Thank heavens I'm not alone in this,
I recently "lost" my home computer due to a motherboard failure. I have just built a new machine and used my back up CD's to restore 99.9999%of my files. My one problem file is an e-book I purchased in early December last year. I cannot access it nor can I use the recovery "Gobeldygook" Adobe states so glibly.
As much as I would like to have supernatural powers I do not and the old computer just sits there and looks at me, my words apparently falling on "dead ram" so to speak. I cannot resurrect a computer from electron heaven to log on in a different manner.
Finding this site and the related phone numbers was of itself a "chore", not that the phone numbers have been any use so far. Well hidden Adobe, was this a legal recommendation or were the phone calls becoming too much of a nuisance?
Why couldn't Adobe use the tried and tested methodolgy of those in the business of selling software on line and simply send a unique license key file with each book purchase? A key that the purchaser also owns and can move from one machine to another, just as I did for the other 99.9999% of my backed up software!!!
I'd be very surprised if the "abuse" of books exceeds that of software, are we still in the pre-gothenburg bible days!!!
Likely there was a "pop up message" somewhere as part of my purchase that warned me of this situation, if so I don't recall it and the very existence of this thread in the forum would suggest that I'm not alone in this assertation.
I note an earlier responder stating that we should be challenging the publishers and not Adobe on this issue, I can only assume that this was a posting by an Adobe employee. Adobe are the company that offers this "publishing" technology and as such they can and should set the terms and conditions for its use.
This is one individual who will not be buying anymore e-books. this one experience has left a bad taste in my mouth and memory, I will in fact go out of my way to suggest to my friends, collegues, peers etc and in fact anybody who will listen that if considering a book purchase there is no substitue for the real thing. Come to think of it I will be in London England shortly on business and I've always wanted to set up a soap-box at speakers corner on a Sunday, just to deliver an almost evangelical and fervent message with the kind of passion I remember from my youth, maybe this is the topic.
Can you imagine opening a recently purchased and cherished hard cover only to find the pages had gone blank ??? What would your reaction be Hmmm? Upset? angry? feeling cheated? and to make matters worse it's almost impossible to find the individual that had sold you the book, and when you do find them they are hiding behind a garbage can, down a back alley. I think I've made my point, time to shuttle of this mortal web page.