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A subscription model like Netflix might work better for Amazon. Steady stream of income, driven by a single purchase decision rather than one for each book, etc.
They could have '1 at a time' '2 at a time' plans. When you are done with a rental book and remove it from the device, the next one in your queue arrives. Publisher is paid on pro rated basis (how long their book was on the device). Obviously publishers would have to opt in (assuming they have the rights in the first place and don't need to go back to the author to negotiate them), and it would only be successful if enough of them did.
One of things I don't understand about Overdrive and similar systems is why they go out of their way to pretend that digital assets are physical assets, and therefore limited. So libraries have to 'make a selection' of the available media. And they can offer only a limited number of each to borrowers: "sorry, that item is out on loan, you'll have to wait until it comes back". It is digital, it doesn't cost anything to make copies, you just need to track the period of time it is on loan and bill accordingly. The limited resource is the library budget, not the number of copies that can exist. But it seems this must be a requirement of the libraries, rather than of the technology.
Be that as it may, in any Amazon/Overdrive agreement, Amazon just needs to license their DRM (and update Kindle to understand and enforce term-limited licensing), which would provide Amazon with a revenue stream (less money? not necessarily). Amazon would not provide the content: Overdrive negotiates their own agreements with publishers, and is fully capable of rendering Kindle format (they already do MobiPocket format which is essentially the same, and which Amazon owns). The content could arrive on Kindle via whispernet if the patron/customer authorized an email address for doing so (and they'd pay ensuing delivery charges) or they could download the ebook from the library site and copy over to the Kindle. Overdrive already provides mobipocket format, so there's not much technically that has to be invented to support all this. The fact that such an agreement is not in place reflects Amazon's priorities more than anything - they can only move forward on so many fronts, as they are actually trying to make money while they are at it.
I would not be surprised to see this show up in the next year or so. It's one of the few feature 'checkboxes' that is not filled in for Kindle, and public libraries should support the best-selling reading device. After all, Kindle owners pay taxes, too.
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