Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
And where is the rest of the information, such as why this is occurring? The simplistic reading is that those publishers are just evil because I want cheap books and they aren't giving them to me. I suspect that this is not the real reason.
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Why not ask the publishers as to why an ebook costs a library an average of 2.5 times the cost of the hardcover pbook. Though you will likely have to be satisfied with "that's confidential information" or a similar evasion. Of course, there is also the always popular "no comment".
I suspect this comes under the heading of maximizing profit and protecting their sales from those evil fiends who are willing to check out books from the library instead of buying their own copy (or license). One other possibility is the First Sale Doctrine where once the library has purchased a pbook no matter the source, they can do what they want with it for as long as they want whereas the ebook is not owned by the library and the license terms tend to be in the draconian range.