I’m with you on that. Am I taking advantage of other new sources when I link to them? I don’t think so…it does enhance the value of my blog, certainly, but the linking is basically how they get compensated for it. It’s sort of like reviewing a book…a book reviewer’s reviews are enhanced by the value of the original book, but I don’t see that any publisher would want to stop those.

I completely agree. There are so many configurations where the ability to share the book electronically on the same account is important. One of the ones I hear about is someone who either has difficulty using technology (it could be from not understanding it, or due to physical or mental limitations), or who has economic challenges.

Let’s say you have somebody in one state who has limited means. They can be on an account with someone who is more economically comfortable, and share those books. If one person has difficulty navigating the technology, they can simply verbally tell a more comfortable person what book they would like to read. On the same account (and especially with 3G), it’s easy for the techie to buy the book…and they both get to read it.

Typically, if you remove a book from a device and then sync with Amazon, it should release the license for another device on your account. It’s interesting if that didn’t work on that book.

Bercovici, as I read it, is one license at a time, not just one loan. So, you’d have to finish the book before your father could read it, your father would have to finish it before one of the kids could read it, and so…just like with a paper book. Then, you’d have to touch your Kindles together to be able to pass the book from one person to the next.

The advantage would be that you could do this with people not on your account, and hypothetically, freely with different kinds of devices…again, just as you could sell, give away, or lend a paperbook to someone who has no connection to you.

That would give you additional freedoms…but it would take away sharing on the same account. I suspect the author just doesn’t realize how important sharing on the same account has become to many people.

Bercovici’s suggestion on localized loaning wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But I’m assuming it would be limited to one simultaneous loan. So would it allow loaning multiple times.

The loan feature is so limited that I’ve only loaned a book once.

Localized loaning seems even more binding.