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That made me extremely hesitant to order from them, but it turns out that I can download all my Manning books without time restrictions. (Clearly inconsistent with the policy you point out; dunno what it all means.)

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They might have changed this recently. Several months ago I wanted to download a copy of a book that I had purchased in the past and discovered this policy. I was not able to download it again.

Are you using the original links that were emailed to you? I no longer had the download message and I see no way to login on their site.

That is a definitely usability flaw IMO. I forget the exact dance I did, but I think in the end it was simply to create an account, and they associate all books you've previously ordered with that email address with your new account.

The emailed links expire, but the accounts page is permanent as far as I know.

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