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Originally Posted by mdmorrissey
Yesterday it occurred to me that Amazon might go into the ebook lending business. If libraries can do it, why not Amazon?
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Because Amazon's managers know how to run a business.
There actually is a company that rents ebooks (and paper books), but I suspect the economics are awful. Rentals work for movies, because it takes a few hours to watch one and you may not want to own it thereafter. Books take days, weeks, occasionally months to read; people like to own them; and if you do a monthly service fee like Netflix, the people who will benefit the most (the heavy readers) will cost you the most to support.
I fully support libraries, but on a fundamental level they operate very differently from retailers.
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Originally Posted by mdmorrissey
This could be the answer to what seems to me the impossible situation we have now of ebooks selling for absurdly high prices, especially compared to prices for used paper books.
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Used is a terrible anchor price for ebooks. It's like figuring out the value of a 2011 BMW based on the book value of a 1986 Chevy.
The only problem this solves is "how will skinflints get their hands on new books?"
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Originally Posted by mdmorrissey
What in fact would stop anyone from doing their own lending business, just as they do their own selling business, either through Amazon or otherwise?
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You need licensing agreements with the publishers; start-up captial; a highly proficient team to execute the plan; and a management company that knows what it's doing. If you're going to lend, you'll also need a top-notch DRM implementation. Otherwise there is no way to enforce time periods.