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Andurian, you analogy of reading a book in the book store only goes so far. It fails to parallel the situation in the e-book world for the following reasons.
1. Barnes and Nobles and Borders are built on a model that encourages people to spend considerable time there reading potential purchases. It is up to them to decide if they want to limit the amount of time you spend reading a particular book. Since most extended browsers will end up buying coffee and or food at the book store, they still profit from such activities.
2. While some small fraction of the population might read full books in a book store, it is safe to say that most people would prefer to bring the books home with them, and therefore will ultimately purchase the books they want to read all of. Further it is up to the book store, the current legal owner of the copy you are reading to limit your reading of said copy if they should choose (i.e. it falls under fair use).
3. You never have possession of the book in question. You are allowed to hold it, but the book remains on the physical property of the book store and therefore in the possession of the legal owner of that physical copy of the book. If you download a book illegally, then you are in fact taking possession of a book you have no legal right to.
Basically the big difference here is that when you are reading a book in a book store, whether you are reading a few pages or the whole thing, you are reading a copy of the book that is legally owned by the book store. Therefore the bookstore is engaging in fair use by letting you read the book. That is not the case with electronic books.
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Bill
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