Shades of 1984

[Difflugia]

I recently redownloaded my Barnes & Noble library to check for new editions of books. It seems that the author of a three-book omnibus had second thoughts and retroactively turned it into a two-book omnibus.

I'll say first that since it was free and I still have the original download, I'm not really out anything. It still cheeses me off a little.

The omnibus isn't for sale at Barnes & Noble anymore and I can't link to it there, but It looks like the author did the same thing at Amazon.

Note that the book listing describes a "two-book bundle", but this review lists the third book that's in the edition I downloaded in October, but is no longer there.

I don't have a problem with authors changing book availability from time to time (especially when we're talking about freebies), but taking a third out of a book that's already in my library seems a little unethical to me.

[eschwartz]

Hmm, I believe Amazon's policy when a book is pulled from their store is to leave it in your library, it just links to a nonexistent product page.

This seems more a matter of vendor policy. Amazon has already been fried in a similar matter before.

[HarryT]

I see no problem with this. You have the book that you bought; the fact that the author subsequently changed it doesn't affect you. Perhaps there were significant faults with the third book which made the author decide to withdraw it?

[Billi]

What exactly is the disadvantage you're experiencing?
In which way is it unethical?

[murg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I see no problem with this. You have the book that you bought; the fact that the author subsequently changed it doesn't affect you. Perhaps there were significant faults with the third book which made the author decide to withdraw it?

Let's say you lose the original version of the book.

So, you go to B&N and re-downloaded. And lo and behold, it's now only 66% of what you bought.

That's the problem.

And the fact that Difflugia paid zero for it is immaterial. Someone shelled some hard-earned scratch for it.

[Dr. Drib]

I seen no problem with this, either.

It's the purchaser's responsibility not to lose his book and it is his decision to download it when he buys it.

If an author comes out with a new edition, is the author then required to give you the revised edition?

If an author decides to withdraw a book, is the author obligated to give you a smiley face and a pat on the back and commiserate with you because you didn't download the thing you bought?

If one was smart enough to download the darn thing that was purchased, then what's the issue here?

I would say this is a non-issue, and is the responsibility of the buyer to keep up with his or her purchases.

BUT WAIT! -- There's more: Stephen King owes me the revised edition of 'The Stand', because in 1978 I purchased the original one in hardback.

[HarryT]

It might perhaps have been better for the author to upload the 2-book bundle as a different book, and leave the 3-book version available for re-download by existing purchasers, but not available for sale to new customers. But I don't know if B&N's or Amazon's systems allow this. Perhaps they don't.

[Billi]

Originally Posted by murg

Someone shelled some hard-earned scratch for it.

Where do you take this knowledge from?

And, Difflugia, do the first two books alone make enough sense or is the third book essential to follow/understand/end the story? Are there any cliffhangers or something like that?

[DrNefario]

I think it's extremely out-of-line, unless the book is withdrawn and reissued as a different product. (It's not clear whether this did happen here or not. Amazon will combine reviews in odd ways sometimes.) I have my kindle set to automatically update books, and if a third of one of them disappeared I'd be onto amazon for a refund.

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I see no problem with this. You have the book that you bought; the fact that the author subsequently changed it doesn't affect you. Perhaps there were significant faults with the third book which made the author decide to withdraw it?

If I were using B&N's cloud service the way they expect me to (and, in fact, try to enforce by the way their DRM works), then it would affect me. From the NOOK HD FAQ:

5. From my Library, if I move items from my device to the cloud, can I get them back?
Yes. All of your titles purchased from the NOOK Store are kept in your NOOK account. You can view the titles at anytime by tapping the Contents icon (button with three lines) in the lower left corner of the Library. From within this menu, tap View Archive. Your items in the cloud will be displayed and you can tap the download arrow to download your book again to your NOOK.

The third book is still available for sale, it just is no longer part of this omnibus.

Originally Posted by Billi

What exactly is the disadvantage you're experiencing?
In which way is it unethical?

I am personally not disadvantaged, but I am not disadvantaged specifically because I take steps to protect my library in case authors, publishers or bookstores behave unethically.

It's unethical because the product/service is materially different than what I bought.

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I see no problem with this, either.

It's the purchaser's responsibility not to lose his book and it is his decision to download it when he buys it.

If an author comes out with a new edition, is the author then required to give you the revised edition?

No. If the author updated the book and sold it as a different product (even if the "update" just removes some of the content), I wouldn't have a problem at all.

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

If an author decides to withdraw a book, is the author obligated to give you a smiley face and a pat on the back and commiserate with you because you didn't download the thing you bought?

If I purchased the book from a store that nominally includes a cloud service for my books (as both Amazon and B&N do), then I would hardly consider a smiley face and pat on the back sufficient in that case. Indeed, I would consider that response to be patronizing and insulting.

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

If one was smart enough to download the darn thing that was purchased, then what's the issue here?

I would say this is a non-issue, and is the responsibility of the buyer to keep up with his or her purchases.

While this case demonstrates the truth of your statement in practice, that's not how Barnes & Noble and Amazon expect you to use their services.

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

BUT WAIT! -- There's more: Stephen King owes me the revised edition of 'The Stand', because in 1978 I purchased the original one in hardback.

Why would you argue that? I certainly wouldn't. If Stephen King had promised me lifetime replacement, though, but then later decided it wasn't a good idea and only replaced two-thirds of the book (while offering to sell me the last third) I'd be pretty mad.

Originally Posted by HarryT

It might perhaps have been better for the author to upload the 2-book bundle as a different book, and leave the 3-book version available for re-download by existing purchasers, but not available for sale to new customers. But I don't know if B&N's or Amazon's systems allow this. Perhaps they don't.

That's what I would have expected.

Originally Posted by Billi

And, Difflugia, do the first two books alone make enough sense or is the third book essential to follow/understand/end the story? Are there any cliffhangers or something like that?

The book is more of a serial than a series (there are something like eight installments and they're short). If I had, for example, bought parts four through eight and wanted to reread the whole story out of the cloud, I'd now need to buy part three.

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I think it's extremely out-of-line, unless the book is withdrawn and reissued as a different product. (It's not clear whether this did happen here or not. Amazon will combine reviews in odd ways sometimes.) I have my kindle set to automatically update books, and if a third of one of them disappeared I'd be onto amazon for a refund.

I'm pretty sure this isn't a combined review (though I agree with you that they do combine reviews). The synopsis in my B&N library still says that it's parts 1-3 even though the title now says it's 1-2. Plus, I still have the original book and that definitely has parts 1-3.

Just so we're clear, I agree with everyone that says I'm not actually out anything or inconvenienced. There were no "actual damages", so I wouldn't have a case if I took it to court, for example.

1. I did remove the DRM from the book and download the book into Calibre, so I can read the book now or in the future, cloud or no cloud.
2. The book was free. I don't think that matters, but others probably do.
3. I didn't actually enjoy the books enough to get to part three and am unlikely to try reading it again, so in a practical sense, the whole thing's moot.

I thought the situation was worth commenting on, though. If the series was one I enjoyed and I trusted Amazon's or B&N's cloud enough to use the services the way they expect me to, I'd be mad. As it is, just like a time share scam or Three-card Monte dealer; the victim should have known better and had ways to protect him- or herself, but the perpetrators are still sleazeballs and they're still the ones I'm mad at.

[Apache]

If I lose my copy of a paper book neither the publisher, author or bookstore is going to replace it for free.
Apache

[HarryT]

Have you asked B&N Customer Service about this? Perhaps they can explain why it's happened?

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Have you asked B&N Customer Service about this? Perhaps they can explain why it's happened?

No, but I am kind of curious what their response would be. The only option they're offering me at the moment is online chat, so I'll try later.

[DiapDealer]

I find it a little on the shady-side myself.

Pull a title? Sure.
Pull one third of the pages out of a title and call it the same product? Shady.

The original should have been pulled and the new two-volume omnibus reissued as a different product altogether. One that doesn't include reviews referring to the now non-existent edition.

[jhowell]

I don't know how B&N handles updates to existing books, but Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) has documentation on how updates are to be managed.

1. If the changes made to your content are considered major, we’ll send an email to all customers who own the book to notify them that the update exists. These customers can choose to receive the update through their Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon.com.

2. If the changes made to your content are considered minor, we won’t be able to notify all customers by email, but we will enable them to update the book’s content through the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon.com.

3. If the changes made to your content have caused unexpected critical issues with the book content, we’ll temporarily remove your book from sale. We’ll notify you of the issues we found so that you can fix them. Once the improvements are made, just let us know and we’ll email customers just as in case 1.

So it seems that Amazon has at least considered the impact of updates on the user.