4 ms·

Lending e-books

26 points by zweiterlinde 16y ago

flipbrad 16y ago
The fact that you aren't buying the e-book, but instead paying the fee for a very restrictive licence, needs to be made much clearer to e-book users. This would mean Amazon and Barnes & Noble using the wording 'license this book' instead of 'sell', 'sale', 'purchase' or 'buy'; instead of a price, you pay a fee. Nudges, and informed consumers, FTW.
- swanson 16y ago
  Why not just word it as "Read this book"? You pay $X to read the book, you can't lend it, copy it, re-sell it -- just read it (and re-read it if you want).
  - omarchowdhury 16y ago
    That'll probably result in less conversions for Amazon (compared to "Buy this book").
- ComputerGuru 16y ago
  Except it's only a dollar cheaper than getting the actual, physical book shipped to your house the very next day (without any S&H charges) via Amazon Prime.
browsemybooks 16y ago
So unnecessarily restrictive! Does anybody have any online resources they can point me to that details the legalities of lending physical or electronic books? Thanks.
- flipbrad 16y ago
  in what/which jurisdiction(s)?
sh1mmer 16y ago
I agree with many of the article author's points. However, I am also extremely aware that I typically pay under half the price of the physic book for e-books. Given that paying authors, editorial and production staff is often the most significant cost in producing a book I feel like it's a trade-off. I'm giving up some rights I'd like, for much lower cost item. For the most part I'm ok with that. Obviously if there was a better option for lending ebooks I'd take it.
delackner 16y ago
Frankly I don't see any indications that the trajectory of electronic book sales will go differently than music and movies. Same insanely anti-customer pathological obsession with turning sales into "licenses," same obsession with DRM, same outcome: the illegal edition is quite likely to become the more consumer-friendly version. Today people torrent individual albums and movies, or perhaps a trilogy, or a collection of all the albums of a single band. Given the incredible efficiency of text compression, it is entirely conceivable that soon people might be faced with the decision to rent for $10 a non-shareable copy of a single book, or to just download in one shot, "all books released electronically in english, ever [mar 2011 edition]".

26 points by zweiterlinde 16y ago

The fact that you aren't buying the e-book, but instead paying the fee for a very restrictive licence, needs to be made much clearer to e-book users. This would mean Amazon and Barnes & Noble using the wording 'license this book' instead of 'sell', 'sale', 'purchase' or 'buy'; instead of a price, you pay a fee. Nudges, and informed consumers, FTW.

swanson 16y ago
Why not just word it as "Read this book"? You pay $X to read the book, you can't lend it, copy it, re-sell it -- just read it (and re-read it if you want).
- omarchowdhury 16y ago
  That'll probably result in less conversions for Amazon (compared to "Buy this book").
ComputerGuru 16y ago
Except it's only a dollar cheaper than getting the actual, physical book shipped to your house the very next day (without any S&H charges) via Amazon Prime.

browsemybooks 16y ago

So unnecessarily restrictive! Does anybody have any online resources they can point me to that details the legalities of lending physical or electronic books? Thanks.

flipbrad 16y ago
in what/which jurisdiction(s)?

sh1mmer 16y ago

I agree with many of the article author's points. However, I am also extremely aware that I typically pay under half the price of the physic book for e-books. Given that paying authors, editorial and production staff is often the most significant cost in producing a book I feel like it's a trade-off. I'm giving up some rights I'd like, for much lower cost item. For the most part I'm ok with that. Obviously if there was a better option for lending ebooks I'd take it.

delackner 16y ago

Frankly I don't see any indications that the trajectory of electronic book sales will go differently than music and movies. Same insanely anti-customer pathological obsession with turning sales into "licenses," same obsession with DRM, same outcome: the illegal edition is quite likely to become the more consumer-friendly version. Today people torrent individual albums and movies, or perhaps a trilogy, or a collection of all the albums of a single band. Given the incredible efficiency of text compression, it is entirely conceivable that soon people might be faced with the decision to rent for $10 a non-shareable copy of a single book, or to just download in one shot, "all books released electronically in english, ever [mar 2011 edition]".