Quote:
Originally Posted by danwdoo
With eBooks, when it is just as convienient to borrow the book from a library's web page as an online bookstore, a lot of people would not be buying any books at all.
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Over here in the UK (and the new Harper Collins rules will apparently apply to us as well) the Publishers' Association tried to establish as a base-line position last year that "remote lending" would not be allowed when eBooks are in libraries.
They didn't just mean "out of area," either. Their suggestion is that those who want to borrow an eBook from a library would have to actually go to the library and load it on to their reading device there. Some publishers may permit it, of course, but the PA seems to think it's a bad thing.
Mind you, when I asked their CEO if the publishing industry was in danger of repeating the mistakes of the music industry with digital media, he told me he didn't think the music industry had made mistakes.
More on my blog:
http://gonedigital.net/2010/11/23/libraries-and-ebooks/
Nigel.