Amazon removed books from my Kindle

[Hollow Man]

I went through these feelings way back when Valve created Steam and used it to launch the latest incarnation of Counter-Strike. I saw the writing on the wall then, and now it's next to impossible to buy a PC game on physical media.

And now that's the way it is with ebooks via Amazon, but at least people love physical books enough that they likely aren't going away in my lifetime. So when I really want to "own" a book...I buy a physical copy.

[neil_swann80]

15 minutes is a long time now?

I took the video to be just a vlog of an average users thoughts on the current Kindle experience rather than being any kind of in-depth journalistic expose. I hadn't heard about the "1984" or book cover issues either, which I found interesting.

Do any other ereader manufacturers and/or ebook distributors operate as egregiously as Amazon seems to?

[neil_swann80]

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

I went through these feelings way back when Valve created Steam and used it to launch the latest incarnation of Counter-Strike. I saw the writing on the wall then, and now it's next to impossible to buy a PC game on physical media.

I still try to buy physical game media when I can, more for easy re-sale than maintaining a future library; most games being buggy without gigs of downloadable updates that will only be easily available as long as the web stores remain active.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by neil_swann80

Do any other ereader manufacturers and/or ebook distributors operate as egregiously as Amazon seems to?

Not that I've heard.

B&N doesn't allow you to download your purchased ebooks to your computer (at least Amazon still does, if you have an eink Kindle device), but I've not heard about them deleting anything off the users' devices.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

And now that's the way it is with ebooks via Amazon, but at least people love physical books enough that they likely aren't going away in my lifetime. So when I really want to "own" a book...I buy a physical copy.

Well, for my part, I don't want to read a paper book. Fortunately it's still possible to deDRM ebooks, even Amazon ebooks.

[Hollow Man]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Well, for my part, I don't want to read a paper book. Fortunately it's still possible to deDRM ebooks, even Amazon ebooks.

True, and one can strip the copy protection from videogames as well. The average consumer doesn't have the patience for it though.

I think for most people dealing with the copy protection is not too limiting. But I do personally wonder when that tipping point is going to be where they're really infringing on my ability to use goods I've paid for.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

But I do personally wonder when that tipping point is going to be where they're really infringing on my ability to use goods I've paid for.

For me, that point was passed a decade ago - when I started to edit the formatting to my liking. These days I never read a book unless I've fixed the formatting, and DRM prevents that, so...

[John F]

Bringing up the "1984" ebook thing seems strange to me. If I purchased some stolen/illegal item, I wouldn't expect to be able to keep the thing once it was discovered that it was stolen/illegal, and I would consider myself lucky if my money was recouped.

[neil_swann80]

Originally Posted by John F

Bringing up the "1984" ebook thing seems strange to me. If I purchased some stolen/illegal item, I wouldn't expect to be able to keep the thing once it was discovered that it was stolen/illegal, and I would consider myself lucky if my money was recouped.

If you purchased it from a stranger on the street, then yeah. If you purchased it through one of the biggest corporations on the planet.... hell no!

[John F]

Originally Posted by neil_swann80

If you purchased it from a stranger on the street, then yeah. If you purchased it through one of the biggest corporations on the planet.... hell no!

Good point.

However, it appears this is a rare case, it hasn't happened again, and people were refunded, so I would be satisfied if it happened to me.

[slm]

Originally Posted by neil_swann80

If you purchased it from a stranger on the street, then yeah. If you purchased it through one of the biggest corporations on the planet.... hell no!

But in fact anyone who bought that version of 1984 did purchase it from a stranger in the street. Amazon just arranged the meetup--and it didn't (in those days) check the bona fides of its sellers.

I wonder it is does now.

[Scoob]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

B&N doesn't allow you to download your purchased ebooks to your computer.

You can download your B&N ebooks but you need Nook for PC or Windows Nook App forget which one. It's not "easy" anymore as it was removed from the Windows app store. You can still find it on other app websites. How much longer you download on the app is another story.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by slm

But in fact anyone who bought that version of 1984 did purchase it from a stranger in the street. Amazon just arranged the meetup--and it didn't (in those days) check the bona fides of its sellers.

I wonder it is does now.

Going by some of the books it has removed from sale, it does not check now. One author commented that a person had placed multiple rewritten by AI copies of her books on Amazon and it took them close to 9 weeks to take them down.

Heck, going by how long it takes Amazon to remove sellers who are either not bothering to ship goods or are selling counterfeit goods, I tend to suspect that profit is far ahead of customer service.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Scoob

You can download your B&N ebooks but you need Nook for PC or Windows Nook App forget which one. It's not "easy" anymore as it was removed from the Windows app store. You can still find it on other app websites. How much longer you download on the app is another story.

Yes, I know that. I meant direct downloads. B&N used to allow those, but not for a while now (don't remember exactly when they disabled the downloading).

[Scoob]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, I know that. I meant direct downloads. B&N used to allow those, but not for a while now (don't remember exactly when they disabled the downloading).

I wish that was still a thing. Direct downloads would be much easier and saved me a headache finding the odscure for me folder on my laptop with the method I know how to do.