Steal this book: The loan arranger
The Economist – “AMAZON.COM says soon you will be allowed to lend out electronic books purchased from the Kindle Store. For a whole 14 days. Just once, ever, per title. If the publisher allows it. Not mentioned is the necessity to hop on one foot whilst reciting the Gettysburg Address in a falsetto. An oversight, I’m sure. Barnes & Noble’s Nook has offered the same capability with identical limits since last year. Both lending schemes are bullet points in a marketing presentation, so Amazon is adding its feature to keep parity. Allowing such ersatz lending is a pretence by booksellers. They wish you to engage in two separate hallucinations. First, that their limited licence to read a work on a device or within software of their choosing is equivalent to the purchase of a physical item. Second, that the vast majority of e-books are persistent objects rather than disposable culture.”
Shared by Chad on Google Reader!! Keep ‘em coming
Consumers won’t be tricked. None of the saved costs have been passed on to us yet. E-reading is convenient in many ways, but that doesn’t justify the draconian licensing at the same cost of a book you can give away. (to charity, a library, a student, a friend)