[Infowarrior] - E-book Peril

[Richard Forno]

IMHO e-books, for all their convenience, are being sold to the world  
as "everything you've come to expect in a book and more...EXCEPT....."

To wit:

Amazon.com mysteriously removes Macmillan book titles
http://venturebeat.com/2010/01/29/macmillan-amazon-ipad/

One question:  did Amazon also yank the books off everyone's Kindle  
that had purchased them? Are Macmillian e-book "owners" (er,  
licensees) now screwed if they need to reload their Kindle because  
these books aren't on Amazon's service anymore? If so, will they get  
refunds?  I presume customers will be caught in the middle here with  
little or no recourse other than to buy an "old-fashioned" hard-copy  
book, if they want to ensure it will be there when they want it.  
Amazon's oopsie with 1984 last year should have been a big wakeup call  
to all e-book customers.

If they can yank books at whim from the service, customers --er,  
victims-- may be SOL and refunds/credits not forthcoming since I would  
think the clause "or as authorized by Amazon as part of the Service"  
in the Kindle ToS would apply.  (Source: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200144530)

To say this won't end well is a gross understatement....which is still  
one of my biggest reasons for not wanting to jump into the e-book  
bandwagon either from Amazon, Apple, or whomever.  I would consider e- 
books for convenience only ... and certainly with the expectation that  
everything in that walled garden is at-risk to things beyond my  
ability to control or truly retain "permanently."

Give me a well-stocked library of paper-based books any day of the week!

-rf