Friday, 7 January 2011

'Lending' Kindle books

The Kindle was apparently Amazon's best-selling product at Christmas, but many of its new users feel uncomfortable with the DRM-lockdown that comes with it. According to this report, though, there's been a slight relaxation -- in that you can 'lend' a Kindle book to a friend for 14 days.

Amazon is allowing Kindle users to lend a book to a mate, but the UK Publishers Association reckons e-book borrowers should get down the library.

The new feature allows e-books bought for the Kindle platform to be lent out for 14 days, delivered by email and springing back to their owners automatically as detailed by Amazon, but the Publishers Association (PA) is unlikely to approve, given its stance that anyone wanting to borrow an e-book from the local library should get their bones down to the building for a bit of physical interaction with their local community.

3 comments:

Laura James said...

As yet, the Kindle lending scheme only applies to the US.

Users elsewhere are taking matters into their own hands, and forming groups (such as this one on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/KindleLendingClub?v=info ) where people can post what books they can lend, and arrange their own loans.

John said...

Thanks, Laura. It's an intriguing development.

Keren Mills said...

Also, according to Phil Bradley, you can only lend each book once.