Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Lister
I suppose the bolded is an accurate assessment. It is hard for me to wrap my head around the disconnect between lending paper and lending bits.
The disconnect being, it is generally not in the interest of the book seller to give away his products, be they paper or bits.
When and why is the interest different? The inescapable conclusion is that the book seller would rarely find a public library in their profit column regardless of the book format. If they had their dithers, they'd be compensated for every read of every book, at the market price.
I know there are exceptions to the above (new authors, etc).
So, fill in the blank: Rob Lister, you are wrong because __________
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The interest isn't different.
They probably would rather prevent their paper books being sold to libraries.
But they can't. Libraries can but a book just like anyone else can. And once they own that physical copy, they can do what they like with that single copy, including renting it out.
The difference isn't that publishers want to prevent libraries lending ebooks, it is that they
can prevent them lending ebooks, while they
can't prevent them lending pbooks.