With a complete lack of fanfare, Amazon has thrown the switch allowing users to loan Kindle books as promised. The feature works much the same as the loaning implementation on the Nook. Users can loan a book to one user for two weeks. Loans are apparently limited to a single session, and the original user cannot access the title in that time. 

These are certainly onerous rules, but many publishers aren't even allowing loans. Early reports indicate that several big publishing houses have loans turned off. These include Avon, Hachette, Harlequin and Penguin. More titles could become available over time as publishers wise up, or authors grant the necessary rights.

Users can loan a book by logging into their Amazon account and checking their purchased books. Loaned books will be readable in any of the Kindle apps or the web client. Loans cannot be initiated from the apps as of yet, but we expect Amazon to add that ability soon. Despite the restrictions, will you take advantage of this feature?

Image via Electronista

Barnes and Noble had hoped to put all this unpleasant legal wrangling behind them, but their effort to have the case brought by Spring Design dismissed has been rejected. The judge said in his ruling that there was insufficient information to assure Barnes and Noble did not violate California law. Spring Design will be allowed to pursue their claim against the bookseller turned ebook seller for misappropriating trade secrets and breach of contract.  

Spring design, maker of the Alex e-reader, claims to have shared its e-reader design with Barnes and Noble in hopes the retailer would enter a partnership to sell ebooks. Instead, Barnes and Noble made and launched the Nook with a similar two screen design. Spring Design sued shortly thereafter. The Ales did eventually launch in April of 2010 with a $299 price tag. The high price and lack of a strong content tie in has made for a tough sell. Do you think Barnes and Noble borrowed a little too heavily from the Alex?

Amazon has posted a note to Kindle users in the Kindle community forums confirming that lending ebooks will come to the platform later this year. This has been a sorely missed feature since the device's introduction. Before you get to excited, there are some caveats here.

The loans will only be for 14 days and you can only loan a book once. It was unclear if that meant once per recipient, or once for the life of the ebook. While the book is lent out, the lender will be unable to read it. Also, not all books will be available for lending. It will be up to publishers to enable this feature; much like the Kindle text to speech ability.

All the restrictions on this makes the whole endeavor much less appealing. We don't see why you can't just transfer your license for a book to someone else and be done with it. Certainly Amazon could handle that on the back end. If we have to rely on publishers to enable lending, it's unlikely it will be widely available.