Quote:
Originally Posted by abookreader
I find it really interesting that Overdrive has had that clause in their contracts about the portability of content for all this time, but apparently no guideline or procedure for exercising it. And now that they actually have a viable competitor in 3M, they're trying to remove it.
It will be really interesting to see if the major Publishers who allow digital lending will be on board with this. I know I've heard concern from our librarians here about increasing investment in digital content (Overdrive) with no protection against unreasonable fee increasing and weak protection in regards to permanency of access.
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I can't imagine that any library would sign a contract with a content administrator that did not include a content portability clause. Anything else would lock the library into a permanent contract, on pain of losing all the content that the library, presumably, has paid for.
As for publishers, I suppose I can imagine that a publisher might say that access to its ebooks must come through some specific content administrator, but at that point, I can't imagine a library buying that content.
One of the interesting things about our move from the analog world to the digital world is that one-time lump sum payments are being changed into payment streams.
In the short run, payment streams appear to me to be cheaper. But in the long run - which is what books are all about - payment streams are very costly so long as the recipient of the payment stream can lock the consumer into its ecosystem. That's what the phone companies have managed to do to us.
Now comes Overdrive, with the same objective. If libraries don't fight this tooth & nail, they will not be able to afford to lend ebooks.