|
Agree that the lending feature, as described, isn't all it could be, but I for one am happy to see it at all. I have friends/family with Kindles, it isn't practical to share an account or swap devices, so this gives us a way to share content legally.
I am very hopeful that publishers will widely permit this feature. My guess is that this is one of the reasons for keeping the capability modest. If Amazon made lending too easy, it's possible that publishers would refuse to enable it for that reason alone.
Also, if account-to-account lending is enabled, this should also mean (in theory) that library lending is possible as well. I kind of hate to see libraries forced to buy multiple versions of ebooks just to support different DRM schemes, but libraries also buy multiple copies of paper books, and this gives Amazon and the publishers at least some financial benefit. A lot of folks on these boards have been clamoring for access to library ebooks, and this development may make it possible.
|