Quote:
Originally Posted by Fbone
Just to let you know Smashwords and Fictionwise have very restrictive terms in their T&Cs.
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I said "
less restrictive", not "with no restrictions", and speaking from a publisher-affecting-reader point of view by disallowing and/or trying to block public library usage, which doesn't apply to stuff I actually buy for myself, some of which I've chosen based on having tried an author's e-book in said public library (which, incidentally, has a fair amount of selections from smaller independent e-book houses like RosettaBooks and e-Reads) and deciding to pick up their other works when they were on sale.
But as for SW and FW (and Baen, for that matter), while I can't "lend" my purchases to an interested friend as with a paper book*, either via official or unofficial mechanism, that's more than compensated by the fact that I can buy my books at a low cost without DRM and re-downloadable in whatever available format which I need should I switch devices, and sometimes there are discount coupons upon which I can pick which book to apply them to.
And that also works out to be less restrictive than the major publishers' general stances, which are also "no lending" (the B&N listings have even removed the "Lend Me" eligibility info from their product info), plus generally much higher non-discountable prices (except on selected promo books which the marketing department wants to push), as well as DRM & by extension of said DRM, format lock in.
Thus, better terms either way.
* I never lend my paper books anyway, because people tend to be really careless with stuff that's not theirs, and just direct them to the library for a reading copy to try.