This will be a differentiator between eBook services down the road. Movies are a social experience, so sharing is not quite as important. Also, we’re trending towards a subscription-based cloud model. Microsoft tried sharing with the Zune and it was the one thing people loved, so I am hoping we’ll see something here. For books, it’s going to be an issue. People tend to read them once and pass them on, so I’m curious to see how this progresses.
[Later] this year, we will be introducing lending for Kindle, a new feature that lets you loan your Kindle books to other Kindle device or Kindle app users. Each book can be lent once for a loan period of 14-days and the lender cannot read the book during the loan period. Additionally, 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.
I can only lend it once for 14 days? Lame, but I guess it’s a start.