darryl, I understand everything you are saying.
But I think you need to draw a hard line regarding what is and isn't acceptable. And since you have no intrinsic
right to checkout and read library ebooks, any more than you have an intrinsic
right to *buy* ebooks, I am perfectly happy continuing to draw the line at DeDRMing stuff which you legally own.
You have no intrinsic right to buy ebooks, but once you have bought them, they are yours and should be treated as such. i.e. you should be able to do literally whatever you want, with YOUR property, including reading them on any device/platform you desire. (And excepting, of course, duplicating it and selling someone else's intellectual property.
)
You have no intrinsic right to borrow ebooks, and even once you have borrowed them, you still don't have the right to read them on whatever device/platform you desire, since they aren't yours to do what you please with them.
As you say, it is a complex issue and one which is further obscured by the general retardedness of, and lack of firm guidance regarding, ebooks in general.
e.g. on the topic of "owning" vs. "licensing", there is the question "can you resell your old ebooks".
I tend to think that:
- Either you own it or they should stop lying by using the word "buy" on the button
- Even if it were a perpetual license, you have a non-transferable perpetual license to read it, which is reasonable enough, but you also have the right to use that license (permission to utilize/read/whatever) any way you choose, which is also reasonable enough even if the law hasn't caught up.
Library ebooks don't quite fit in there.
I am happy with that definition, and I see no reason to stick up for library ebooks -- and I don't anticipate changing my mind about that anytime soon