Want to share your latest favorite digital Kindle book with a friend? You can as of today, using Kindle software from Amazon.com. You don't need to have Amazon's e-reader to use the program, just the free Kindle reading app that's also available for computers and smart phones, including the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.
The Kindle lending program is something customers have wanted, and is a service that's already available to users of Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader. Amazon shares details about the program on its site. And it pays to study the rules for lending, because while it's all free, it's not all simple, and requires some mental bookkeeping on your part.
Here's a look at some of the rules:
• You can loan a Kindle book once for a 14-day period. Not all books are "lendable," says Amazon. It's up to the publisher or rights holder to decide which books are. Oh, and during that 14-day period, the person lending the book can't read it while it's in another's virtual hands.
• The person you loan a book to is notified about the loan through an e-mail address you will provide. The borrower has 7 days to accept the loan. If it's not accepted, the book becomes available again for lending through your "Archived Items."
• If by chance, your intended borrower already owns the book you're trying to loan them — "or the title is not available in the borrower's country due to copyright restrictions" — the borrower will not be able to accept the loan, Amazon says.
• Three days before the end of the 14-day loan period Amazon "will send borrowers a courtesy reminder e-mail about the loan expiration. Once the loan period has ended, an e-mail notification will be sent to both the book lender and borrower." So, when they say 14 days, they mean 14 days.
• Right now, Amazon says, only those in the United States can initiate lending; it's not available to those internationally yet. And, "If a loan is initiated to a customer outside the United States, the borrower may not be able to accept the loan if the title is not available in their country due to publisher geographical rights," the company says.
In those cases, it may be faster — and simpler — just to send the book via snail mail than by digital bits.
