This makes for a great story but how do we know it wasn't totally made up? There is no link from the consumerist article to a post from the original source (someone whose purported first name is Ryan). Searching for word-for-word sentences from the article on Google, I just find this consumerist post and pages that quoted from it more recently.

Even if Laura Northrup was really given this information by someone who is really named Ryan, how do we know that Ryan isn't making this story up? Or perhaps there's a part of it that is true but important parts of the story are omitted or exaggerated?

This kind of thing seems to be happening more each year on the internet - widely circulated stories considered credible just because it's widely circulated.

All that being said - I own both a Kindle Touch and Nook Simple Touch but have spent a total of $0.99 on content, for the same reasons cited by many in this thread. However, I'm very comfortable with a Netflix model. I've used the Nook to read in stores a little and I intend to use the Kindle Touch with my prime account to read borrowed books.

I predict that some day, Amazon or Barnes and Noble will come out with some kind of "content guarantee: you buy it, it's yours, forever." And I think this guarantee will quickly be copied by all competitors. The market for e-content will then be extended to nervous Nellies like me.