According to a blogger and Kindle owner, content publishers have put arbitrary simultaneous device limits on Kindle books. The limits vary from book to book, and there is no way for users to be able to tell what those limits are until they hit them.
But here’s the kicker. Amazon customer service reps apparently don’t know this—some of them, or at least the one this guy talked to, think that the limits aren’t on simultaneous devices, but on total number of downloads, and that once the limits are reached, the only way to be able to download the book again (if, say, you’ve upgraded your Kindle, or iPhone, or iPod Touch software to a new version and need to redownload all your books) is to repurchase it.
This is appalling for several reasons. One, that Amazon’s normally not-terrible customer service fell down on the job in spectacular fashion, and two, that it has been painfully reinforced (again) that content publishers really don’t get it. Again, why is it that people who make the effort to legitimately purchase content are the ones who get penalized? The people who pirate content aren’t affected by these draconian and ineffective measures in the least. It’s the honest ones who suffer.
Way to make sure that your customers stay loyal, guys. Jesus.
(via The Atlantic by way of InstaPundit)