Quote:
Originally Posted by Albright
Pirates are going to pirate outright. They're not going to abuse a lending feature like this; they're going to just download a copy of the book illegally, because it's easier for them to do so.
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Absolutely, but that's an already-established segment of users who are relatively savvy when it comes to finding content from less-than-legitimate sources. The damage done, in terms of lost sales, is pretty stable and probably quantifiable.
With unrestricted lending, you would see a lot of 'core' Kindle users sharing books that might otherwise have been purchased -- especially considering the majority of books is priced at $10 or less.
Pre-lending (ie: now), my Kindle-owning friends have just downloaded the free samples of books I've recommended, to help them decide whether or not to pull the trigger on that particular book. That's already kind of a big deal. So I still think that being able to lend a book, even if only once, to one person, is kind of great.
Also, tammycravit, I really like your reply.