Quote:
Originally Posted by TallMomof2
I won't be purchasing any MacMillan books simply because they won't allow the ebooks in libraries.
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I'm waiting for libraries to find a way around this. It's not like Macmillan has any legal right to say, "you may not loan our ebooks out." They can say, "you can't make extra copies to loan out," but maybe libraries can find a way to loan "the original."
As computers in libraries become more common, I expect for one or more resourceful libraries to register half a dozen machines with various ebook stores, and have ebooks on those computers, available for reading ADE books or Kindlebooks. Not that a whole lot of people want to go to libraries to read books on a screen--but it'd be a way for libraries to stock a lot more titles than they have shelf space for. A library in a small town, or school libraries, might look into this. (For that matter, libraries might look into chop/scan/convert methods before destroying books they no longer want to keep on the shelves--instead of selling it at a used book sale, convert to ebook, and destroy the physical copy; keep the ebook on a read-only-at-library computer.)
Potentially, libraries could have a set of ebook devices they check out (with a deposit, or credit card on file), loaded with dozens of ebooks. Not sure if end users could crack the DRM if they've got the device but not account access info.
ADE, Kindle & Nook ebooks aren't designed for loanability, but that doesn't mean it's not possible.