Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
When you buy an ebook you are buying a licence, which grants you a certain set of rights.
When you buy a paper book, you are also buying a certain set of rights. You "own" the ink and paper; you have only a very limited set of rights to the content of the book. You cannot, for example, hold what copyright law calls a "public performance" of the work (ie read it out loud in a place where the general public can hear it).
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If you buy a physical medium, you generally don't need a proof of purchase. If you buy electronically an eBook, you may need to show such a certificate when the time is ripe
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You are right in that one can only buy the right to enjoy
personally a book, a song, a movie. However, unlike the studios/publishers/RIAA/etc want us to believe, and irrespective of how much the bribed politicians will keep extending the copyright terms, the copyright will eventually expire (lapse is the legal term). After that, the grandson of the original buyer has also the right to read it loud in the public, or do whatever else, nobody can harm him legally.
On the other hand, the electronic digital rights, are fully personal. Even more, some a linked to a particular device. If Apple or Amazon likes, they can change on-the-fly the terms of the contract and you may lose all the eBooks you may have, surely you can sue them, but this will cost you money and certain worries (the well paid attorney they have surely have found a way to make this breach of contract lawful), let alone nerves and health.
While a book of Gutenberg times can still be read, an eBook might cease to be readable if Amazon or Apple decides you "need" a new (an incompatible) eReader. Or when this will finally be dead (eg lack of compatible custom-tailored batteries).
You can't sell eBooks, nor lend them, nor inherit them. So if your granpa invested £40000 into a house (small flat where the pepper grows, if in England), you can have it (if you pay the inheritance fee). If your granpa invested those £40000 into music or eBooks, you can't have them, unless you take the identity of him, which is punishable by law. Or crack his account. Equally punishable. Or pay them again. This time on your name.