The operative qualification here is the "sufficiently small" fee. Do you know what Sony was charging? Theoretically anyone can open a "for fee" lending library, and they can charge any fee they wish. Years ago there were software libraries on the web that charged a rental fee for which you could download a copy. This was clearly a way to cheat the publisher. But now we have the model of
public libraries allowing eBook downloads. Our taxes pay the fee, which is certainly "sufficiently small" enough that we will use the service. There is a precedent here to rent eBooks for a very small fee. All of this would operate outside of the current distribution channels.