Stephen Downes

A copyright regime where you can only rent, but not own, a book will mean the end of the book. So argues Cory Doctorow in this awkwardly argued but nonetheless convincing analysis of the future of the book. What makes a book, properly so called, something we value and want to but is the relationship we build with it, over time, as something we can refer back to again and again. Make ownership of the book temporary, and our dependence on it will disappear, and so, therefore, will the utility of the format itself.