Justin Taylor—

Here’s Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing, introducing this Guardian article about the Kindle. (Link clicks through to the Guardian piece.)

In today’s Observer Business column, John Naughton discusses what a ripoff it is for ebook vendors to “sell” you books with abusive, multi-thousand word “license agreements,” pretending that because you bought your book over the network, it wasn’t a sale, and so you don’t get to own it. These “licenses” aren’t about upholding copyright (if they were, you could replace thousands of words of lawyerese with four simple words: “Don’t violate copyright law”). They’re about overriding copyright — which has all kinds of guarantees for the rights of book-owners — with a private law that gives every advantage to the publisher or retailer, converting you from a noble reader to a wormy, contemptible licensor who doesn’t deserve to own books.