[stonetools]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Umm, no.
eBooks are licensed. The licenses from most popular stores do not allow for any sort of lending or sharing, or for reselling.
A book is owned. I can l lend it to whomever I choose, and resell it at will.
The legal restrictions on copying may be the same.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I don't believe a good DRM system is possible. That is, one that does not cause the person who buys a copy of the ebook problems now or in the future.




Then you are naïve, or have never bought an ebook with DRM.

DRMed ebooks are not sold, but licensed. You have no ownership of the book, and your license to read to book might be revoked at any time.

In addition, you may not resell the book. I don't beleive that you can said to own something if you don't also have the right to sell it.




Read the licensing terms at any of the major ebook sellers. You may not lend ebooks in the same way as paper books.

I understand that ebooks are licensed. Indeed one of my pet peeves is that thanks to " convenient " one click purchasing, people are misled into thinking that they are " buying" an ebook when what they are buying is access to a file . If it were up to me one click buying would be banned and you would have to read in banner headline font the following before you buy:

THIS IS NOT A PURCHASE OF TiTlLE. This is a purchase of a license to access a file. Do you understand this and do you accept it?

This would cut down a lot on the misunderstanding and the bull%%%.

I understand why the booksellers and the publishers opted for speed and ease over full disclosure. But land sakes a mercy, they have unleashed an unending tsunami of nonsense on these internets.