I don't see the problem here. If you want to give ebooks as a gift, give them a birthday/Christmas card with a unique short URL. The recipient types in the URL,

I don't see the problem here. If you want to give ebooks as a gift, give them a birthday/Christmas card with a unique short URL. The recipient types in the URL, gets a few seconds of a happy birthday song/Christmas carol, then they automatically download their gift. The key here is to make obtaining the gift as frictionless as possible. The recipient shouldn't need to create an account, fill out a captcha, verify their email, re-log back into the website, upload their profile pic ("wait, are you sure that's you? We don't see a face here"), pick 5 of their favorite books then stand on their head and spit wooden nickels.