I don’t always archive my ebooks, so this morning when I finished one, Kindle recommended another in the same genre, so I downloaded a sample. As I read it, the beginning seemed familiar to me, so I skipped buying it, but would it have let me buy it twice or would it have reminded me I’d already read it?
Back when I bought hardcovers/paperbacks, I was bad to buy the same book twice. Especially Koontz’, because he’d reissue his with a different cover, and I never checked the copyrights.
No, they’ll tell you that you’ve already purchased it. Amazon keeps a database of all your downloads. So even if you delete everything off your Kindle, you can always get them back via your Amazon account.
I’ve done this once, and Amazon won’t let you buy the book again. It’ll give you a notice that you’ve already purchased it for Kindle.
But if multiple Kindle editions exist (say for something long out of copyright from the 18th century), it may be possible to purchase the same book twice. I haven’t tested this yet, and I’m not sure if multiple editions of the same ebook exist, yet.
I’ve wondered about this too. Does Amazon really “not let” you buy it, or do they just post a “You bought this on --” warning, like they do with “real” books? Those warnings are easy to miss.
They do indeed, and not just for out-of-copyright books. For example, Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is today’s (12/26/11) Kindle Deal of the Day at $0.99, but there’s also another Kindle edition priced at $7.01. IIUC, if you’ve bought one, Amazon won’t stop you from buying the other.