Barnes and Noble’s Nook overcomes Kindle’s DRM shortfall 

Barnes & Noble’s new “Nook”  may finally knock Kindle  off of its ebook pedestal. Not only is it the same price as Kindle-2, but it comes with a multi-touch colour screen instead of Amazon’s monotone chiclet-keyboard, and runs on Google’s Android OS.  

While built-in wifi, 2GB of storage and MP3 are awesome features, it’s the ability to share the ebook with your friends that makes the Nook revolutionary. DRM and copyright management for online ebooks made it impossible to legally lend a book to your friend.  

With the DRM, at least for Kindle and the Amazon Kindle store that is, you’re not really buying a book because it doesn’t have the first sale rights. The first right of sale gives the buyer of intellectual property the right to resell or transfer the object without the permission of the copyright owner.  

Because the DRM of Amazon has limited the first right of sale, it means you cannot legally give the ebook away or sell it (even if you remove it from your Kindle and load it onto someone else’s Kindle). You also can’t lend it to someone else without lending them your Kindle. Even if you upgrade or buy a newer model of the Kindle you may not be able to re-retrieve or re-download previously purchased books.  

This technically means that you’re not buying anything when you download a book from the Amazon Kindle store. You’re obtaining temporary rights to possess the intellectual property.  

Amazon, though, had no way around the DRM regulations because it seemed to be the only way publishers could retain copyright or at the very least continue to earn royalties while making books available in digital format. B&N’s Nook, however, overcomes this snag by allowing users to share books with their friends for up to two weeks after purchase. I suppose without Amazon’s foundation and pursuit to get publishers to make ebooks available, B&N would be stuck with the DRM issues. Bad for Kindle. Great for Nook.