Otherwise maybe the Amazon CEO might not have bought into an unfortunate Holocaust reference.

But here we are a scant 10 months later, and Amazon is touting that later this year you’ll be able to lend Kindle e-books. For only two weeks. Only once. And you can’t read the book while it is on loan. Just like the Barnes & Noble Nook, which was launching last Christmas with those limitations, when Bezos scoffed at B&N in an interview with the Times‘ “Questions For …” column:

[Times] Barnes & Noble claims on its Web site that the Nook has several advantages over the Kindle — for one thing, a Nook book can be lent to friends. You can forward the text to another user.

[Bezos] The current thing being talked about is extremely limited. You can lend to one friend. One time. You can’t pick two friends, not even serially, so once you’ve loaned one book to one friend, that’s it.

[Times] You have to pick just one person? What are you saying? It’s like “Sophie’s Choice”?

[Bezos] It is “Sophie’s Choice.” Very nicely done.

It’s easy to tease, but the serious matter here is that neither the Kindle nor the Nook allow book owners to lend their e-books in any reasonable sense of the word. Amazon and B&N are allowing them to give it a one-time-only, two-week furlough. Not even a Netflix-like “as long as you like” policy. Not even to competing devices (format incompatibilities notwithstanding). And just plain forget about giving “your” e-book away, or reselling it — things that you can do with any of your only-slightly-more-expensive print editions.

Yes, I get it. Cripples are undoubtedly “inspired” by publishers. Amazon goes out of its way to tweak them about lending — as it has mercilessly about pricing and availability of digital editions: “… not all e-books will be lendable – this is solely up to the publisher or rights holder, who determines which titles are enabled for lending.”

But this is lipstick on a pig. Bezos spoke the truth a year ago, and now Amazon is content merely to match mediocrity. This may actually say a lot about the Nook’s bite of market share or the impact of Apple’s iBooks versus the Kindle, about which the company has never disclosed sales figures.

Amazon is an innovator and is on a tear in the market, but on this issue I must quote Dick Cavett, who once said of John McCain’s selection of a certain vice presidential candidate: “He aimed low, and missed.”

Follow us for disruptive tech news: John C. Abell and Epicenter on Twitter.

See Also:

• Amazon Sells More E-Books Than Hardcovers
• Macmillan’s Amazon Beatdown Proves Content Is King
• Amazon vs. Apple Be Damned: Publishers Pine for Universal E-Book Format
• Behold ‘The Amazon Effect’: Now Murdoch’s Gunning for the $10 E-Book
• Streaming Wars Heat Up: Now Amazon Reportedly Is in the Hunt
• Amazon Don’t Need Your Stinkin’ Books (Updated; Actually, We Do)
• Is Apple Actually Pushing for the $10 iPad E-Book, After All …
• Panacea or Poison Pill: Who Gets to Decide About $10 E-Books

Authors: John C Abell

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