[jabberwock_11]

I think that one of the things that many folks forget when comparing ebooks to paper books is that when you buy a paper book you buy one copy.

If you resell or give away a paper book you are only doing so with a single copy. Ebooks, by their very nature, can easily be perfectly copied and so it is possible to not only give away or resell multiple perfect copies of a book, but also to keep a copy for yourself.

When you buy a paper book if you make good quality copies of that paper book and resell those copies it is illegal. Why should it be any different with ebooks? That is the whole reason that DRM was created for in the first place, to prevent the mass copying and redistribution of electronic media when only a single copy was purchased.

I am against the idea of forcing readers to rebuy the same book in different formats. I am against the current practices of the publishing industry in their withholding of back catalogues of books and limiting their current catalogue. I am NOT against the publishing industry getting upset about folks making and redistributing multiple copies of a book, this is something that I understand.

Until single copies ebooks can be legally and easily resold or given away I fear that we will be having this discussion over and over again. I do, however, feel that it is a separate issue from the one we have been discussing in this thread. An important issue that should probably be discussed at length, but separate.

I know that it is odd to take a stance in favor of the publishing industry on this issue, but against it on the issue of ebook availability and on the use of alternate sources for otherwise unavailable ebooks, but there it is. I guess everyone draws their line in different places. Mine just happens to be a little more hazy than others...