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Not to muddy the water, but this contrast between "unlimited" life p-books and limited-loan ebooks is a little weak, since libraries have been leasing pbooks for a very long time. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to cover short-term demand for bestsellers, etc. When the leased books get returned, they effectively "expire" -- the lease period is limited contractually and anyway the books have to be sent back.
I'm not defending the HarperCollins policy, which just looks like a way to monetize something you couldn't before. That's capitalism, isn't it? But it's not as if libraries have no experience at all with similar arrangements.
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