Regardless, simultaneous release dates with new hardbacks, availability (eventually) of the entire Penguin back catalog and the planned September launch date of the initiative are all promising for the snow-balling ebook movement. Now, where's my Apple ebook reader, dammit? [Telegraph]

In the fine print that you "agree" to, Amazon and Sony say you just get a license to the e-books—you're not paying to own 'em, in spite of the use of the term "buy." Digital retailers say that the first sale doctrine—which would let you hawk your old Harry Potter hardcovers on eBay—no longer applies. Your license to read the book is unlimited, though—so even if Amazon or Sony changed technologies, dropped the biz or just got mad at you, they legally couldn't take away your purchases. Still, it's a license you can't sell.

But is this claim legal? Our Columbia friends suggest that just because Sony or Amazon call it a license, that doesn't make it so. "That's a factual question determined by courts," say our legal brainiacs. "Even if a publisher calls it a license, if the transaction actually looks more like a sale, users will retain their right to resell the copy." Score one for the home team.

There's a kicker, though: If a court ruled with you on that front, you still can't sell reproductions of your copy, an illegal act tantamount to Xeroxing your Harry Potters. You'd have to sell the physical media where the "original" download is stored—a hard drive or the actual Kindle or Sony Reader. Our guess is that it only gets more complicated from here. What happens when the file itself resides only on some $20-per-month Google storage locker?

For more details, have a look at the original, surprisingly readable legal summary:

The (Potential) Legal Validity of E-book Reader Restrictions By Rajiv Batra, John Padro, Seung-Ju Paik and Sarah Calvert

Many users are unhappy that e-book readers, such as the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle, restrict the sharing, borrowing and transferring of e-books. While some argue that the "first sale" doctrine should allow users to transfer an e-book in the same manner as a hard-copy book, these contentious restrictions may be valid under current law.

The Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle

The Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle are portable media devices designed to carry and display e-books and other electronic documents. Kindle has a mobile broadband function that allows users to browse online content and download e-books while on the go. Alternatively, the Sony Reader requires users to download and manage their library of e-books via a home computer.

The contentious characteristic of both products is that they bar users from sharing their e-books with other users. For example, Kindle's license agreement grants a "non-exclusive right to keep a permanent copy...solely for your personal, non-commercial use." Consequently, Kindle users may "not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense or otherwise assign any rights to...any third party." The Sony Reader has similarly restrictive language in its license, but does allow users to copy e-books to several other Readers as long as they are registered to the same account.

The First Sale Doctrine

Some users have argued that these license restrictions violate the "first sale" doctrine. Under the Copyright Act, the first sale doctrine allows the owner of a particular copy of a work to sell, lease or rent that copy to anyone they want at any price they choose. These rights only apply, however, to the particular copy that was purchased; any unauthorized reproduction or copying of that work constitutes copyright infringement. For instance, you can't give away photocopies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but you can auction your paperback on eBay when you're finished with it.

When it comes to digital works, however, two complications arise: first, consumers might only hold a license to the content, rather than all of the rights that come from a sale; second, without a traditional physical container for each purchased work, consumers may not practically be able to sell their "particular copy" at all.

License vs. Sale

The first sale doctrine only applies to the "owner" of a copy of a work, so end users who acquire content by license do not enjoy the right to resell their copies. Whether a transaction is a license or a sale is a factual question determined by courts—even if a publisher calls it a license, if the transaction actually looks more like a sale, users will retain their right to resell the copy. However, as more commercial transactions involve the transfer of digital content—particularly commercial software—courts have struggled to consistently make the distinction between license and sale. Software is increasingly transferred with highly restrictive licensing terms, but federal case law has not clearly determined whether these types of transfers are licenses or true sales.

Kindle and the Sony Reader are following this licensing trend and creating restrictive licenses that users must agree to upon using the product. If these agreements are found to be enforceable licenses, they could serve as the legal authority to limit users from selling or otherwise transferring the e-books they download.

Amazon vs. Sony

Both license schemes are equally restrictive, but each product limits use in a slightly different manner. Amazon Kindle's use license expressly limits the extent and use of both the device and the digital media. The Sony Reader's restrictions operate in two steps: a license to use the device and a second license to use the e-book library software (created by Sony). In both devices, users are not allowed to circumvent or alter the pre-installed software on the device.

For digital media, Kindle's agreement allows users one permanent copy. The Reader, on the other hand, allows one user to posses multiple copies as long as they are all registered to that user. Both regimes are equally restrictive on the distribution, copying, and sharing of purchased e-books (to other users).

The reason for the differences in these restrictions is a result of their technical characteristics. Amazon's wireless store requires the terms to be agreed on initially, while the Sony Reader's reliance on iTunes-like software allows a separate use agreement. In effect, both agreements accomplish the same level of restriction, but you have a little more leeway with the number of copies with the Sony Reader.

Hard Copies vs. Digital Copies

Another possible complication stems from the inherent difference between transferring an e-book and transferring a hard-copy book. The transfer of a hard-copy book is just that; the physical transfer of one copy. The transfer of an e-book, however, requires the digital recreation or copying of that e-book. Because the first sale doctrine allows transfers of only your particular copy, and not reproductions or recreations, a digital transfer of an e-book is probably impermissible. Thus, users of Kindle and the Sony Reader can only legally transmit works by selling the physical media on which they are stored—be that the e-book readers themselves or the users' hard drives.

While the restrictions on e-books may initially seem inconsistent with the rights granted for hard-copy books, these differences are the consequence of new digital products outgrowing traditional copyright doctrines. Such issues are currently being examined by legal scholars and industry insiders, but only time will tell whether this degree of control over digital media is acceptable to society.

Brian Lam's Cake Factor: no one makes a gadget cake unless they love the gadget, so this is a good sign for Kindle

A "good sign"? I completely disagree with him, and I have definitive proof:

I rest my case.

What do you think?

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[Geeksugar]

"It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore... The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read anymore."

Of course, if it's anything like his past declarations that Apple wasn't making a phone, they're totally cooking up a Kindle-killer in the lab at this very moment. It'll be the thinnest one ever and have AT&T 3G, but not a built-in antenna.

Also on his "give up now, fools" list: Android."Having created a phone, it's a lot harder than it looks. We'll see how good their software is and we'll see how consumers like it and how quickly it is adopted." Besides,

"I actually think Google has achieved their goal without Android, and I now think Android hurts them more than it helps them. It's just going to divide them and people who want to be their partners."

But he did have something nice to say to our man Bill Gates, though John Markoff doesn't know whether his eye was twitching as he spoke. "Bill's retiring from Microsoft is a big deal," he said. "It's a significant event, and I think he should be honored for the contributions he's made." Implied dig: I'm still gonna be running Apple, bitches—my "contributions" are far from over. [NYT]

It's not just the smell, the texture, the page turning or the better contrast ratios of a real hardcover that you'd expect. She feels disoriented without the constant, tactile feedback of the book's thickness—that unconscious reminder of just how much of the story is left to go (are there really enough pages remaining for Mr. Darcy and Lizzie to work things out??). Sure, there are page numbers on the screen, but it's not the same.

I found her reaction simple and somewhat profound. While this small detail is far from a deal breaker for the Reader (or any other similar device), it's not the sort of issue E Ink will ever be able to address. Of course, if/when our generations make way for children who never know paper, the industry will have solved its problem of a homesick readership.

Accessing the goodies requires fiddling with the firmware, so you've got to at least sort of know what you're doing in that regard, but once you do, you get all sorts of fun shortcut options. It seems strange that some of this stuff would be hidden, such as the faux-GPS Google Maps functionality. There are commands built-in, such as "find nearest gas station," that makes it seem like at some point these features were planned but scrapped for some reason. Oh well, if you really want them you can have them, just follow the link below for the details. [Reversing Everything via Interface]

You can also get a Nintendo Wii delivered to your house in the continental US by a guy in a Santa suit on Christmas Day for $28,000. But you might wanna read the fine print over a couple times to make sure it's the small, white console stuffed in the box, not another Wii that's also small, white and not for children (or anyone really). [TechCrunch, eBay]

Oh, and now you can too since his scripts are available for download. Should you feel bad about reading your non-Amazon eBooks on the Kindle? For $399 I wouldn't feel bad loading it with the souls of Amazon's first born children. [reversingeverthing via gadgetlab]

Still flexible, the display can recognize "optical" writing, though probably not quickly. An eyes-on report mentions that the refresh rate is under a second, which while probably fast enough for quick marks, is not what you want to be handwriting a letter on. But we just had our boobie doodles in mind anyway. [techon]

As a rightfully irritated commenter on BookofJoe noted, Amazon should have notified him of this when it bought it. That may be true, but you wouldn't expect your phone company to do that right? Besides, Amazon did mention all of this in the product page, but it could have been easily lost in the long list of information. Hit the link to check your coverage [Amazon and BookofJoe]

For seven days now, I have comfortably read in many lighting conditions with the Kindle and can safely say it has not been a strain of any kind. I'm a guy who stares at a laptop screen for hours on end, and that can suck. Reading E-Ink from either the Kindle or the Sony Reader is a vacation by comparison. My wife has also stolen it from me every chance she's had, and especially likes reading the New York Times on an airplane, something she says she wouldn't normally do because it's just too much paper. No complaints about readability, guys. I wish you doubters could experience it.

Side by side, fonts appear smoother on the Kindle than on the Reader, and the Kindle has a choice of six font sizes, as opposed to Reader's choice of three. Both let you bump font sizes up or down on the fly, a major convenience. The Reader has active screens—showing animated status indicators and so on—while Kindle screens are always static. If anything on the Kindle page changes, the whole screen does a full refresh.

The Sony has a dedicated music player and JPEG viewer; Amazon hasn't quite nailed that yet. However, the Kindle does have one thing the Reader doesn't have in this department: a speaker. It's not bad either, if you're mostly hoping to hear audiobooks and background music.Even though you can drag and drop files to the Reader, you can only do that with unprotected stuff like PDFs, MP3s and JPEGs. Kindle's drag-and-drop potential is even less, since you can only drag a certain subset of compatible files over to it.

USB disk folder appearance of Sony Reader:USB disk folder appearance of Amazon Kindle:There's no way to download books from Sony's store without using the special eBook Library software, which is cumbersome and works only with Windows PCs.

Using the eBook Library with the Reader, you can get certain views of content that you cannot get in any way with the Kindle, and you can even read books on your computer that are stored on the Reader (though I am not entirely sure why you'd want to do that). Here's a look at the eBook Library interface: This is not a true to-the-death Battlemodo, but it was an attempt to show you the differences between the two devices, beyond mere specs. I have to say, it is this Windows-only, iTunes-wannabe PC reliance that hurts the Sony Reader more than anything, especially because Sony Electronics will never admit to being as bad at software design as they are good at hardware design. The extra $100 for the Kindle means freedom from the PC—if at the same time it means a shackle to Amazon and its potentially limited file friendliness. When you talk to regular non-geeks, downloading books—and those all-important magazines and newspapers—directly to the device makes the most sense. [Sony Reader; Amazon Kindle]

I understand the Kindle. Book reading is always a one-on-one activity, and there is more or less only one way to experience a book—from a rectangular object in your hand. An e-book reader that's PC-free, connected directly to the book source, is even smarter than an MP3 player or phone that's connected to a music store, because music ends up all over the place, while books will always stay in your lap.

People bitch about a lack of Wi-Fi, but as a fan of wide-area wireless, I think Sprint's EV-DO was a good way to go, because it's available in more places. And as far as the lack of backlight, I am inclined to believe the messaging from both Amazon and Sony, that E-Ink is easier on the eyes than anything backlit, and that long battery life is more important. I used the Kindle regularly without charging for four days straight before it completely crapped out just this morning.

As for the criticism about document and e-book format compatibility, I suspect these problems will work themselves out over time, as the Kindle's Linux platform is surely easy to enhance through software. At any rate, you already know many of the issues, so there's no point rehashing them here, especially when much of it is a matter of personal preference.

No, none of these theoretical concerns were in my mind as I read using the Kindle this week, but that's not to say I didn't uncover some issues. Here's what I discovered this week while reading a book on Kindle—Heat by Bill Buford— that I was already halfway through in its old-world hardcover paper form:

In Bed:
• Next Page buttons on both sides mean tremendous comfort in bed. No matter which hand you are holding the Kindle in, you can easily turn the page, and if you have it sitting on the bed next to you, you can even tap the large button on the right with a finger or your elbow.

• Since it's much larger than a hardcover or even a trade paperback, you can hold it without tiring out your arm, or needing to use your leg to prop it up.

• Normally when reading in bed, you have to shift positions when you turn the page, especially when at the beginning or end of a large book. Since the Kindle only displays one page at a time, and doesn't have a shifting weight of pages from one side to the other, you can pick a position and stick to it.

• I have a lamp next to my bed for reading old-school printed books; it works just as well with Kindle.

In the Air:
• EV-DO isn't available everywhere, or even at all airports. The one I flew out of only provided a paltry 1X signal, and it took me about five minutes to download the current issue of The Atlantic Monthly.• Speaking of The Atlantic, text-heavy weeklies and monthlies really are the target. Newspapers are a problem, because the editions that appear on Kindle are already outdated by their own websites, so newshounds would get frustrated. The lineup of magazines needs to grow, though. I won't be happy until The Economist and The New Yorker appear on the menu. (I may come from the Great Red State of Indiana, but I prefer my current events smart and a little left-leaning. But while we're at it, Amazon, a Guns N' Ammo Kindle Edition might be nice too.)

• Once aboard, FAA regulation required that I not use the Kindle at takeoff and landing. Though obvious, this pissed me off because that's when I always read on planes, before iPod time kicks in and I have the option of a movie.

• There's a handy switch to shut off the cellular data modem, and prove to the flight attendants you're no rule-breaker.

• The onboard Oxford New American Dictionary is good but not great with proper nouns. It picked up "Romanesque" but did not get "Florentine," for instance. And Wikipedia, which would have more elaborate data on both, is of no use when you're airborne.• Private reading lights have been part of the airplane experience since time immemorial. No backlighting on e-book readers means this glorious tradition will continue.

On the Toilet:
• Friction rubber grip makes it okay to set down on the side of your sink or back of toilet without it slipping. We have a porcelain pedestal sink in one bathroom that anything without a grip would slide off of—and smash on the floor.• Buttons on both sides of the Kindle mean that it's sometimes hard to grip it securely and not press a button. I were to hypothetically make a mad dash to the toilet, Kindle in hand, I would risk flipping a bunch of pages on the way and losing my place.

Other usage discoveries:
• As I mentioned, the battery lasted four full days of regular use, mostly with the EV-DO switch turned on. (It probably would have run much longer if I had left it off.) When your battery gets low, you get the error message below, but shutting down EV-DO that late in the game does nothing to conserve battery life, which died 5 minutes after I saw this. Charging is quick though—juice it for 15 or 20 minutes and it's good to go for a while.• I never turned the thing off, either: when you leave it alone for a few minutes, it turns to a keylock screen with a pretty picture or a promotional tip (see gallery below—I've shot 8 so far, but there are tons of 'em). You click and hold the Alt and font-size buttons to release it.
• I will never understand the magical technology behind the shiny LCD bar on the right. It is sooo pretty I sometimes do stuff just to watch it jump around. Very unique in this copycat-heavy CE universe.• The leather case is good for protecting and carrying around without hitting buttons (see "On the Toilet"), but it is totally lame when you are trying to read. Slip it out and hide the case until you are ready to move again.

• The Highlight clipping tool is too primitive to be cool. You can only highlight a line at a time, so your clippings, particularly when viewed by themselves, look ugly and confusing. Anything you highlight is automatically saved in My Clippings, where all of your Clippings, from all publications, are lumped together.• In natural settings, I never used the web browser. I surf the web a-plenty in my daily life, and while I'm reading, I'm just not thinking about dot coms.

• The keyboard does have a bit of a lag, as we reported, but that's not too problematic. My biggest problem is the spacebar, hidden on the left side. Little known trivia: As it turns out, I SPACE with my right hand.• Footnotes are weird. I was reading a David Foster Wallace piece that, like most of his work, was riddled with footnotes, and each time I had to click it to see the note, which could get annoying. Same goes for Colbert's book I Am America.

• My wife likes it. OK, so you weren't curious about that, maybe, but she's a voracious reader and she generally turns her nose up at most of the gadgets that arrives at our doorstep. With the Kindle, though, she got excited. She picked it up and started reading the Atlantic Monthly, saying how "amazing" it was that Amazon got the magazine's formatting right, and how pleasant the E-Ink was to read.

• In the end, looks mattered least of all. Even though my wife thinks it looks like a "medical device," it was not a turn off. I think people underestimate its wedgey coolness, while overestimating the impact that would have. Bezos said you don't look at the thing, you look at the book within—maybe he was anticipating a hazing from the Style Police, but I think he's right. I just read my damn book.

My verdict is that a connected e-book reader was what the world needed, and as long as Amazon's library expands to encompass every book I want to read, I see no reason why I should be upset that I have to buy it from them. Yes, $399 is expensive, but that's likely to drop, and the more market-resistant $9.99 book price hits a Jobsian sweet spot.

Having lived with the Kindle, I can say that it serves most of my immediate reading needs. As a guy who enjoys amassing a vast library of books and displaying them in bookcases, I am a little frightened of the future, but inevitability is the name of the game, and fear of change isn't a good enough excuse. Will I continue to buy books or will I jump into Amazon book buying mode? That remains to be seen, but you, o early adopter, should not share my fears. The Kindle is a quality invention, and I can see why the first batch sold out so fast. [More Kindle Coverage from Giz; Amazon.com]

One main point is that if Amazon was sued for something we wrote, even by some nut job figuring Amazon would settle quickly, we'd have to take the blame. (I make no guarantees to SFW content, per our usual programming.) The bigger issue is that you can still read Gizmodo using Kindle's browser for $0. And you guys are too smart to pay $2 for something you can get for free a few clicks away on the same device. I don't think the RSS store is useless, but I think the business model needs a bit of tweaking. And of course, if it ever makes sense for Gizmodo to be on the RSS feeder and we make it happen, I'll let you know right away.

UPDATE: Ryan Block of Engadget has voiced similar sentiments on his personal blog.

"When someone buys a book, they are also buying the right to resell that book, to loan it out, or to even give it away if they want. Everyone understands this."

You may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense or otherwise assign any rights to the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party, and you may not remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Digital Content. In addition, you may not, and you will not encourage, assist or authorize any other person to, bypass, modify, defeat or circumvent security features that protect the Digital Content.

Sony PRS-505 Reader: The Sony Reader is $100 less than the Kindle at $300, and it won't charge you to load PDFs on it (the Kindle will take a dime for every PDF you allow it to convert to its DRM'd format). It also won't charge you to read blogs or get your RSS feeds, something else the Kindle nickel and dimes you for. This is probably the Kindle's biggest opponent, and, to be honest, would be my choice if I actually wanted an eBook (which I don't).

Bookeen Cybook V3:The Cybook sits between the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle pricewise at $350. Like the other big two, you can load MP3s up on an SD card and rock out to your tunes while you read books on it. It also can handle RSS feeds for you, free of charge.

Fujitsu eBook Demo: This is only a demo so it isn't available for sale yet, but Fujitsu's eBook is notable for how light it is. Clocking in at a mere 177g, it's much lighter than the Sony Reader (255g without the soft cover) and the Amazon Kindle (292g), which makes a difference if you're gonna carry it around all day. If that's important to you, maybe it's worth waiting for this guy to appear.

Seiko eBook Reader: Oh, did I say the Fujitsu was light? Well, it is, but not compared with this beautiful Seiko Reader that comes in at a nearly-immune-from-the-effects-of-gravity 57g. It's also a mere 3mm thick, making it the thinnest, lightest, and slickest of the selection here today. In addition, it has a crazily-high 1200x1600 resolution on its 6.7-inch screen. This is clearly the sexiest of the bunch, but there are few details on it and my guess is we'll be waiting a while for it. Patience is a virtue.

LG Philips Flexible eBook: This conceptual eBook from LG Philips features one thing that no other eBook does: flexibility. Yep, that characteristic of paperback books that we're all so used to feels conspicuously missing from these technological updates to the medium, it's sure to make the transition from dead trees to synthetics a little easier. This is more an e-paper display than an eBook at the moment, what with its 14.1-inch form factor way bigger than you'd want an eBook, but it's an example of what we have to look forward to in the future.

So what conclusion can we draw from all these products? Well, it seems like there's a lot of research and work being done in the eBook, eInk, and ePaper fields at the moment, which should mean that newer, better, and cheaper products will be coming pretty frequently. That means you early adopters might feel stuck with the $400 Kindle in six months when another eBook comes out with a better screen, free RSS feeds and weighing half as much drops for the same price.

And if you're planning to use your eBook to import a bunch of your own documents and use it to read a lot of material downloaded from the web, the Kindle doesn't seem like a great option due to the charges for doing pretty much everything on it.

But if you just want something to read books on (presumably books you'll download from Amazon), the Kindle seems like a good, albeit an expensive, choice. Just know that your Kindle won't be the hottest eBook on the block for long.