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By giving someone else a book, you deprive the publishers from selling his copy to that person (he is a potential customer, since he wanted to read that book), and consequently you infringed her ancillary right of distribution.
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Does the same not apply to physical books? Legality is the only issue in that regard. I'm ALLOWED to deprive the publisher of a customer for their physical product. But not allowed to deprive them of a potential customer for their digital product
So it can't be the potential loss of a sale that's the driving force behind the "lending ebooks is piracy!" sentiment (though it is my experience that buyers buy, and borrowers borrow, and rarely the twain shall meet).
So is it really about that "unauthorized"--but very likely to never be accessed again--copy that now exists because of an ebook "loan?" Or is it because someone truly believes that
allowing people to do so will bring about a future where one idiot buys an ebook and uploads it for the rest of the world to download for free? Well guess what?? That future is already here ... and ebooks are still sold ... and people who could easily "steal" them choose NOT to everyday.
I simply don't believe that if the publishers said; "we don't care if you 'lend' ebooks in the same manner in which you lent pbooks," that the ebook market would suddenly collapse because buyers would decide--
en masse--to become borrowers. In fact, I suspect things would chug along much as they always did (on both sides of the legal fence).