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It's interesting the way that ereading has changed my desire to own books.
When I was young I always read a lot but many of the books were borrowed, from the library or friends. The ones I owned, especially the ones I bought with my own money, I re-read because I didn't have that many. I'd buy maybe one book a month maybe two. They took up physical space. And if I didn't read them - and there were always ones I started but didn't finish - I felt bad about buying news ones until I had, or had passed them on.
Since then several things have changed - I earn more. ebooks exist. Most ebooks are cheaper now than the paperbacks I was buying 20-25 years ago. The range of books available is wider than I've ever known. ebooks take up zero space (ok almost zero marginal space).
The thing that hasn't changed is the rate at which I read. I've slowed a little but I'm still at 1-2 books a month. I re-read less because of the choice and convenience of getting a new book. I do have favourites and re-reading them is like visiting old friends. But turns out a lot of my re-reading was down to wanting to read and not being able to afford a new book right now, or having to wait until I could get to the shop/library etc.
Anyway the point is all this means I re-read less. And owning a book, for me anyway, is about having the possibility to read that book any time you like. But if I'm less likely to re-read it, there's less reason to care about owning it. I will, I do. But if that "owning" is really licensing then I don't mind.
In effect the cost of an ebook these days is like a fee for a one time read of the book. For most books. If Amazon tomorrow changed their terms such that you only licensed your books for 5 years from the point of purchase, I probably would still buy from them, for a similar price. Because 1.99 for the opportunity to read this book once, maybe twice during that time, is probably worth it. If it was truly one of my favourites and I wanted to re-read it after that I'd be happy to re-buy it.
(Of course I do buy books and I deDRM them and back them in about 3 or 4 different ways. )
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