Imagine a world in which booksellers can break into your home and steal back books that you bought from them. That, basically, is a reality with e-books. Chris Meadows wrote for TeleRead an account of how Barnes & Noble "stole" the first e-book he ever bought. He even contacted Barnes & Noble to complain, and they told him he could re-buy the e-book from them if he wanted. A couple days later, Barnes & Noble did decide to give Meadows back the e-book that he purchased. Awfully gracious of them.

Remember: you do not own the e-books that you buy from online retailers like Barnes & Noble and Amazon. You license them, and there's nothing you can do if the publisher decides to take the book back from your online library.

In related news, if you don't update your old Kindles by tomorrow, they'll be disconnected from the internet.