Quote:
Originally Posted by MovieBird
I can't think of a single tangible good I would pay more to rent than to own. Can you?
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You don't "rent" e-books. Renting implies you continue to pay a price for the item over the time that you use it. With e-books, as with a lot of other software, what you're doing is
buying a license that prohibits you from doing certain things with it (e.g., reproducing it to give it to your friends). If you were to buy the e-book under different license terms (e.g., unlimited copies to whomever you chose to give them to) you'd have to pay a lot more for the license. And if you wanted to buy all the rights to the book outright, you'd be talking a
lot more money than that.
As it stands right now, licenses for Nook and Kindle books already entitle you to more than one copy of a work. According to the Kindle FAQ, you can have up to six simultaneous copies of a book on different devices (depending on how many the publisher allows).
The Fifth Witness is apparently licensed for all six Kindle devices, because there's no mention of a restriction. So you're basically getting six copies for $2.17 a copy. Obviously, almost no one will use all six, but they're there if you want them.
The bottom line is, it's not as simple as "paper book > e-book", even when you take into account the limitations of the license.