Let's talk Kindle for a few paragraphs:

For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, this is the new book reader that Amazon is selling for $400 (sold out) at the Amazon site. It allows customers to wirelessly purchase eBooks from Amazon and then read them on a paper-like screen.

Now, on the acceptable reader. It should not be an 'Amazon' reader but it should have the ability to purchase books from any vendor, the same way my laptop has the ability to purchase stuff from Amazon or from any other vendor with an online presence. The vendor should lose all physical control over the product, once the book is purchased and delivered. It is bad enough that Amazon would have and keep forever a record that I purchased, let's say, Mein Kampf or The Communist Manifesto or God forbid, some book that disparages our beloved president Lincoln - and Amazon WILL surrender such records to the FBI or the CIA the same way the phone companies were happy to let the government record every single communication passing over their communication hubs. It would be terrible to give Amazon (and, therefore, to our beloved government) control and the ability to maybe erase an inconvenient title at government's request, via the online connection or to decide whether I can let anyone else read the stuff that I purchased with MY money.

Related to the above, the architecture of the Reader needs to be as open and as well understood as that of one of today's computers and operating systems. If my device communicates with a vendor, then everyone must understand EXACTLY WHAT the vendor can see or change on my device. Can Amazon know what I've read on the Kindle? Can it see what annotations I made? Can it know how much time I spent on any particular page? Can it keep a record of the paragraphs I copied? Can it discretely update the content of any of the eBooks to eliminate 'extremist' or 'hateful' views when some anti-hate law is passed by the congress? No one knows today.

And, finally, yes, the buyer must have FULL CONTROL over what the buyer purchases. Of course, it is illegal to make copies of a copyrighted eBook but it is also illegal TODAY to give away Xerox copies of a paper book and yet I can buy my paper book and do with it as I please, including burning the book so that no one will ever know that I had it and read it. There are laws that punish book piracy and the paying customers should be trusted to behave properly and be punished when they don't.

Amazon's and Sony's efforts should be lauded but we should be very worried if this model becomes the way people shop, read and store books in the future.