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Actually, the problem probably starts with the metaphor " ebook". Once we started calling these items "ebooks" , instead of say, "specially formatted electronic documents" the way was open for a whole series of misleading metaphors. People started identifying ebooks with pbooks, although they are different items altogether with different properties. Frankly, an ebook is as to a pbook as a decoy duck is as to a real duck, but that didn't stop people insisting that we should have the same rights with an ebook as we do with a pbook. People speak of "lending" ebooks and and even passing them on to their children, as if ebooks are physical objects!
Such misunderstandings would not arise if the name kept it in the front of our minds that these "ebooks" are in fact digital documents. When we work with electronic documents at the office, for example, we understand that we can't "lend" documents. We can send, move, or copy documents, but we don't lend the original file. The ebook designation tends to hide that fact so we get people wistfully asking why we can't "lend" ebooks the way dear old Uncle Joe lent us pbooks from his library.
In the same way when we " share" documents at work, there is no doubt in our mind that by " share" we mean send a copy to coworker for his review, and that the original file stays with us.
When we talk about "sharing" ebooks in a non-office setting, people seem to get confused about whether that involves distributing copies of an original file that stays with the "sharer".
I guess we may need different metaphors all the way down, but its unlikely that will happen.
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