 Jun 2013 @ 5:35am

So...
How long until the NSA and co. label Orwell as an extreme terrorist for maliciously planting the foolish idea in people's heads that constant surveillance is somehow a bad thing?
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2013 @ 6:17am

Check out "Escape From L.A." We are headed there next.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_L.A.
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Arnold, 12 Jun 2013 @ 6:30am

Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
The book is out of copyright. Easy, free and legal to download
http://archive.org/details/ost-english-1984-george-orwell-1937-dystopia
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gorehound (profile), 12 Jun 2013 @ 6:48am

I have a huge Library of physical Books which I collect and have been doing this since 1968.
I admit it.........I am a proud Dinosaur who owns no Digital Files at all but only physical.
My Treasured Copy of 1984 is the 1952 published Signet Classics No.798 version which has the lurid pulp art cover.
Anti-Sex League are a drag !!!
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PaulT (profile), 12 Jun 2013 @ 6:50am

Re:
Crappy CGI surfing will cause even major fanboys of the director to admit he's lost the plot? Or was that just me?
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JWW (profile), 12 Jun 2013 @ 7:10am

Re: Glenn Beck?
I have to agree that Beck's writing has undertones similar to Orwell. You obviously don't politically agree with Beck, but his works moving up the lists on Amazon are IMHO directly related to the same trend moving Orwell's up.
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JWW (profile), 12 Jun 2013 @ 7:12am

Re: Re: Milk it for all it's worth
Yep, gotta agree. More milk please.
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JJ Joseph, 12 Jun 2013 @ 8:55am

Re: 1984
Yes, it's public domain. It's available on Gutenberg, a free download.
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JJ Joseph, 12 Jun 2013 @ 8:58am

Re: 1984
It's also available (free download) on Gutenberg, in any format you want.
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Plum, 12 Jun 2013 @ 9:07am

Re: Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
Only in some countries. Canada for example. In most of the world though, it's still in copyright.
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JJ Joseph, 12 Jun 2013 @ 9:17am

Does anybody here have any idea what NSA (or even TSA) are trying to do? They're trying to find enemies of non-Muslim American people while being strapped into a politically correct body-brace. It's nothing to do with Big Brother's agenda. It's working within the chicken-sh*t guidelines set down by our lily-livered politicians. Until we're ready to call a spade a spade, we're going to have to put up with cavity searches of little old ladies and Christian clergymen. This non-issue is going to be a bit of a nuisance until we're ready to name the enemy of free people everywhere.
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John Fenderson (profile), 12 Jun 2013 @ 10:27am

Re:
until we're ready to name the enemy of free people everywhere.

I notice that you didn't name them either. Who are they?
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BigKeithO, 12 Jun 2013 @ 12:56pm

Re: Re: Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
It is public domain in Canada. I just downloaded the ePub actually. 1984 and Animal Farm, never read either of them.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jun 2013 @ 6:08pm

Re: Re: Re: How are those doing in no-cost ebook form on The Pirate Bay?
Shhhh. Don't mention that. darryl hates it when Australia gets Fair Use.
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JJ Joseph, 12 Jun 2013 @ 7:03pm

That which must not be named
To be honest, I'm not that excited about encouraging these unnamed self-righteous goofs to place a fatwa upon my ass, so I'm trying to avoid naming them.
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Anonymous, 13 Jun 2013 @ 2:35pm

Re:
Heck, I still have Fotonovels of "Star Trek", "Battlestar Galactica", and even "Mork & Mindy".
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