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But the reason you can't share ebooks isn't that you don't own the medium the data is inscribed on (you do), it's the fact that the only practical ways of shari

by jvm 13y ago

But the reason you can't share ebooks isn't that you don't own the medium the data is inscribed on (you do), it's the fact that the only practical ways of sharing them involve copying the text, which is not allowed on traditional books or ebooks. You are perfectly welcome to share the medium itself (e.g. the ebook reader), it just so happens that with physical books, the medium lends itself (pun intended) to sharing.

Nursie 13y ago
The tech to lend or entirely transfer ebooks is clearly there (some books can be lent once for two weeks), you are operating in an environment where the vendor does not allow it. Either way, you actually don't own the text in the same way, as amazon has demonstrated that they think they have the right to revoke your account and therefore access to the data.
- jvm 13y ago
  > The tech to lend or entirely transfer ebooks is clearly there (some books can be lent once for two weeks), you are operating in an environment where the vendor does not allow it. There's a mixup in terminology here. We're not talking about lending the medium the book is printed in. We're talking about copying all the words over to someone else's machine, maybe with a promise to delete it on your own machine. The thing is, the right to copy the contents of a book is restricted by copyright and can only be done with the permission of the copyright holder. So let's rephrase this to be more precise: > The tech to lend or entirely transfer the contents of a paper book or an ebook via copying is clearly there (some books can be lent once for two weeks), you are operating in an environment where the vendor does not allow it. And yes, exactly. Both for print and electronic books, copying the words and sending them to somebody is not allowed without the permission of the copyright holder. You don't have to like the system, I certainly have issues with the system as it's set up. But it's perfectly obvious that under any standard interpretation of the concept of copyright, it means that the copyright holder has exclusive rights to the copying of the content. Lending ebooks involves copying, therefore it must be licensed by the copyright holder.
  - Nursie 13y ago
    Sorry, but you completely failed to address that your license can be revoked. This is far different to the paper situation. --edit-- also the fact that you can onmly ever transfer any data in electronic form by copying is an irrelevent implementation detail. The tech is there to transfer ownership, we are simply denied it by license.

by jvm 13y ago

Nursie 13y ago

The tech to lend or entirely transfer ebooks is clearly there (some books can be lent once for two weeks), you are operating in an environment where the vendor does not allow it. Either way, you actually don't own the text in the same way, as amazon has demonstrated that they think they have the right to revoke your account and therefore access to the data.

jvm 13y ago
> The tech to lend or entirely transfer ebooks is clearly there (some books can be lent once for two weeks), you are operating in an environment where the vendor does not allow it. There's a mixup in terminology here. We're not talking about lending the medium the book is printed in. We're talking about copying all the words over to someone else's machine, maybe with a promise to delete it on your own machine. The thing is, the right to copy the contents of a book is restricted by copyright and can only be done with the permission of the copyright holder. So let's rephrase this to be more precise: > The tech to lend or entirely transfer the contents of a paper book or an ebook via copying is clearly there (some books can be lent once for two weeks), you are operating in an environment where the vendor does not allow it. And yes, exactly. Both for print and electronic books, copying the words and sending them to somebody is not allowed without the permission of the copyright holder. You don't have to like the system, I certainly have issues with the system as it's set up. But it's perfectly obvious that under any standard interpretation of the concept of copyright, it means that the copyright holder has exclusive rights to the copying of the content. Lending ebooks involves copying, therefore it must be licensed by the copyright holder.
- Nursie 13y ago
  Sorry, but you completely failed to address that your license can be revoked. This is far different to the paper situation. --edit-- also the fact that you can onmly ever transfer any data in electronic form by copying is an irrelevent implementation detail. The tech is there to transfer ownership, we are simply denied it by license.