[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

A better idea might be an online licensing system, where each ebook file has a unique code that only works with one device. Transfer a code to a different device, and the code no longer works. Oh wait, we already have that... it's DRM. Only thing is, currently we have no centralized service for transferring. But it could be done; Amazon does this themselves when you get a replacement Kindle. The files have to be redownloaded with the new PID.

DRM does not do this--DRM is a one-time lock of content to a device. Consumers don't have the ability to exchange their purchases, and doing so with anything like current DRM would either be impossible (depending on the coding involved) or insanely technical.

It might be a technical impossibility: since file transfers are not instantaneous, there'd always be some time when a book (song, vid) would be registered to two different devices, and someone would figure out how to maximize that time to create two copies. However, I suspect that it'd mostly prevent extra copies, especially if it had to be done for each copy, and other transfers were simple.

But you're right; ebook publishers have not gone down a path that makes ownership transfer a feature.

Yep. Amazon doesn't even have a "send my book to my spouse's Kindle and remove it from mine" option.

But while it may also be true that they are using this as a "power grab", it doesn't change the fact that that's the fundamental difference between libaries and ebooks. If there were a way to treat ebooks the same way, publishers would not be happy (they weren't initially happy with libraries either) but it might be something they could live with if it eliminated piracy.

There might be a way, but they're certainly doing absolutely nothing towards developing software for it. It might involve something as complicated as "plug both devices into the network at once, and let the program transfer content"--but nobody's working on that, or even considering it.

Ebook & other digital entertainment content publishers have decided to claim they have the right to insist on "one purchase, one user," rather than "one purchase, one copy."

And because of that ridiculous claim, they're facing casual piracy by people who believe that "give away a copy" is not as wrong as "you can never share or give away what you bought."