It's a real shame, with today's technology, that Amazon haven't been forward thinking enough to understand the value of being able to buy books for friends. One would think that with so many years of trading on the Internet, the trend of buying books as gifts produces a huge market. When the Kindle was introduced, it would seem a natural conclusion after all these years of experience, that Amazon would have added the ability for people to buy Kindle books for their friends based on the popularity of buying books as gifts. Of course, one can buy traditional books though many avid readers are now turning to other means of reading with the Amazon Kindle and other reading devices. This means that instead of buying books of a traditional paper variety, book lovers would benefit from being able to buy Kindle books for friends to carry on the tradition of sharing great literature.
The problem with Kindle is that although gift vouchers are available for friends to use, it isn't quite the same as receiving a gift. The difference is that the Kindle user must choose their own gift. No more surprise presents for book lovers if they use a Kindle, since purchases cannot be made for users whose Kindle is not registered to the purchaser. Although one can see the benefits of this protection of copyright, it's a little shortsighted that friends cannot simply exchange registration details and simply buy for a specific registered Kindle other than their own.
If they attempt to do so, what happens is that the credit card used must match the Kindle to which the book is downloaded and it would certainly create reason to lose friends, were you to ask to borrow their credit card to make a purchase for them!
Other devices have the same problem and what seems to need to be addressed is the introduction of the ability to buy a Kindle book to be downloaded onto a specific machine, without the payment method coming into question. A verification page, which gives the name of the user to get over the possibility or erroneous entry of numbers would satisfy the buying public and Amazon alike, since they would then have a clear record of which Kindle has which literature.
Unfortunately, this slipped through the design stages of the software, and now Kindle users have little option when it comes to sharing their favorite books. Traditionally, swap meets for books have always been part and parcel of book reading mentality. It's a natural thing for friends to pass books they have read to people they know will enjoy them. With the cost of the Kindle reader, this takes away the possibility of sharing, since the price of the Kindle reader is such that if a friend damaged it, even by fluke or accident, the cost of replacement is excessive.
Digital restrictions.
Every Kindle user must agree to Amazon's terms and conditions. If you read these carefully, what they tell you is that you have the use of the material you purchase, but that you are not permitted to share it. This restricts the user and takes any swapping of reading material out of the equation. Even when buying a Kindle, a user is required to re-register the Kindle so that material supplied to that Kindle is directed at a specific user.
Users are further advised that upon giving a Kindle, all material on that Kindle should be removed so that a user of the Kindle cannot use your account details to purchase more material.
It's kind of a vicious circle in that readers are encouraged to read, though not to transfer the information they receive to other Kindle readers. One may question how you deal with having two Kindles, and see some kind of logic to buying a Kindle and adding material from an existing Kindle to use as a gift. Catch 22. The moment you do that, the new Kindle is registered as your current Kindle and your account information attaches to that Kindle.
One can only hope that makers of readers will come up with a viable solution before individual users find ways to get around the issues presented by the restrictive nature of the rules. For the time being, the only alternative available in gift format is paper and ink books from the bookshelf, and trusting that if friends enjoy the book, they may just buy it and keep it on their Kindle. The risk that Amazon take though is that those experiencing the turning of real pages may just catch on as a more viable one than reading on a reader, especially for the targeted audience of lovers of literature.