Quote:
Originally Posted by Starson17
I once saw a software "license" that was really simple and said it was to be treated like a book - if I sold it or gave it away, I couldn't continue to use it. Oddly, I've never seen anything similar for an ebook.
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The difficulty is that you're physically unable to continue reading a book after you sold it, which isn't the case with ebooks or software. I think what publishers are fearing is a huge "second-hand" market for ebooks spawning all of a sudden and completely eroding most of their business- I know I would prefer to get a cheaper ebook from someone else than buy it full-price from the publisher, in most cases. The fact that this hasn't happened for paper books is probably because you'd actually have to walk to the post office, which just isn't that convenient for most people.
I heard of a sharing model sometime where establishments like coffeeshops would have a small shelf where patrons could just put their finished books if hey didn't want to keep them and pick a new one. That would be a neat thing to have, for books as well as for ebooks, but sadly, I've never seen this anywhere around where I live.