Comments

1
Reason #3,618 of why I hate and won't do business with Amazon.
2
Something is a little fishy. Did she try to find out any other e-mail accounts that they have associated with the claimed abuse.

I don't doubt Amazon can be assholes but I think we are not getting the whole story.
3
This seems a rather odd contrast to your post this morning on e-voting.
4
She should call them at 1-800-201-7575; or at 1-206-266-2992 if she is not in the US.
5
The Amazon cloud is having major problems. It's taken down quite a few sites, like say Crosscut, and one side effect is stuff you bought (but Amazon calls "rentals") is deleted because your Kindle thinks it must have expired, since the cloud sends no signal back.

Follow the worm to the giant fish at the end before you byte.
6
@3 for the EPIC Vote win.
7
@Cato, if you follow the link, you'll read several emails back and forth between the customer and Amazon.
8
Better question is: Why is a friend-of-a-friend blog entry being treated like gospel truth?
10
Yeah, you don't "buy" books from Amazon, you pay for a license to read them subject to their policies. The licenses can be revoked, as we see here.

I've told people I know who own Kindles about the potential for this to happen, but they don't care. All they care about is "buying" their books on the cheap. Oh, and they tell me that "this would never happen."
11
Would the Nook store have been a better option? I hate my Kindle and want a Nook HD.
12
Just when I was starting to consider getting the Kindle app, just for throwaway bestsellers.
13
See, Barnes and Noble can't come into my house and take all my books because they think I might have loaned them to a friend.
14
Meant to say, after losing 14 years' worth of emails recently when somebody hacked my Hotmail and the PTB wouldn't let me back in, this doesn't surprise me at all. That's life on the cloud.
15
There's a reason I'm not working for Amazon and the dread pirate Bezos.
16
Next step is full subscription to library instead of purchases, a Netflix of books.
17
Speaking of technology..here's a complete journey in the UK powered by hydrogen using a production fuel cell car and local stations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcS_ZvDLP…
18
We also do this to students at certain colleges: They are forced to "buy" books for $50–$100 (there is not an option to forgo online books for hard copies), and after the license is up (1-3 years) the company closes the account. It's another depressing way corporations profit from education. What Amazon does is really no different.

I'm such a bookworm I can't fathom why anyone would want to curl up with a Kindle. My husband once bought me one and I returned it same day.
19
Off-topic, but my brother's entire extensive Wish List disappeared 2 months ago, which he did not realize immediately. It took quite a bit of back-and-forth with Amazon before it got restored - presumably a manual operation performed in some obscure tech center using backups.
20
@18 Don't get me wrong, I still love paper books, but I commute by bicycle and ferry every day and e-readers are great for having access to numerous books, documents etc without having to haul a bag full of them around at all times or the weight of a full laptop.
21
@13,

Give it some time.
22
@2 So... instead of clicking on the link, or googling the story yourself and finding out what you can, you go to Slog & whine about not being spoon-fed information.

That's just grayyyyt...
23
The thing is, after I read a book, I rarely pick it up again.

The big advantage of eBooks to me is the online hyperlink-a-fication of text, being able to quote, Tweet and Facebook post besides integrating into comments and blogs from books.

Amazon makes this easy -- for its own books. However, for library books, for example, it removes any highlights once the subscription ends.

This is why we need to embrace this ebook thing fully and get with a monthly subscription to all the world's literature, same as we can with music and film.
24
Via BoingBoing, the rest (more) of the story:

http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-s…
25
(It seems like the source of this problem is that she bought a used kindle that may have had its serial number attached to someone else's account?)
26
And this is why I back up all my Kindle files. It's really not hard to connect your Kindle (and I assume most other e-readers) to your computer and copy the ebook files onto your computer or an external harddrive. I've paid money for those books, and even own a good number of them in physical copy, I'm not going to let Amazon arbitrarily wipe my Kindle without having the money I've spent backed up.
27
This is why I still buy physical books instead of fawning over technology.
28
@22, maybe you should read the link provided by #24?

Yeah, I question what I read in Slog...I wish you would learn to be skeptical instead of another kool aid news drinker.
29
I sell paper books for a living, and all I can say is Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
30
@29:

I'll see you soon Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
31
I wouldn't buy a book I actually want to own and re-read on a kindle. I don't mind buying pulp stuff for it though, something I'm going to skim and throw away.

I do love paper books, but I've decided I love having them on my phone or kindle more, because I don't have to carry them around with me. Yes, this may be bad for paper books in the long run.... but the value of books is in the words, not the paper.
32
e-readers are just tablet computers. Buy a tablet and download books from project Guttenberg or Calibre or a similar place.

http://alternativeto.net/software/kindle…
33
Whew - thanks for this story. I just archived all my Kindle books and converted them to pdfs with Calibre. Now amazon will have to pry them from my cold dead computer.

Sheesh - Kindle books cost close to the same price as hardcopies - if they can take them back. I see this as a problem. I bet iTunes can probably take all your "stuff" too if they want. All this "syncing" with iTunes has me worried.
34
This is the reason I won't buy Amazon movies on my Roku. If you don't own a hardcopy, you don't really own it.
35
@18, @20 I don't have any particular feelings about dead-tree books. I've read some of my favorite books in e-format, from Jane Eyre to a friend's unpublished manuscript. But if I buy something, I want it to be mine, and I want to be able give it away when I'm done with it. I pass a lot of my books on to friends when I'm done, and sometimes if it's a new hardcover I paid a lot for and didn't like I resell it. There's no way I trust Amazon to keep my stuff safe for me. 

Now I just need to figure out how to take full advantage of Calibre. So far I've just been using it for books that are out of copyright.
36
Looks like public pressure got to Amazon. They've let her access her books.
37
Seattle Public Library has a pretty extensive collection of books for "check out", all already paid for by your taxes.http://www.spl.org/library-collection/e-…

Please wait...

and remember to be decent to everyone
all of the time.

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