Quote:
Originally Posted by astra
I cannot express the depth of my disappointment.
I thought elibraries would be the ultimate solution for book reading.
No need to go to the library personally. No queues for 1 printed copy.
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The only things the ebook libraries have fixed is the need to physically visit the library, and worries about damage to or losing the book. It's still 1 loan at a time per book purchased by the library.
I can tolerate this; I like it more than publishers charging $500 per book for a "library edition" to allow it to be loaned to any number of people at once.
Until the HarperCollins fiasco, library ebooks had another advantage over pbooks: they didn't wear out, so the library knew that they'd have today's bestsellers around in 20 years. (We'll pretend that, contrary to all current evidence, any form of DRM will last 20 years. I suspect that if the DRM servers go down, the library would have the right to crack the DRM to make an archival copy.)