Re: Amazon remotely deletes 1984

--- In [email protected], "Daniel P. B. Smith" <yahoogroups2006@...> wrote:
>
> >     Posted by: "Brenna Lyons" brennalyons4168@... 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?"
>

Back in the day when corporations were concerned about their images, had this happened, the CEO would have immediately directed that something similar to what you described would have been done for the boy. However, this is now and, based on his actions, including the lateness of his "apology," Bezos would rather spend money on lawyers than making his customers whole and polishing Amazon's image. He had ample time to correct this problem before the law suit was filed. We knew about what Amazon did some time ago after all and we're hardly insiders. I sensed a bit of blaming the victim in the comment about losing his own work due to lack of back up. I haven't even seen a Kindle so can't speak with any authority, but from what I've read, there was nothing the kid could have done to protect hi
 mself from this. Well, I guess he could have taken photos of the pages he marked up, but he shouldn't have to do that. A lesson to him for the future is to take some pencil and paper notes to help him reconstruct things should it happen again. Better yet, buy a cheap paperback and write in the margins.

Tom Benjey, author of
Keep A-goin': the life of Lone Star Dietz
Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs
Oklahoma's Carlisle Indian School Immortals





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