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The public library comparison confuses me. I know they pay a fee but it isn't the same as if I bought the book myself, is it? So that book I checked out and read is a lost sale, right? That circumstance maps oddly on e-books, which have only artificial scarcity. If I can borrow one e-book why can't I borrow any e-book whenever I want?
I'm not talking about entitlement, I think. But I see a discontinuity in how the ethics of public libraries map onto e-books.
I'd rather see a fee paid with every e-reader purchase that functions as a library fee does, to pay authors. And then allow me to borrow several e-books at a time, owning none. I don't have the same need to "own" an e-book as I did for p-books. You can't see them on your hard drive the same way you do on a bookshelf. I know some collectors or hoarders feel differently.
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