Quote:
Originally Posted by tubemonkey
If I buy an ebook, it's mine. I should be allowed to loan it as many times as I want or to sell it.
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This doesn't apply to your apartment. And housing is, in most climates, a lot more vital than reading.
People here keep on blaming the publishers for living in the past. Well, part of the past is that books were sold and not leased.
I fail to see a moral reason why selling is better than leasing. Now, I do see a practical problem in that the commonly used DRM schemes are easily broken. Even moderators do it! Necessity is truly the mother of invention, and, one day, I predict, someone will invent the better DRM needed to perfect the model of book leasing.
Now, I know that a lot of people on this site collect books. So a leased book would be of less value to them than a bought book. If and when hard-to-hack DRM is invented, booksellers will be able to set two prices, one for purchase and one for renting, just as some apartment house builders do. There's nothing wrong with such innovation that I can see.