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Given that Overdrive enforces loaning one e-copy to one e-lendee at a time from libraries, I fail to see why the publishers are charging such high "licensing" fees except as a price gouge.
While yes, there is some potential sales loss from replacement copies, it's most likely vanishingly small. There's a youtube video out there of some librarians shooting to pieces the twenty-six limit by showing physical books that have gone out over twice that often (published by the appropriate publisher.)
There's gotta be a balance. But while there are rules in place that disallow companies from charging different groups different prices for the same physical things, no such rules exist for digital goods. I'm not a huge fan of gov't intervention (despite being Canadian) but this is one area where it might be necessary.
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