ryankent:

With my new Kindle in hand, I would love to box up or donate all of my old books and use my e-reader for everything. The only problem is that to do so would require me to pay again for each title I own - and with hundreds of books in my house that certainly isn’t an option! I really wish there was a site where I could download an electronic version of my books for free (or a small fee). Scanning the barcode on the back of the book, and entering the serial number (do books have unique serial numbers?) into a database would help ensure that a single book could not be used for multiple downloads. Think of it as a ‘backup’ service for books. I would guess publishers would be worried that this would cannibalize sales due to people reselling books they have uploaded - but maybe instead of a fee the publisher asks the user to ship their books to a pre-approved library or charity service? Once received, the user would then get a code good for a free download of the book they just donated. A service like this would be amazing - it would end up saving me lots of storage space, and if done right could bring books to needy. Whether or not my Terry Pratchett collection would be appreciated or not is another story…