[JasonB]

I've never relied on keeping books in the online Sony library. After getting them from there, I immediately copy them to my reader and then use calibre to copy them to my computer's hard drive. (Where I'm maintaining my own library of Sony lrf content as well as others.)

Is it common for people to rely solely on the online source for their media? (I know that Kindle keeps bought books at Amazon - but can't those also be copied over to your own storage?)

If I compare this to the real world, and I buy a book, I don't expect to be able to go back to the book store and have them hand me another copy if I lose the original or it gets damaged in some way. If that were to happen, and it were still available in the store, I'd either buy it again or, having read about it, not bother. (Or if my house burned down along with my personal library and I lost my couple of thousand print books.) I don't consider the concept of having an online store and being able to download another copy at any time as anything other than a "nice bonus". (Kind of like them providing a free backup service.) But if I really want to make sure that what I've bought and downloaded remains available to me, I'll store it and/or back it up myself.

Plus, this seems to only be one specific title - and nothing (so far) indicates that it has actually been "rescinded", just that there's some as yet unidentified problem with the entry for that book on their site / in their database. It doesn't sound like there's any reason to panic. Nor do I see any sign of this being a policy - it just looks more like a simple glitch.

Lastly, even if this were true (a policy I mean, not the glitch - which I believe) I don't think that it would bother me or that I'd care. I mean, it was a free book. Now, if I'd actually paid money for it - and there was a commitment that anything you bought was supposed to always remain online - that would be different.