Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
What you've described is a perfect example of why buying an ebook absolutely IS different from buying a paper book. People pretending, or wanting it to be "no different" doesn't actually make it so. Loaning, copying, buying vs licensing, resale, used-market -- MOST concepts (with the exception of the simple act of reading) do not translate smoothly from the pbook world to the e-. Differences between buying an ebook and buying a paper book literally abound.
And of course no-one screams about geo-restrictions when tourists walk into a London bookshop and buy books that are unavailable in the US. Your parents were actually there ... in the geographic location where the books were licensed to be sold. Why would anyone scream?
|
So what is the difference? That someone claims to sell a restricted license rather than the book itself? That particular theory was settled in the US over a hundred years ago with the first sale doctrine. The only actual difference between a paper book and an electronic book is the impossibility of guaranteeing that there is one and only one copy of the book at any one time. Of course, now it's impossible to guarantee that the original buyer didn't make a copy of the paper book either. People scan paper books all the time, so I guess it's not really a difference after all.