[CS]

I'm surprised Amazon hasn't implemented a way for Kindle users to "gift" each other e-books.

It's a great idea that has already been adopted by Steam (PC game digital download service), Wii's Virtual Console/WiiWare (ditto), and other such services.

It would possibly require some sort of buddy list infrastructure, but it's hardly undoable.

Seems like a license to print money, so I have no idea why Amazon hasn't adopted it yet.

Thoughts?

 

[Jasonmh]

That is kind of what I was talking about when I posted this in another thread:

"Imagine that you buy a book for your Kindle, and you think that your <insert friend or relative here> would love it and you want to share the book with them. But the other person is not on your Amazon account. So you hit the menu while in the book, and see an option called "Send to a Friend". You hit that option, it prompts you to enter your friends Kindle's email address, and it sends a DRM'd copy of the book you bought to your friends Kindle. Maybe these DRM'd books, once sent, are tagged with a 30 day license, giving that friend 30 days to enjoy that book. After the 30 days, if the friend wants to keep that book he/she could be prompted to buy a copy for themselves from the Amazon store. Or if they read the book and didn't think it was worth owning, they could simply delete it after 30 days. Maybe each book can be forwarded from the owner only a certain number of times, or maybe not."

Would be cool to be able to send books to other kindle users.

 

[LaraAmber]

I think the idea is to buy them a copy as a gift.  So if my dad had a Kindle on his own account and I thought he really should read "When Science Goes Wrong", I could buy him a copy and sent it to him for Father's Day.

Lara Amber

 

[Greg Banks]

That is kind of what I was talking about when I posted this in another thread:

"Imagine that you buy a book for your Kindle, and you think that your <insert friend or relative here> would love it and you want to share the book with them. But the other person is not on your Amazon account. So you hit the menu while in the book, and see an option called "Send to a Friend". You hit that option, it prompts you to enter your friends Kindle's email address, and it sends a DRM'd copy of the book you bought to your friends Kindle. Maybe these DRM'd books, once sent, are tagged with a 30 day license, giving that friend 30 days to enjoy that book. After the 30 days, if the friend wants to keep that book he/she could be prompted to buy a copy for themselves from the Amazon store. Or if they read the book and didn't think it was worth owning, they could simply delete it after 30 days. Maybe each book can be forwarded from the owner only a certain number of times, or maybe not."

Would be cool to be able to send books to other kindle users.

But that idea could easily mean authors suddenly wind up in soup kitchens begging for a meal. With a physical item, if you read someone else's copy and enjoy it, you are somewhat likely to purchase a copy for yourself. Seeing how many people don't consider a digital file a tangible product, I think it's far less likely that phenomenon would translate to Kindle or any other ebook sales. Therefore, a handful of people buy the book and they all send it to their friends. Meanwhile, the author gets screwed out of an unknown but significant number of sales.

 

[GreenThumb]

I think the idea is to buy them a copy as a gift. So if my dad had a Kindle on his own account and I thought he really should read "When Science Goes Wrong", I could buy him a copy and sent it to him for Father's Day.

Lara Amber

I think this would be great! I have bought DTB's and sent them to family. As more people go to e-books, it would be nice to have the option to buy them a Kindle copy instead.

 

[Jasonmh]

I think the idea is to buy them a copy as a gift. So if my dad had a Kindle on his own account and I thought he really should read "When Science Goes Wrong", I could buy him a copy and sent it to him for Father's Day.

Lara Amber

Ah yes, a great idea. I think I misunderstood what the OP was saying... I was think of it in terms of me finishing a book and wanting to give it to someone else.

 

[Jasonmh]

But that idea could easily mean authors suddenly wind up in soup kitchens begging for a meal. ...

Possibly, but with restrictions in place it is far less likely to send authors to the poor house than unresticted (or un-DRM'd) ebooks.
Anyway, I think I misunderstood what the OP was saying, sorry for the interuption.

 

[Carol Hanrahan]

If we've thought about it here on Kindleboards, probably Amazon IS mulling over how to do it.  It'll probably be a feature before long.

 

[CS]

Just to clarify: I did mean buying someone else a gift, not sharing it with another person after we're finished (though that would be nice too, but it'll never happen for obvious reasons).

 

[crebel]

I think this is a great idea, I have several kindle friends around the country and I would love to be able to buy and send a book directly to their kindle.  I have purchased Amazon Gift cards and sent them along with a note that it was intended to purchase a specific title I thought they would enjoy.

 

[Thumper]

It would make having Kindle books on a wishlist worthwhile...right now that function is basically useless.

 

[koolmnbv]

I have thought of this before. Gifting a book would be a great idea. I also agree with Carol someone,somewhere over at amazon has probably thought of this as well and in time they will come up with something to make it possible.

 

[Scheherazade]

I don't see why they can't do something similar to sites like popcap games and bigfish games.  They let three different ISPs download each game you buy as many times as they wish.  So you basically get three licenses.  If there was a way in the Kindle store to send a friend a link to a book in your archive I don't see why they couldn't do something similar even if it was just one or two other copies.

Ebooks -are- different from physical books, so I don't quite agree with the "But I can share my DTBs." argument.  Sharing those relies on you willing to give up the book, trusting the person enough not to damage or lose the book, and the person being geographically close enough to make it worth even doing.  I know even with DTBs I will usually just buy a second copy for a person if I think they'll really like it.  Ebooks are just too easy to share with none of those drawbacks.  You would get to keep your copy and not worry about getting it back and the person could be in China and get their copy within a minute of you sending it.

 

[Tip10]

Right now if I buy a book on my account it comes with six licenses.  The only way to use it on another Kindle is to register that Kindle to my account and download the book -- which uses a license.

How its this really any different than me designating one of the licenses be used by another Kindle that is not on my account?

What I'd like to see is the ability to send a book (via license) to another Kindle by either name or email addy.  That book would go against my license count, that user would not be able to archive that book in their account.  Basically I'd surrender (forever) a license to send a book to another Kindle -- they could read it but not back it up to Amazon and not send it on.  If they wanted an unencumbered copy they'd need to buy it.

 

[Chad Winters]

Makes sense to me, I bet a large fraction of DTB purchases on Amazon are gifts for other people than the purchaser. Sometimes its like Amazon doesn't want to make money......

 

[BrassMan]

I review a lot of books (for PODBRAM) and I would love for an author or publisher to be able to send me a Kindle book for review. I wrote Amazon about this: "no plans for now," they said, basically.

I'm so attached to my Kindle that I hauled off and bought the ones I reviewed most recently that had Kindle editions, but I don't plan to do that every time. It's a tradition: if you want your book reviewed, you supply the book. I can't afford to let Amazon's policy send ME to the poorhouse.