Are ebooks heralding the end of ownership? | Good E-Reader Blog - Electronic Reader and Tablet PC News

Are ebooks heralding the end of ownership? | Good E-Reader Blog - Electronic Reader and Tablet PC News:

"Tim Spalding, creator of Librarything thinks that all of this will devalue books in general. “The process is gradual. Mental models change slower than technology. If the Kindle had debuted with an access-based ‘faucet’ model, it would have failed. Consumers would not have traded true ownership for a tethered, metered and monitored product. But we’ll get there soon enough, as each step away from ownership makes the next step more acceptable. Once you realise your Kindle book is not fully yours, you’ll accept it being mostly not yours. Google Ebooks are a further step away from ownership. Eventually you get to a faucet model, as music has done, either low-price (Netflix) or free (Pandora, YouTube)."