lending books on the kindle

[walkitout]

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/208654/amazon_extends_value_of_kindle_with_new_lending_feature.html

I've been adding tags to my blog today (you can really tell when I'm starting to catch up on my life; I have time to exercise my OCD in more frivolous ways), and one of those tags is on this entry: mocking e-book coverage. I do a lot of that, apparently.

I've been through a few kindles. The first kindle I had didn't charge, so it doesn't count. The second kindle I had for a while, and then I bought a kindle 2 when it came out. I loaned the original kindle out (loaded up with books), which as you can imagine, makes me roll my eyes everyone says you can't loan out your e-books. Sure you can. Just loan out a kindle with e-books on it. The library in Mayberry, where I used to live, does this. Population around 5000. You'd think if they can figure this out, other people could, too.

Then I was looking at the kindle 3 and the book cover with the light. I bought a wifi one for a nephew (husband's nephew) who graduated from high school and was starting college. And I bought one for myself, because I felt so good about being generous I felt I deserved a reward (<--- joke. I bought it because I wanted it, and my gadget budget is rarely maxed out.). That meant I now had 2 functioning kindles I wasn't using, available for loan. Kindle v. 2 went to the nanny indefinitely. Again, loaded up with e-books.

Here's why I'm mocking today:

"So, what's the big deal with the new lending feature? There are plenty of situations where an employee or co-worker might need to use a given title, but not forever. Since the need is temporary, one Kindle edition can be purchased by the business and farmed out to employees on an as-needed basis."

That's just stupid. Because a _business_ doesn't have enough computers/smart phones/physical kindles all hooked up to the same account so they can use the generally 6 copies available of most titles? Lacks plausibility.

Pull the other one, Tony Bradley, contributor to PC World. It's got bells on.

Me, I'm getting a little concerned about all those kindles, and the MacBook, and the iPads and so forth. 3 kindles. 1 Macbook. 2 iPads. If I get a smartphone that lets me read kindle e-books on it, I'm going to be exercising that 6 copy limit. It will be a sad day when that happens. (<--- Sarcasm.)

Comments

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I'm confused about the six copies thing -- do you mean you can have up to six copies of a book on different devices, as long as they're all linked to the same account? Because if so, I certainly didn't know that, and I wouldn't be awfully surprised if the person who wrote the article didn't know it, either.

The Seattle library lets you download e-books that go away again after 21 days (just as they've done for a while with digital audio books). I don't know what governs which book they get in e-format.

the 6 copy thing has been there from the beginning

[walkitout]

And I've never understood why so many people seem to ignore this as an important feature. Lending strikes me as silly; having multiple devices (including software on a PC, smartphone, whatever) connected to the same account is way more flexible, particularly in a business context. If a business just needed a few copies, they could buy one and have multiple devices (the computers everyone is using anyway). If the business needed hundreds of people to have access to a book, they'd basically buy n/6 instances -- it would be somewhat awkward, but essentially they'd be licensing the ebook, the way you license software. It is entirely possible that if you were a big enough customer, Amazon might come up with a particular solution for you (maybe they already have).

There are friends and siblings and so forth who do share a kindle account; of course you have to have some sort of solution for the financial aspect and, necessarily, there's no privacy on the shared account between the people doing that.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200127470

"Can I share content with other Kindles?

Books can be shared between Kindles, Kindle for PC, or iPhones that are registered to the same account. There may be limits on the number of devices (usually six) that can simultaneously use a single book. Subscriptions to newspapers or periodicals cannot be shared on multiple devices. If you purchased a Kindle (Latest Generation), you can re-download books wirelessly for free, anytime, to your Kindles. We even back up your last page read and annotations, so when you re-download your books you can pick up where you left off with all of your notes still in place."

ETA: R. comments that this is similar to the iTunes model.

iTunes

[rolandgo.livejournal.com]

With iTunes you get 5 devices that you can attach to your account. Should you have a computer disaster followed by disaster etc, you have a button which will deauthorize all devices & then you can start fresh (or reattach your still live devices).

Things that you get as mp3s and/or you rip yourself don't take DRM authorizations...

Re: iTunes

[walkitout]

I don't think this is an accurate description of iTunes. I think the iTunes limit is computers, with an unlimited number of devices. However, I have not personally explored this limit, so I can't say for sure.