Isn't that better than "Learn me sumtin"?
We want to give a Kindle for Christmas and I have a question that no one can answer: Once you buy a book, can you thumb drive it to another venue?
If you buy a book or paperback you can loan it to someone right? Why not this?
Dan
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015T963C/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=4421533855&ref...
You could always loan them your Kindle.
Don't know about a Kindle but with a Nook (the Barnes & Noble reader) you can.
I don't believe you can with the Kindle which is why the function of "loaning" a book is so big on the Nook. Also remember all of the books you buy off Amazon for the Kindle can ONLY be read on a Kindle as they use a propriety file format. The Nook also has a larger number of books available off the BN site and can read more formats as well. The wider range of file formats read allows you to download from alternate sources and still read the books on your Ereader. BN has a free reader available for the iPhone, Blackberry and PC, so those you loan to don't have to have a Nook. Kindle only has the iPhone app I believe and are working on the others.
BN also has more less expensive older books and quite a few free books available.
The other options are basically pointless to look at, less file format compatibility less built in memory and slow. The new Kindle and Nook are the first of the new generation of readers and the Nook really is the most advanced of the two. Expect there to be quite a few leaps with the Ereaders over the next year or two, including faster processors and color screens as you start have magazines getting in on the action have electronic subscription geared to these readers but wanting to still be in color.
If I was to choose one right now, it would be the Nook for many reasons listed above. I am planning on getting one for my father for Christmas. I might wait to buy one for myself until the next gens are out and continue using my Storm and netbook.
No on the loaning/switch device/thumb drive deal. The NY Times/David Pogue had a column on it not too long ago. Matter of fact, apparently, you only own a license or something along those lines. I'm only parroting what I read there.
Some one published an unauthorized "Kindle" version of Orwell's "1984", and Amazon yanked it back off of everyone's machines that bought it. They refunded the price, but still.... And of all the books to "throw down the memory hole"?
I believe it was Amazon Oz that put the Orwell books up, as copryright terms are different there. The irony was awesome. And it's why I'd never recommend a Kindle.
I have a Sony. I don't buy books through the Official Sony Store (which has a terrible interface anyhow), but I get them from other sources. Lots of science fiction publishers, for example, give away free digital copies of books. eReaders are similar to iPods, you can put all sorts of formats on them and it's the seller of the format that decides how it's controlled.
Don't know about the thumb drive. You are legally limited on loaning the Kindle book four times, and there is a time limit on those loans.
Censorship and book burning for the 21st century 
Proprietary rights and profits, I don't see censorship.
Dan
It's still the modern version of book burning, but this time it's at the altar of Maximum Profit instead of religious or moral grounds.
