It looks like it depends on the book. The publishers get to set that restriction. If I recall, the same obnoxious restriction was enabled on Nook lending as well.

Hopefully this will lighten as time goes by and the publishers stop being so short sighted. I think they're worried about the loopholes involved such as the turning off wireless with another poster already confirmed works.

Can you point out somewhere that it says the number of lends is set by the publisher? I only saw that the publisher's were in charge of whether it was lendable or not, and not the individual terms of the lend.

For some reason, my brain finds the former to be worse than being unable to lend the book at all.

If I can't lend it, it's more like seeing a movie or going to a concert. I paid for the experience and now it's gone. Being only able to lend it once is really less of a lend and more of a "comes with one free trial for a friend." I think it might be the abuse of the word 'lend' that bothers me more than anything.