[taming]

Well, it's a DRM thing, so if there was an easy work-a-round I would be sorta surprised. The goal is to make sure that books are read by only those who have paid for them. Book lending--now that Amazon wants it, may become easier and less, urmmm, problematic over time--Publishers will ultimately be the big players in that step of development.

As for the date thing, the date that may be most important could be the date the books interact with the Db, in which case the file dates would not matter.