Quote:
Originally Posted by calvin-c
The statement that "you always get it back" implies to me that you never actually transfer *your* copy of the ebook so I don't see why you wouldn't be able to keep a backup copy.
I think it's more likely that the Nook does one of two things-either they 'annotate' the file with a lockout date or they keep a database listing which books they've loaned & when. In either case, once the 'return' date passes you'd once more be able to read the book. (If I were implementing this I'd do it by annotating the file. That way the 'lockout' would remain when you backed up the file, transferred it to another device, etc. But that might be easily defeated by changing the system date on the reader.)
But given the unreliability of people 'returning' the ebook they've borrowed (ask any librarian) I can't see B&N making such a statement unless they somehow simply 'lock' your ebook when you loan it, and automatically unlock it when the lending period expires. Doing that shouldn't prevent you from keeping a backup copy.
Besides, you can (should be able to) back it up before you lend it-which is an argument for storing the lending information in a database on the device. Then, even if you restored the 'unlent' copy it'd still know that you loaned it out. So I don't know how they've implemented this-there are pros & cons to every method I can think of.
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That makes a great deal of sense. It seems to me, though, that if I delete a book after lending it and then restore it from a backup made before lending it, I might be able to read or relend the book. They may keep a list of lent books, though, in a separate database on the reader where they'd keep track of ALL your books.
I'm curious now to see what my Kindle does when I delete a book and restore it from a local backup rather than over the Whispernet. Will it then still remain on the "Archived Books" list?