A few months back I bought Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog–a great book about beating procrastination that I cited in a recent Fast Company video–on my Kindle. Today I got an interesting email from Amazon. To quote:
We’re writing about your recent Kindle purchase of Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy. The version you received contained some errors that have been corrected.
An updated version of Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time is now available. It’s important to note that when we send you the updated version, you will lose any highlights, your last page read, and bookmarks made in your current version and the locations of any notes may not match the updated copy of the book.
The whole part about my losing highlights and bookmarks stinks. But Amazon reaching down into my Kindle and correcting errors in a book I bought months ago? Wacky!
Update, 4/12/2010: I posted this in a rush last week and didn’t include the entire text of the email, or fully-baked thoughts about it. To clarify: the updates to the book are indeed optional and opt-in. The email ends thusly:
If you wish to receive the updated version, please let us know via e-mail at amazonkindle-feedback@amazon.com.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused, and would like to thank you for your business with Amazon.
My apologies for making it sound like this update was not opt-in. While I wish Amazon would provide a diff between the revisions so I can see exactly what I’m getting when I ask for the update, they won’t touch my book unless I ask them.
8 Comments
MikeTorres
I have to admit, I read that and thought the exact opposite thing – that *losing* my highlights, last page read, and bookmarks isn’t worth getting corrections to the book. I trust that those things won’t disappear one day.
I do like that book though 😉
launchpad.net/~burzmali
It kind of makes you wonder what it would take for Amazon to pull an 1984 on your books. Could I force a correction if I sued for libel?
google.com/profiles/10…
“…contained some errors that have been corrected.”
According to this web site, ‘In 1963 the Philadelphia Board of Education, after removing Huck Finn, replaced it with an adapted version which “tone[d] down the violence, simplify[d] the Southern dialect, and delete[d] all derogatory references to Negroes.” ‘ Would those count as errors to Amazon? I’ll stick with the (DRM-free) books I have, thanks.
khabalox
Wow, you don’t get the choice to opt out of the update? Even Microsoft gives you that choice. Amazon really needs to rethink their customer interaction philosophy if it wants to stand a chance against Apple.
Peter Raymond
I just received the same email but for “Happy Hour of the Damned” by Mark Henry. What on earth could they need to update in a work of fiction?
Josh Parmely
Weren’t they already sued once for manipulating content on a user’s device during that Orwell debacle? Between how Amazon’s content is licensed and the fact that they keep reaching into peoples’ homes and molesting their data (with no opt-out, especially) ensures that I’m never going to purchase a single piece of digital media from them.
tasselhoff76
Part of this post confuses me. Does Amazon mean that they have corrected some things in a new version of the item you already purchased and that you can download this new version with the changes but if you do you will lose your notes and highlights or does it mean that it already made the changes in the item you purchased. Because if it’s the latter, I don’t see why you would need to download the new version, right?
Josh Parmely
Actually, that’s a good question. I couldn’t tell one way or the other, I just assumed Amazon was making more poor business decisions. If you take the update on your own terms, I’m not so irate about it.
I still won’t buy their products, though.