[jlarocco]

Maybe because it doesn't really happen? I've been buying ebooks on Amazon from the beginning. Never had one disappear. I know it can, but in practice it's not a concern.

YMMV, if it doesn't work for you, don't shop there.

It's funny that techies, of all people, don't realize online digital content doesn't last forever. We helped build the system, and now we have to live with it.

[CapmCrackaWaka]

> It's funny that techies, of all people, don't realize online digital content doesn't last forever.

We undoubtedly do realize this, but underestimated the degree to which companies would use this to siphon as much money out of the consumer as they theoretically could. It has made for many aggravating experiences, and ruined a lot of products that used to work perfectly.

[austinjp]

I kinda think you're missing a point: the viability of your "books" is not under your control.

[jlarocco]

No, I see it very well.

Looking at the bigger picture, very few things in life are under my control, and on the long list of things out of my control, this is a relatively minor, hypothetical problem.

[austinjp]

Then a further point being: it's not hypothetical. "Books" have "stopped working", see other comments. Whether you have or have not personally experienced this doesn't alter the reality.

If this is a "minor problem" for you, why comment?

If others here clearly feel it's more of a major issue, perhaps you'd benefit from seeking to understand why. Personally, I find it disturbing in several ways. The consolidation of editorial control in the hands of tech-oligarchs; the resultant de facto sterile homogeneity of expression; the ditching of customers en masse without recourse; the erosion of ownership and the expansion of eternal rental of anything and everything; on and on it goes.