Bruce Nussbaum brings up a point I have also debated with myself in his blog about Amazon dealing with e-book copyright laws on the Kindle. Now that books can be bought electronically and stored electronically just as music is now bought and stored electronically, will they follow the same rules as music?
There is always a big debate around the sharing of music digitally... back in the day when CDs could not be burned to share, consumers usually bought their own copy (a reason the music industry did really well until CD burners and Napster). But for as long as books have been around (a LONG time)... sharing books was traditionally accepted. As Bruce explains, it is the culture of readers to save books and pass them onto friends or their kids, etc. Copyright laws never seemed to be an issue.
Now that the Kindle is a digital book device just as iPods are digital music devices, all of a sudden sharing books digitally is an issue. Companies never cared to track physical books in the past, nor did they have the ability to. Now that books can be downloaded and shared "illegally," all of sudden it matters... and the consumers are pissed. Taking books away from one's Kindle thanks to copyright issues never had before digital devices. So should we sacrifice the culture of readership for the sake of ease of use and saving space?
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