I agree with HarryT's analogy. It is okay IMO to loan or give a physical book, or a CD of bought music et cetera, because there is only one copy (the original) that you are loaning or giving to someone. But with digital eBook (or music) it becomes a sticky point of contention because you are basically only buying the right to read/view/listen to your digital media. You are not buying a physical copy and technically don't own the digital media.

I wish there was a way to actually own the digital media in a format that was secure enough to allow the consumer to pass it along (loan or give) it to someone else without the publisher/author having to worry about pirating. In other words a secure DRM that would allow the digital file to be passed along but where only one copy could exist and therefore only one person's authorized devices could play it at any given time. I doubt such a DRM can or will exist though. At least not in a secure enough state to convince publishers to allow actual ownership of the digital file.

Perhaps a scheme similar to what software companies use wherein we have to not only enter the proper serial number, but we also have to phone home via the internet and get the software company's permission to activate it on our device(s). But I don't see that happening either because consumers nor publishers would likely want to go through that process.

At any rate I'm not going to lose anymore eBooks due to a book store changing formats or going out of business. I lost some of my Fictionwise books recently because I could not remember the magic codes for some of the devices I owned a decade ago. I did salvage most of those eBooks, but I still lost too many. So though I don't give or share my liberated eBooks with anyone, I have no guilt feeling about liberating them to preserve my library which I paid for with hard earned money.