Not to look a gift donkey in the feeding hole, but it looks like either Josh, Scott or the author is a bit confused here. Josh's last line in my chapter was
So the button isn't broken, it just shut down at the end of the trial period. And it still belongs to Acme, so to make it work someone would have to buy it from the company. Then again we're talking about Scott and Josh here, so the(ir) confusion is understandable..."We got [the button] on free trial from Acme Plot Devices. It only works for ten chapters."