Loaning E-Books

[Aleron Ives]

I doubt anybody would pick that option. That's the kind of judgement people tend to pass on other people's actions, rather than their own.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

I doubt anybody would pick that option. That's the kind of judgement people tend to pass on other people's actions, rather than their own.

I certainly would have picked it. I don't compare ebooks to paper ones; in fact, I don't loan my remaining paper books out at all, because people won't usually return them on their own and it's embarrassing to remind them. I'd share my ebooks with close family members if they were interested, and a comparison with paper books wouldn't even enter my mind.

I selected the first option, because that's the closest, but it's actually not true. The reason I'd share my ebooks has nothing to do with the fact that one can loan paper books.

[Dsharma]

My ebook sharing isn't driven by the traditional book lending practice either. It's about sharing knowledge or a great story, not the medium. It's more of a digital convenience thing for me, without the worry of misplacement or damage. So yeah, I'd share my ebooks irrespective of the physical book lending scenario.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Fiat_Lux

It took four or five of my hardcopy books not being returned, for me to figure out that people won't return them.

I was talking about your knowing that all eBooks that are loaned are also on our Readers.

[TheSmitty]

I voted "It's only OK under specific circumstances (please specify)", circumstance being I know that the person I loan it to will not broadcast it all over the place. Having said that, I only did it once and the recipient was one of my daughters.

[Asawi]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

I would loan a Kindle device itself. Most of the folks I would loan to would have no idea how to deal with the book file itself even if I did give it to them. I've not loaned out a Kindle in some time.

That is actually what I have done a handful or so times! Well, not a Kindle but a Nook or a Kobo.

[teija]

The only people I've tried to loan an e-book to have been my parents or MIL. In most of those cases, they are so far beyond tech-savy that an eReader scares them off completely. I've loaned them the entire reader, set up with the book loaded up ready-to-read in a nice large font (they don't even have to navigate from the home-screen) and I STILL don't think either of my parents has ever read a single page of an eBook. So in this instance, a publisher isn't missing out on anything - they never would have bought the electronic copy anyway.
I still can't understand how thrift stores are "allowed" to sell used physical books, when their corresponding eBooks have such strict copyright rules on it. Don't get me wrong - I think they should ALWAYS be allowed to, if nothing else other than it stops said books from ending up in the landfill/recycling pile!

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by teija

I still can't understand how thrift stores are "allowed" to sell used physical books, when their corresponding eBooks have such strict copyright rules on it. Don't get me wrong - I think they should ALWAYS be allowed to, if nothing else other than it stops said books from ending up in the landfill/recycling pile!

They are allowed to by specific USA law.
They don't bother making such a law in most countries as the copyright applies to the content, not the physical instance. So a book, DVD, CD, record, cassette, painting, print, magazine, Disney toys, etc, being a physical item can be resold or given away, but you can't give away or sell copies, no matter how made. That's the essence of copyright; defines who has right to make and distribute copies, not the physical item once it's sold.

An exception in many countries is distributing copies of an advert as long as it's not edited to advertise a different product, nor used to to recover a magazine or book with no cover at all (as that might be unsold stock and the wholesale refunds the retailer if there is evidence of destruction, which can be the masthead for a newspaper)

[janrey]

You can share books so long as you share accounts. Amazon used to have some books able to be shared up to a set number of times (I think 2 or 3) and if shared it was like a library loan, 14 days you couldn't access but your friend could. After 14 days like a library it was removed from friends device and returned to you or if they finished early and returned it it would come back to you. Given the price of many new ebooks I think that is a good option to make it more like loaning a physical book.

My elderly mom I bought her a Kindle 3 wifi (she didn't have internet) on my account set it up and mailed it to her with books on it. When I bought a book I thought she liked I just sent it to her device. Only issues I had is that she had the ads version and occasionally she would hit something that bought the book so I would get an email and then have to call and ask if she wanted the book, which she didn't and then cancel it. Other than that it worked out well. She didn't have to do anything but open a book on the device and charge it.