Ebook TOS: can't share with spouse

[elf]

It's hit the news that Kobo Says You’re Not Allowed to Share Your Account – Not With a Spouse, Your Kids, Anyone -- someone finally wrangled an answer out of them, wherein they said "Legally, only the account holder has license to use the material."

Kobo's not alone in this; very major ebook store, and most of the minor ones, has a clause like this. Kobo is probably the first one to confirm in writing that it means "you are not allowed to let your spouse borrow your ereader and read the books you bought from us."

No wonder ebook sales for YA books are lousy. Kids can't buy books directly, and stores won't promote them because that would mean saying, "share your purchases with someone else."

Amazon Kindle Store (and wow, do they *bury* this; it's *hard* to find this page):

Content Provider grants you a non-exclusive right to view, use, and display such Kindle Content an unlimited number of times, solely on the Kindle or a Reading Application or as otherwise permitted as part of the Service, solely on the number of Kindles or Supported Devices specified in the Kindle Store, and solely for your personal, non-commercial use.

(emphasis added.)

Barnes & Noble NOOK books (six-point grey type on a white background is always such a joy to read! and only 7000 words of it!):

Barnes & Noble.com grants you a limited, nonexclusive, revocable license to access and make personal, non-commercial use of the Digital Content in accordance with these Terms of Use.
...
Only certain eBooks are eligible for lending. eBooks with an icon on their product pages indicate their eligibility for lending and will also have a "LendMe" link...

Smashwords:

If you purchase a work, you hold a non-exclusive, non-transferable, and non-distributable right of use. In other words, you are free to enjoy it for your own use, but you are not authorized to share, sell, or distribute the work to others.

Fictionwise:

The download of these product(s) is intended for the Fictionwise Member's personal and noncommercial use. Any other use of eBooks downloaded from Fictionwise.com is strictly prohibited. Users may not modify, transmit, publish, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display, or in any way exploit, any of the content of these product(s), in whole or in part.

Also, the "copyright notice" showing on logged-in members' bookshelf pages says,
"You may download eBooks that you have bought for your personal use, but may not distribute them to other people using email, floppy, or any other method."

("Any other method" can include "hand them the hardware on which the ebook is stored.")

Sony Reader Store:

The license granted to you hereunder does not convey to you any of the following: (a) reproduction or promotional use rights in the Content (e.g., any uses that implicate or require public performance, or any use that would result in the commercial redistribution of the Content or any metadata underlying the Content), (b) rights to enter into arrangements with any revenue-generating broadcast system (terrestrial, satellite, cable and/or other distribution channels), (c) rights to distribute or redistribute Content on streaming applications (via Internet, intranets and/or other networks), (d) rights to distribute to others Content on other content distribution systems or on physical media (compact discs, digital versatile discs, semiconductor chips, hard drives, memory cards and the like), or (e) commercial, sale, resale, reproduction, distribution or promotional use rights for the Content.

(emphasis added)

(Note that an ebook reader is a physical medium, essentially a flash drive with a viewer attached.)

BooksonBoard:

BooksOnBoard and/or our publishing partners gives you the non-exclusive right to download, subject to the restrictions set forth herein, copies of the applicable Digital Content to your Devices, and to view, use, and display such Digital Content an unlimited number of times on your Devices or as otherwise authorized by BooksOnBoard and/or our publishing partners as part of the Service for your personal, non-commercial use.
...
You may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, transfer, or assign your rights to the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party except as expressly permitted by BooksOnBoard. Provided, however, that nothing in the Terms of Service shall prohibit any uses of Digital Content that would otherwise be permitted under the United States Copyright Act.

(emphasis added)

Ah. The first one that indicates that the rights are based on copyright law!

Google Books:

Google gives you the non-exclusive right to download, subject to the restrictions set forth herein, copies of the applicable Digital Content to your Devices, and to view, use, and display such Digital Content an unlimited number of times on your Devices or as otherwise authorized by Google as part of the Service for your personal, non-commercial use.
...
You may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, transfer, or assign your rights to the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party except as expressly permitted by Google. Provided, however, that nothing in the Terms of Service shall prohibit any uses of Digital Content that would otherwise be permitted under the United States Copyright Act.

(Apparently, Google borrowed BoB's boilerplate. I'd think it was the other way around, except BoB has been selling ebooks much longer than Google.)

...and so on. I have to look sideways at that "personal and non-commercial" phrase... does that mean you can't make money writing reviews of ebooks bought from them? Can't use them for academic research that you get paid for? Can't use the ebooks you bought to get ahead in business?

Is there a legal line between "commercial use of an ebook file" and "commercial use of the contents of the ebook?" The first may be *intended*, but I doubt the second is excluded by their current phrasing.

And apparently, according to most ebook stores, handing your ereader to your spouse is just as much piracy as uploading your purchases to a torrent. Or at least, just as much a violation of the user terms, and they can freeze your account and lock you out of your books if they catch you at it.

Comments

[everbright]

Ooooooy, what a mess. This is ridiculous really, you have less rights to the material than if you'd bought the thing in paper.

[muccamukk]

Thanks for the heads up. I've dropped Kobo an e-mail to express my opinion on this topic, and request an amendment. Maybe if the issue gets enough attention, they'll be more reasonable about it.

[elf]

Good luck with that. Don't expect a revision, even with all the attention they're getting; the reason those clauses exist is that nobody has figured out how to word "you're allowed to share this with close family but not All Those Facebook Peoples You Know."

Most publishers think it's reasonable for spouses to share ebooks, and parents-and-children to share ebooks. However, they don't want to allow ebooks to be shared with "that guy who's renting the attic room," so they don't want to allow sharing between "members of a household." And they don't want ebooks to be shared with your sister in the next state, so they don't want to allow sharing between "close family members."

And publishers have admitted that DRM doesn't prevent piracy; it mostly prevents casual sharing, and that's why they have it--to prevent exactly the kind of sharing that drives the popularity of physical books.

---

I'm hoping that swarms of parents pester Kobo and other ebook sellers, demanding to know whether the TOS allows their children to read the ebooks, or if the kids are expected to have their own separate accounts. And asking really *sharply* who they expect to be reading the young-kids picture books, since 5-year-olds won't be having accounts.

[muccamukk]

I don't really expect to get anywhere with it, but it can't hurt to ask. They don't know my opinion unless I tell it to them.

I suggested in my e-mail that users might establish a list of people permitted to borrow "their" content. So I could put, say, my folks and my girlfriend on it, and all would be well.

[holyschist]

I have to admit, part of my reluctance about ebooks is that they seem to be very much on a licensing model (online-only magazines do the same thing: if your spouse or roommate looks over your shoulder, you're violating the TOS. Whereas your paper subscription to National Geographic can be read by your whole town if you want to pass it around. Makes paper look like much better value for money to me). It's worrisome, and I'm not sure how to convince publishers that this is appalling--not when they seem sure they'll make more money that way.

I'm worried it'll eventually lead to pay-per-readthrough books, which really horrifies me.

[elf]

I'm not worried about the pay-per-readthrough model. Not that I don't think publishers will try it--I'm sure they will--but the "get book content; share freely online" model predates ebook sales by about five years, and has grown with computer & internet tech faster than commercial exploitation has.

Like the music industry, the lumbering publishing industries are going to have to deal with the fact that they cannot control use of their content; if they're lucky, they can find a way to make enough sales to keep their companies going. If not, they collapse, and authors will need to find other ways to get income from readers.

That part will happen. We LIKE having new books to read. We WANT to support authors. The internet is packed with ways to get money from buyers to sellers; if the current ones stop working for authors, they'll shift to some of the others.

They won't, however, EVER be able to enforce "1 sale = 1 reader." Because no matter how strict the DRM is, it's not going to stop someone from just typing the text in. So I don't worry about new, ever-more-ridiculous DRM models; all they do is drive more people into fringe activities just to get normal use from their purchases.

[holyschist]

I do, though, because I am kind of lazy. I don't want to scan or type up books (although I've been seriously tempted for a couple out-of-print books I keep trying to get people to read). I don't want to have to spend half an hour fixing formatting when I buy an ebook, just so it's readable. Self-publishing has its pros, but there is a basic bar of "typically grammatical and spell-checked" that non-OCRed publishing house (e)books usually meet right off the bat. As much as I'm frustrated with major aspects of traditional publishing, I'm not keen on throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

(And I suppose they can always work harder on controlling devices, if they can't control data, which is even more potentially scary.

[finch]

What a lovely illustration of why everyone ignores their terms of service anyway...

[firecat]

I wonder, how do these terms stack up against terms for digital music downloads? Do you have to turn off the music if someone else comes into the room?

[isis]

Oh, BRILLIANT analogy.

[elf]

Oooh, fascinating thought. I don't normally deal with digital music sites, so I hadn't looked into it. (I've bought a few mp3s from Amazon, but I don't deal with iTunes and don't have an account at Pandora or anything like it.)

Pandora: "Pandora grants to you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the Pandora Services in legally authorized jurisdictions for personal non-commercial purposes only, except as expressly permitted in Section 2.1(B) below."

(Section 2.1(b) talks about licensed business uses.)

Amazon MP3 store: "Upon payment for Music Content, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Music Content only for your personal, non-commercial, entertainment use, subject to the Agreement.

2.2 Restrictions. You must comply with all applicable copyright and other laws in your use of the Music Content. Except as set forth in Section 2.1 above, you may not redistribute, transmit, assign, sell, broadcast, rent, share, lend, modify, adapt, edit, license or otherwise transfer or use the Music Content."

iTunes Store: "(i) You shall be authorized to use iTunes Products only for personal, noncommercial use."

Apparently, same concept; probably, nobody's asked what "personal, non-commercial use" really means.

[isis]

Has anybody explicitly asked them "Is it a violation to physically loan your ereader (with a book on it) to someone else?" Because that just sounds loopy.

I don't care, though. I don't actually buy ebooks. My Kobo is for reading downloaded library books. I might have a "Kobo account" but if I do, I've never used it.

[elf]

The response from Kobo was to a question about "can I loan my licensed ebooks on an authorized device to a member of my household?"

From the middle of a long, Lending DRM'd books to a friend thread at MR:

Dear Kobo Customer Care,

Thank you for your response to my question, but it seems to be a technical rather than legal answer to my question. Obviously no-one is able read my books (the DRMed ones, anyway) unless they have access to my account, i.e. have a device authorised to my Adobe ID.

But I am asking about the licence terms.

May I let my spouse read ebooks that I have bought (on a device authorised to my Adobe ID)?
May I let my children read ebooks that I have bought (on a device authorised to my Adobe ID)?
May I let a close friend read ebooks that I have bought (on a device authorised to my Adobe ID)?

I'm sorry to go on about this, but I do want to understand how many copies of an ebook you expect a household to buy if everyone in the household wants to read it. Your licence terms seem to imply that a copy needs to be bought for everyone who wants to read the ebook.

Yours,

Paul Durrant.

And Kobo's official reply:

Hi Paul,

Thank you for contacting Kobo Customer Care.

Legally, only the account holder has license to use the material.

Hope this clarifies.

Sincerely,
The Kobo Team

[pauamma]

Is it just me, or does

Legally, only the account holder has license to use the material.

sound like an attempt to avoid answering the question as asked to anyone else?

[elf]

Oh, noticed that, did you? I wonder if they expect the account holder to be reading Franklin and the Thunderstorm: A Classic Franklin Story (Read-Aloud Edition) without sharing it.

Someone needs to ask them what good a "read-aloud" edition is, if only one person's allowed to use the book at all.

I expect that the companies will stick to "you and your spouse are supposed to each buy an ebook;" the true ridiculousness will only be showcased when people start asking about books written for young children.

[pauamma]

You're only allowed to read aloud if your children are deaf, mebbe?

[anatsuno]

Still not ever buying DRM'd books on any of these platforms... It's sad to me that publishers who push out good books are deprived of all the money I've stopped spending on books because I want ebooks now but refuse to buy the ones offered in such lousy conditions, but until they learn to participate fairly in an ethical marketplace, I don't see why I should pay for their mistakes.

[merzibelle]

Just a note, I did ask Amazon once about a children and their Kindle devices. The trend toward parents purchasing ebooks for their children and putting them on their own devices is why both the new Kindle Paperwhite and the Kindle Fire now have "parental controls" to lock adult rated content while allowing the usage of the device by children.

[kathryn_scannell]

Yes, it's mind-numbingly stupid. Yet another reason not to buy anything with DRM, or that will only work on a device/program that requires you to be in contact with the vendor (I suspect Kindle for PC and it's brethren won't work if you're not on the internet, for example, although I haven't tested it).

I'm pretty generally law-abiding, but I'm not going to lose sleep over the fact that my wife also reads my ebooks, and I read hers. We're not going to buy the same service twice. (This is also why we quit having a Barnes and Noble discount membership - they wouldn't give us two cards so we could both make purchases using it.)

[fred_mouse]

And it is for reasons like this that my youngest's Kobo has only material that is sourced from Gutenberg. I'm just not interested in paying dead money.

[elf]

There are also many excellent Creative Commons works, and while Baen is rethinking its free library (more and more authors are opting out of it because they'd rather promote their works in other ways), for now, it's still got plenty of ebooks.

Baen's ebook policies have always been nicely sane. "It's a book. Buy the book; share the book. Just, hey, encourage the borrowers to buy their own copy of the next boook, mkay?"