[ZeBuddha]

As a matter of fact, downloading books might be illegal in the US, but it's not the case in Europe. To prove this point, some WiFi ISP's (particularly in somewhat more rural areas) have a special service to "save" their "to-the-door" bandwidth, which involves you telling them what you want and they'll download it for you. If you ask them to DL a copy of, say, the latest movie, they'll do it and put it on a CD/DVD for you. And there's nothing the government or any agency thereof will do or COULD do against it.

And in case you're wondering, no, my ISP doesn't work that way. I do however know a few people who have such an ISP.

On a separate note, I find the whole DRM-ing idea a huge waste of time. Like regions on DVDs or protected mp4's (or the even more stupid "protection" on iPods), it's just another futile attempt which only ends up affecting people who would buy it anyway, while those who wouldn't in the first place will find ways to still get their hands on those books without paying.

What I would like to see one day is a sort of eLibrary... a yearly subscription (or a SMALL per-book fee) and ebook-files with a limited lifespan.