[readingaloud]

Perhaps this was obvious to everyone else, but it took me by surprise. While Sony allows you to register up to six devices (computers and Readers) to one account, each individual Reader can only belong to one account.

A friend and I, who routinely lend each other paper books, each got a Reader with the thought that we would cross-authorize our Readers so that we could share purchased content. It doesn't work--when you try to authorize a reader that's linked to another account, you're warned that you have to de-authorize it for the old account.

So, if you want to share books, you need to share a Sony Connect account, too. Or you could just trade Readers for a while.

When I heard that Sony was allowing six authorizations, I thought they really were trying to make the DRM less oppressive--allowing you to share books with a few close friends without allowing to you to release a book to the world at large. No such luck.

And, with Sony's record, I realize I was pretty silly to think that Sony was the least bit concerned with fairness or reasonable use.