Re: Amazon remotely deletes 1984

>     Posted by: "Brenna Lyons" [email protected] sunnie4168
>     Date: Mon Aug 3, 2009 5:27 am ((PDT))
>
>> The notes have lost value when they no longer refer to the text.  
>> The kid's
>> got a case.
>
> You know, I've been biting my tongue on this for days, but... If  
> this kid is
> in advanced classes and has read the text once already, I'd  
> disagree. He'd
> be rather inept not to be able to match his notes to the text again  
> with
> very little time. Having had to do it, when my notes got wet once,  
> it wasn't
> that hard. Does he have a case? Sure. Everyone with enough money  
> has a case,
> in our legal system. Is it a strong one? Probably not all that strong.

I have to agree with Brenna. Whenever I've lost work, typically due  
to a computer problem... or [blush] operator error... or [face-saving  
recovery] operator "error" caused by unforgivably bad software UI  
design...

...I've been surprised at how quickly I've been able to reconstruct  
it. I've "lost" up to two days' work, and, after the initial shock,  
when I've just buckled down and dug into again, I've been able to get  
it redone in a matter of a couple of hours or an afternoon.

It's surprising how much of that "work" is in your head, and how good  
your memory is for things you've been actively working on that are  
less than a week old.

This falls into that old grey area. Was I late _because_ there was a  
traffic jam, or _because_ I didn't allow enough time, knowing that  
traffic jams were a possibility? Did I lose that document _because_  
the disk drive crashed, or _because_ I didn't keep good backups?

I think what Amazon did was seriously wrong, and that They Deserve To  
Be Taught A Lesson. I don't know whether Bezos' gets it and whether  
his apology was sincere, or whether he merely is shrewd enough to  
know how to handle the incident from a public relations point of view.

But in point of fact, I don't think any Amazon customer has seriously  
lost much apart from The Principle Of The Thing. And I don't think  
the kid is wise to sue over that.

Now, if I were Jeff Bezos, I'd at least consider calling up the  
Orwell estate and say "I'd like to give this one kid the opportunity  
to re-download the same copy of 1984 and reattach it to his notes.  
Would you take accept twenty bucks for that?" And then go to the  
technical people and say "Make it so."

And then I'd go to the kid and say "I'll send you a personally-signed  
note for your teacher, and we'll restore your book, and give you a  
$250 gift card and free lifetime membership in Amazon Prime. Oh, and  
when you get your paper on Orwell finished, if you'd like we'd be  
glad to publish it for free in a Kindle edition. Good enough?"


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