4 ms·

That button should say "Rent this book". Claiming you can "Buy this book" is a lie and false advertising.

devoutsalsa 2y ago
alias book="license"
Espressosaurus 2y ago
Yeah. I "bought" a Kindle copy of There Will Be War awhile back to get access to a few of the short stories in the collection. After reading about how they're taking away downloads I went and downloaded all of my books and found that at some point they must have lost the license to that book because I no longer had access to it. Love it when my "purchases" can be taken away from me with no recourse. edit: and I was never even informed that the book had been taken away. It just is there in my collection with a few invalid characters at the front of the title and no cover picture. The link goes to a page that doesn't exist. And searching for it shows only paper copies now by third parties. So I know this isn't just a bug in the system.
- daveoc64 2y ago
  This does not happen with the Kindle Store. Anything you've purchased will remain in your library unless: 1) You delete it (which can happen by accident, due to some bad UX). If you have done this, you can contact Amazon Support and they can re-add it to your library for free. It's not possible to delete your purchase history on the Amazon website, and that includes all Kindle books. Whenever I've seen people claim that digital content has gone from their Amazon account, it always turns out to be either: a) They didn't buy it on Amazon in the first place. b) They bought it on a different Amazon account.
  - caconym_ 2y ago
    > This does not happen with the Kindle Store. It has, in fact, happened: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18am... Not saying that's what happened in this case, but it has happened, and it's a great example of why having your books (or any media) locked up in a walled garden is a terrible idea. (though this is far from being the only objectionable angle)
    - daveoc64 2y ago
      Yes, that happened once - in 2009. And Amazon gave everyone a full refund.
- qingcharles 2y ago
  I built a DRM system for the major record labels. If you moved your music to a new computer it had to download a new license. It was disheartening reading that they shut down the license server in 2009. I read a lot of posts from suitably aggrieved buyers. I'm glad the government is forcing companies to be a little more honest about these "purchases." These companies wouldn't have done it on their own. Of course, someone will say it is government overreach and competition will solve this instead.
paulcole 2y ago
Does it say “Buy this book” anywhere?
- brewdad 2y ago
  It says "Buy now with 1-click"
  - paulcole 2y ago
    So that’s a no?
    - account42 2y ago
      Depends, are you a deceptive advertiser or are you a regulator supposed to protect consumers. The average person will read this as "buying a book". They will tell their friends they have bought the book if the topic comes up. They might even ask others if they "own" the book as well.
      - paulcole 2y ago
        So that’s a no?
        account42 2y ago
        If the question is whether you understand english, then yes.
rendaw 2y ago
I can't believe this sort of stuff is legal/passes the regulation. Is it really fine for them to say "Buy this book *You aren't really buying it"? I guess we've seen "No bandwidth caps *We can arbitrarily cap your bandwidth". Could a food manufacturer say "Contains no nuts *Made on an assembly line that produces nut products"? It's okay to lie to people, just not that much. Corporations don't operate above the law, they operate X% below the law where that % grows the larger they are because the cost to prosecute X% is too high, so all of them do it.

alias book="license"

Yeah. I "bought" a Kindle copy of There Will Be War awhile back to get access to a few of the short stories in the collection. After reading about how they're taking away downloads I went and downloaded all of my books and found that at some point they must have lost the license to that book because I no longer had access to it. Love it when my "purchases" can be taken away from me with no recourse. edit: and I was never even informed that the book had been taken away. It just is there in my collection with a few invalid characters at the front of the title and no cover picture. The link goes to a page that doesn't exist. And searching for it shows only paper copies now by third parties. So I know this isn't just a bug in the system.

daveoc64 2y ago
This does not happen with the Kindle Store. Anything you've purchased will remain in your library unless: 1) You delete it (which can happen by accident, due to some bad UX). If you have done this, you can contact Amazon Support and they can re-add it to your library for free. It's not possible to delete your purchase history on the Amazon website, and that includes all Kindle books. Whenever I've seen people claim that digital content has gone from their Amazon account, it always turns out to be either: a) They didn't buy it on Amazon in the first place. b) They bought it on a different Amazon account.
- caconym_ 2y ago
  > This does not happen with the Kindle Store. It has, in fact, happened: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18am... Not saying that's what happened in this case, but it has happened, and it's a great example of why having your books (or any media) locked up in a walled garden is a terrible idea. (though this is far from being the only objectionable angle)
  - daveoc64 2y ago
    Yes, that happened once - in 2009. And Amazon gave everyone a full refund.
qingcharles 2y ago
I built a DRM system for the major record labels. If you moved your music to a new computer it had to download a new license. It was disheartening reading that they shut down the license server in 2009. I read a lot of posts from suitably aggrieved buyers. I'm glad the government is forcing companies to be a little more honest about these "purchases." These companies wouldn't have done it on their own. Of course, someone will say it is government overreach and competition will solve this instead.

paulcole 2y ago

Does it say “Buy this book” anywhere?

brewdad 2y ago
It says "Buy now with 1-click"
- paulcole 2y ago
  So that’s a no?
  - account42 2y ago
    Depends, are you a deceptive advertiser or are you a regulator supposed to protect consumers. The average person will read this as "buying a book". They will tell their friends they have bought the book if the topic comes up. They might even ask others if they "own" the book as well.
    - paulcole 2y ago
      So that’s a no?
      - account42 2y ago
        If the question is whether you understand english, then yes.

rendaw 2y ago

I can't believe this sort of stuff is legal/passes the regulation. Is it really fine for them to say "Buy this book *You aren't really buying it"? I guess we've seen "No bandwidth caps *We can arbitrarily cap your bandwidth". Could a food manufacturer say "Contains no nuts *Made on an assembly line that produces nut products"? It's okay to lie to people, just not that much. Corporations don't operate above the law, they operate X% below the law where that % grows the larger they are because the cost to prosecute X% is too high, so all of them do it.