Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
But how would you lend them "in the same manner"? That would involve some mechanism to ensure that the lender couldn't read the book while it was lent to the borrower, and that the borrower could no longer read the book at the end of the loan period. Such a mechanism does not (to the best of my knowledge) currently exist. Without that, it wouldn't be a loan at all - you'd simply be giving the recipient a copy of the book, wouldn't you? These are exactly the same issues that prevent the re-sale of digital content.
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You're missing the point. There doesn't need to be such a mechanism (with regard to loaning--I consider the money-making aspect of resale to be a different--if still not all that worrisome--issue).
The fact that they CAN access the existing original at the same time that the loaned "copy" is being read is barely relevant. And shouldn't be considered in deciding to allow it. Nor should one worry that the loanee (that our hypothetical loaner has lent books to for years) is suddenly going to turn evil and decide it's OK to willy-nilly lend out/sell the book that was entrusted to them (because it's only *nudge nudge*
digital after all).
Think of it this way: should the loaning of physical books from libraries be immediately halted just because the potential has always been there for evil-minded deviants to checkout library books, scan them, and upload them to the internet? In fact, scanning physical books and uploading them was quite the thriving enterprise before retail ebooks came along.
Maybe ebooks should be eliminated altogether because some people are buying them, removing the DRM from them and uploading them for easy access.
No. The
potential for wrong-doing is not reason enough to place hurdles in front of honest people--especially when the wrong-doers scoff at the hurdles and step around them; leaving them for the honest folk to trip over.
My point is that if ebook buyers/readers were as dishonest as publishers want to believe they are, the market would have already collapsed.
Think about it. It has never been easier to steal any book you could ever imagine than it is right now. Yet an ebook market thrives. Do you honestly believe that can be attributed solely to DRM and ...
mechanisms? I don't. I attribute it to the fact that many (maybe even MOST) ebook readers WANT to buy them. It's not the level of difficulty barrier that keeps honest ereaders from stealing. And they can't
mechanism the dishonest ones into playing by the rules.