[darryl]

@pwalker8. I suspect most ebooks will be available in print versions by way of POD. Certainly it is in the interests of Publishers to see that this happens. Of course, the prices will be higher or the margin less. If a book becomes popular years later we can only guess what effect it would have. Libraries may or may not choose to take ont a new license. Publishers may or may not do another print run, depending on the state of physical book stores at the time. If an older book starts trending again online I doubt a physical store would wish to be without stock. From what I understand the current POD machines in the physical book stores that have them would not be able to cope with significant demand. I expect some books may well be re-printed with a little promotion thrown behind them.

For the large publishers it is all about monetising their backlists effectively. They can't do that very well with copies floating around under perpetual licenses. And with past best sellers libraries may have a lot of licenses for an old title. EBooks don't suffer from losses or theft or wear and tear.

I'm not clear if you are using fair use in the traditional sense here. If so, it seems to me such an exemption would not be of any help. Or are you using the term in some other sense?

ADDENDUM:
This is not good for libraries at all. When you combine this with Amazon not offering its books to libraries at all, some legislative intervention may become an issue in the future. What shape that may take is anyone's guess at the moment.