I can't find a forum to discuss DRM/ADE, so I'll post this here. Yesterday it occurred to me that Amazon might go into the ebook lending business. If libraries can do it, why not Amazon? This could be the answer to what seems to me the impossible situation we have now of ebooks selling for absurdly high prices, especially compared to prices for used paper books. Since Amazon took on the used paper business, which at first must have scared them since it would take away from their new books market, maybe they will take on the lending business. This leads to DRM/ADE issues, which I know little about, so maybe someone can help. What in fact would stop anyone from doing their own lending business, just as they do their own selling business, either through Amazon or otherwise? Can DRM/ADE be configured to make the ebook equivalent to a paper book, i.e., not copyable except along with the DRM software that allows you access it? That would allow you to sell the book. The lending variation of software is obviously already being used by libaries, so why can't individuals use it, too? P.S. I just read the Adobe white paper
here and they seem fully aware of the problems and seem to have solutions, so the idea of a huge lending library (most public libraries have very limited ebook collections, especially of newer books) does not seem far-fetched.