Ebooks are dying, here's why

Ebooks are dying, here's why:
Engadget: Hachette Book Group also pulls away from Amazon
This is just the latest in a trend that I say is dark for the future of ebooks. More and more publishers are pulling away from the amazon e-book model with the argument that "We should be allowed to set our own price, and ebook companies should have to sell it for what we want." The issue isn't really about if Amazon's pricing model is fair (it probably isn't), but about how much pricing control publishers are demanding.

"Big deal," you say, let the publishers set their own prices. That would be well and good, if the publishers KNEW what they were doing. The publishers envision a world where ebooks are roughly the same price as hardcovers, and then slowly move down in price, till they're roughly the same as a paperback. Seems fair, right? Wrong. This isn't a distribution costs arguments, anyone who knows publishing knows that physical costs make up very little of the cost of a book. This is about the fundamental model of ebooks.

When I buy an ebook for a kindle, I'm not really buying a book, I'm indefinitely renting a book. Sure it's attached to my kindle account, and you can download it again and again for as long as you have the account, but you don't really own the book. You can't move it to a different company's device, you can't loan it to a friend, you can't sell it, and you definitely can't donate it to a library.

If the publishers want to move toward a "We create the book, we set the price, and you buy the product" model, AND charge the same amount as a physical book, they need to make the experience just like that of a real book.

Ebooks can be saved, here's how:

In order to make the ebook worth the same as regular books, we must be guaranteed these three things: independence, the ability to lend and sell, and the ability to create virtual libraries. I'll explain each in depth.

Independence:

• Merchant Independence: I should be able to buy an ebook from any store (and with the publisher model, it wouldn't matter which store) and have it work everywhere I am. Books I buy from Amazon must sit alongside books I buy from Apple
• Device Independence: As long as I don't have more than one copy being read at once, I should be able to read it on my Kindle, Nook, Ipad, Iphone, Cell Phone, Mac, PC, and whatever else can communicate with the licensing server.

Lending and Selling:

• Selling: I should be able to sell a book to another individual, a used book store, or whoever I want. Once I've entered the account name of the party I wish to sell to, my ability to read the book disappears forever, and all my personal copies are locked and deleted. They then become sole owner and have the same rights as the original purchaser.
• Lending: I should be able to lend my ebook to a friend, for a set period of time or forever. Once I've lent my book, I lose the ability to read it until my friend returns it to me, or I choose to take it back. Once it returns to me, my friend can no longer read it

Virtual Libraries:

• Libraries must be allowed to receive donated books
• Libraries must be allowed to buy books from the publisher, with the intent to lend them to their patrons, with the same rights they currently have.
• The library must be able communicate with the license server, and lend its books out on a time limited basis.
  

What's all that mean? In summary, an ebook should act in every way like a regular book, just without paper. Once these things are guaranteed, I wouldn't have a problem following the publisher model or paying the same price as a physical book. But until then, ebooks aren't worth the same price. Pick one: cheaper ebooks, or equal rights