Sheesh George ... This line of yours scares me ...
> the code was clearly in the public domain and in my view free to use by any one
By this reasoning, someone can take your car from a public lot because by the taker's view it is "free to use by any one".
Sorry, I could not help yanking your chain a bit. I actually agree with you. Sony/Borders should have taken better preventative steps to ensure that the correct people (assuming intent) only received the opportunity of the rebate. Since I am one of those people that bought the E-reader right after Christmas and I got the "we are out message". I was sorely dissappointed and unless someone does a class action suit, there are not many options available for me. I consider this a bad lesson learned about using the Border's/Sony online store.
As I see it the facts are as follows:
1) The Border's receipt from the Brick and Mortar store promises the $50 credit, not Sony.
2) The Border's receipt only limitation is redemption dates and not on the number of redemptions.
3) For this arm chair lawyer, this seems like a binding agreement. I wonder what Judge Judy would make of it?
I was going to buy the E-reader anyhow, the $50 Book Credit just convinced me to pull the sale ahead and buy it at Border's Bookstore. BUT due to this mishap, I am going to exercise my consumer right and boycott the Sony/Border's Online Store. My take is that if they are this bad in handling a promotion, just how bad will they be in handling my credit card information?
I would suggest that those others who got taken in by this fiasco also boycott the on-line store.