[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Considering that you will be able to read your books on almost any device that has a web browser (even when offline), and given that more and more data is moving into "the cloud," it might do OK.

It might. Or it might work for a while, and then start falling apart as people realize the restrictions on it, especially if they advertise "read your ebooks on any device connected to the net," without mentioning, "...that supports javascript/except for certain IP ranges/not applicable to dialup," or whatever other limitations might apply.

I suspect they'll do fine at first no matter what the model is; it's going to be highly visible and lots of people will try it out. The hassles will start when people start asking, "how do I read my Google ebooks on my Sony Pocket Edition?" (And, of course, they can't, and if they'd paid attention when they purchased them, they'd know that. But they didn't pay attention; they clicked on "buy ebook now," and they want to put the ebook on their "ebook reader," and don't care about filetypes and all that "techie geekspeak.")

Actually, it was Google that came up with this distribution and payment method, not the publishers. You sure this is an instance of publishers having their head in the sand?

Google came up with the agency model? With the notion of the distributor working as interface between provider and actual end-user, and dealing with all the information-gathering in the transaction?

Also, the overwhelming majority of libraries in the US are municipal. There could be some accounting questions, but I don't think your city library has to pay federal taxes....

City libraries probably don't pay taxes. Other nonprofit org libraries might, or have to account for their expenses. And depending on who's funding them, gov't or not, they may be allowed different amounts of funding for "licenses" and "purchases."

For-profit businesses may have entirely different tax arrangements for "license" expenses vs "purchase" expenses, having to do with depreciation and/or resale ability.

It's a bit of a stretch--but there are plenty of business accountants who make fortunes finding tax loopholes that are more than a bit of a stretch. If any aspect of tax, contract, or business licensing laws treats "licenses" substantially different from "purchases," someone's going to find a way to exploit that difference.

I suspect it's more likely that Vernor v Autodesk will get brought up, and some judge will have to rule that you *can* resell ebooks, and it's not the law's problem to figure out how to remove unauthorized additional copies, any more than it's the law's problem to search your house for copies of VCR tapes when you sell one of those.