Ebooks are electronic books. Some are e-versions of hardbound books and some exist solely in an electronic format, typically pdf. Ebooks have become very popular and really proliferated as a marketing tool.

Many are free but most seem to be under $20.00 range. I saw one that was being sold for $2,000.00, which blew me away. I’ve read dozens of ebooks and most are actually very good, despite their free-to-modest cost.

I’m interested in Dave Navarro’s book, “How to Launch The *** Out Of Your Ebook.” For the most part the reviews are very good. I follow Dave’s blogs and articles. He knows his niche and is considered the guy when it comes to launching online products.

But every review is not glowing and, at $100.00, I’ve been slow to pull the trigger and buy his book. That got me to thinking: Can a person borrow an ebook? We certainly borrow hardbound books. I loan out books regularly and don’t think anything about it. So why does it feel different when it’s a pdf file?

Part of the answer is many ebooks contain some kind of legalese prohibiting redistribution. Here’s one example:

This product may not be sold, given away, or redistributed in any way. You may only use this for personal reading.

So do those types of statements legally prohibit redistribution? They probably do. This is probably another area where the online world and the offline world are different but I’m not 100% sure.

I’ve started a discussion on LinkedIn (you'll need to join The Blog Zone group to participate) to poll the writers and lawyers in the group and see if there's a consensus.

In the offline world we lend books openly. Those friendly activities are largely untraceable and that may explain the lack of concern. It’s legal to quote from other people’s books in one’s own writing but there are limits to how much repurposing a writer can do.

Creative Commons (www.creativecommons.org) does a great job of laying out an author’s rights and providing ways for redistribution, sharing and collaboration.

I’ve got 5 ebooks in development and will be launching an information site in a few weeks. Part of me wants to get paid for every download and part of me says, heck, a little redistribution is just another form of advertising, so have at it, boys.

What do you think? Should you be able to borrow an ebook?