However, I do have to say that while I love ebooks and the theory of ebooks, I don’t like that they generally start off fairly expensively and cannot be loaned to others. Obviously the publishers would love it if everyone had to buy their own copy of a book to read it, and in fact that’s the system they’ve created. I cannot easily borrow a digital book from any of the major outlets (Amazon, iBooks, or… um. Who else is there?) from a family member, nor can I loan them one. Amazon does allow some sharing, but the book publisher has to ok it, and there are certainly limitations.

Also, with books that have DRM, we have to trust that the DRM format being used will survive for decades or that the seller will give us a way to keep our books moving forward if it does not. With physical books, you can keep them in the family hundreds of years if you take care of them. With digital books, it’s a crapshoot thanks to the DRM, and they can’t be passed on to your family anyway.

I wonder if anyone’s noticed that music sales have not plummeted and piracy has not run rampant with DRM being lifted on digital music from all the online music stores. You’d think the book industry and movie industry would see that, but they’re too busy lying to congress about how many jobs in Hollywood have supposedly been lost (search the internet to find evidence of their falsifications, the numbers don’t add up).

All in all, it’s still a bit of a conundrum. Content publishing companies, both books and film, are too greedy and hate their customers. To them, we’re all thieves and stupid, mindless eyeballs, good only for doling out our dollars and getting ONE locked down copy of something to use the way THEY dictate to us. They’d lock down the entire internet, given a chance, and indeed they tried and are still trying.

I hate them all. I’ll admit it.