Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
What does it even mean to treat a purchased e-book the same as a paper book?
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I would guess that it would mean that:
1. That I own the "book" as an entity to use as I will, subject to the normal laws of copyright and intellectual property.
2. That I can loan it to another on a temporary basis, sell it or give it away permanently.
3. Not be prevented from reading it - I know this is the tricky bit in the ebook/physical book comparison - but it seems reasonable that I should be able to make a back-up copy (given the potential for corruption and loss in electronic media) and be able transfer it to different a different device (sinces devices do fail and better models appear), not necessarily from the same manufacturer but also
not necessarily on multiple devices simultaneously (after all, you only get a single copy of each physical book you buy).
If DRM could reliably provide the above, there would be far fewer objections to it. The propiatory nature of the current systems is a big cause of the problems - they are as much (or more) about tying users into a particulay vendor/hardware as about their claimed protection of publishers' or authors' rights.