Can I lend an iBook?

Question

OK, i've bought and read my book.  Now, I want to share it with my son, either by loaning it to him or gigging it to him.  But, I find the good folks at Apple are a little short sighted on the subject.  This is apparently a no-no.  In my opinion, that pretty much tips the scale against electronic publishing.  After all, if I bought the physical book, I'd be able to give it to him ... There is still only one copy after all.  There will have to be equality on this topic, or I won't purchase electronic forms of a book ... Or the price of a book will have to be much lower than it is today!  I pay as much for an electronic book as I did for a paperback book.  If there is a future in electronic publishing, there has to be more than physical convenience.  For example, there should be two types of purchase...one completely analogue to buying a hard cover or paperback, you own it and can keep it, trash it, resell it, give it away, or loan it out.  No two copies of that single purchase exist at any time, so the behavior is exactly like it is with thy physical book.  Another might be a one-time purchase, at a much lower price, say 25% of retail for two weeks use.  I also see electronic lending libraries wherein they have one or more copies of a book that can be borrowed or rented for a period of time, during which they are NOT available to be lent to another subscriber. 
Why is this not already in place.  Two reasons really, neither of them having anything to do with technology.  First, paranoia ... On the part of authors and publishers.  That and GREED, pure and simple.  They want more money for less value, a totally unacceptable concept in a proper free market.  They see an opportunity to do something for more money with electronic publishing than can be done today with physical books, control our behavior, and squeeze more revenue out of every book.  I guess multimillions isn't enough these days, when there is an opportunity to eel out many times more than that with this new technology.  You want proof?  I'll give you proof.  Check out the Barnes &Noble reader.  They have enabled a one-time lending of a book for 14 days, using "DRM" ... The only catch is this capability can be authorized, title-by-title by the author, and if you check, most authors have chosen NOT to enable lending of their books even once.  Greedy bastards that they are.
Recently, there has been a lot of hoopla about iCloud.  From what I can tell, this affords us the perfect opportunity for Apple to show it's true colors; do they really care about the long term relationship with their customers?  If,so, go back to publishers and use Apple's incredible clout to do the right thing.  It's still a goldmine for Apple and for publishers, and does not further constrict users and book owners rights.
What say you, Apple??????

Answer 1

I agree with you ... to a point.  But Apple is part of the equation as are consumers.  If we simply buy them as offered, and Apple simply sells them according to the dictates of the publishers without negotiation, then the bottom line will be that electronic publishing will be a boom for authors and publishers and a huge constraint on the rights of consumers and a quite different scenario than exists today with printed materials. 
Suppose you owned a printed book and went to loan it to a friend or relative, but the publisher swooped in to prevent you from doing so because you have no rights to gift or lend that book.  You only options are to keep it or destroy it.  Or, in a more extreme example, what if publishers prevented libraries from lending books? 
My question, consumers:  Are we willing to give up our rights of ownership for books we purchase for the convenience of reading them on our iPad or Kindle?  Really?