Isnt the point ...
"Uh... isn't the point people are trying to make, that if I buy a book, "e" or otherwise I should within reason be able to do what I like with it "
Nope that ISNT the point I am responding to. Thats a perfectly reasonable argument, perhaps you can make that, and I'll respond *(see below).
The one I"m responding to is the pure and simple "cant lend it to a friend" argument.
They dont say "it damages my inalianable right to wipe my arse with it", they say "I cant lend it to a friend".
IME ,when you lend a book to a friend, you never see the bloody thing again anyway, so you are better off without that particular freedom.
* as a starter, there are many things I cant do with real books, which I can with ebooks.
For example, I acquire the practical freedom to reread a book, because the reality with paper books is, I give them away because of the room they take up, so I actually cant reread them. Thats a freedom I GAIN. (I recently took 4 bags of books to a charity shop). I did that every year.
Another freedom I GAIN is the one to take 10 or 20 books on holiday with me, one that airline restrictions and practicality imposes on real books.
As I don't wish to paper my walls or wipe my arse with books, I'm not bothered about losing those particular freedoms.
The other right I DO NOT lose, which anti-ebook proponents sometimes talk as if I do, is the right to still buy actual paper books. Larger format textbooks for example, books with lots of illustrations or pictures, are IME better in paper and I continue to buy those. 'ordinary' format paperback format fiction and non-fiction,and textbooks with few illustrations, are better as eBooks. They are always cheaper compared to new books, and sometimes cheaper even than second hand ones.