Ebooks Are Not Precious

• Ultimately ebooks are another digital document which is treated with less care. Fast content thrives as ebooks. Digital is inherently cheap and multiples are available (Why is digital expected to be cheaper than physical 1).
• Mark them up, scribble (digitally) everywhere, and bookmark to your heart's content. There is no worry about damaging the book or folding corners.
• You presumably wouldn't steal physical books (apart from perhaps a once borrowed, accidentally now forever yours loan) but ebooks are digital and [[!Piracy]] happens all the time. PDFs and [[!DRM]]-free books are shared freely online (See: [[!Sharing vs stealing digital goods]]).
  • Similarly, loaning physical books is a different prospect than copying a PDF for a friend. Digital formats are meant for sharing not loaning 1.
• This effect also works against them: [[!Ebooks are easy to amass but difficult to collect]] so are not normally [[!status items]].

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• Root: Benefits of ebooks