Quote:
Originally Posted by doctorow
How is a library any different from, let's say, a car rental company? Why should libraries pay a multiple for the same e-book compared to what normal people pay, while car rentals get premium discounts when purchasing cars for their fleet? How are the two any different from each other? Why should e-books with little resale value have an artificial expiration date attached to them? Should rental cars automatically expire once they reach 10,000 miles?
(Before anyone asks, I am not not related to Cory Doctorow.)
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Precisely because digital media
don't degrade. The publisher has decided that because an ebook is "eternal", and hence a library would otherwise only ever buy one copy of the book, compared to a paper book, which degrades with each loan, that they will either charge a premium price, or else limit the number of loans. I'm not saying that I think this is right, but from a commercial viewpoint it is entirely understandable.
To use your analogy, the car rental company is paying a premium for cars which are eternally brand new.