An FYI to Library Paid Borrowers

[Fbone]

For those who have a paid membership or are considering one, please make sure you will still have access to Overdrive. My small county library has the following notice posted on their website. It's possible the restriction will spread to the larger more active libraries.

Due to licensing agreement Paid Borrowers will no longer be able to use OverDrive downloadable eBooks and Audiobooks past September 1, 2014.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Fbone

For those who have a paid membership or are considering one, please make sure you will still have access to Overdrive. My small county library has the following notice posted on their website. It's possible the restriction will spread to the larger more active libraries.

Thanks - I haven't seen that at the Seattle Public Library yet.

[HarryT]

I'm surprised the loophole has remained open this long, to be honest.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm surprised the loophole has remained open this long, to be honest.

...and continues to remain open. If OverDrive shuts this down for all libraries, the Brooklyn and Philadelphia libraries will lose a lot of paid customers.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

...and continues to remain open. If OverDrive shuts this down for all libraries, the Brooklyn and Philadelphia libraries will lose a lot of paid customers.

Yep. But it's a hole you could drive a truck through in the whole idea of geographical restrictions on ebook distribution.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

What exactly is the loophole?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

What exactly is the loophole?

The fact that anyone, anywhere in the world, can join a library like the NY public library, and check out ebooks that are supposed to be available only to people in the US. The same applies to libraries in other countries, too, of course, for books that are supposed to only be available in those countries.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The fact that anyone, anywhere in the world, can join a library like the NY public library, and check out ebooks that are supposed to be available only to people in the US. The same applies to libraries in other countries, too, of course, for books that are supposed to only be available in those countries.

Also prohibited are patrons who live in the same country, but outside of the library's district.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The fact that anyone, anywhere in the world, can join a library like the NY public library, and check out ebooks that are supposed to be available only to people in the US. The same applies to libraries in other countries, too, of course, for books that are supposed to only be available in those countries.

The NYPL stopped selling cards years ago and since around that time the libraries who continue to do so have had limitations on what books are available to them. They've chosen, so far, to go with those limitations in favor of paid cards. It's possible this is ending for all libraries. It's also possible that Fbone's specific library has decided it no longer wants to have those limitations.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm surprised the loophole has remained open this long, to be honest.

I know that hard cases make bad law, but what about the Overdrive collections of the US armed services branches, and the Department of Defense One Click Digital collection? Should our soldiers deployed to Germany, or Britain, or less pleasant places, be stopped from downloading books, whether military history or for reading relaxation?

By the way, British soldiers on American Army bases are allowed to use our collections. Look at all the loopholes that creates as well-read tommies* travel!

And it's more than soldiers. The US Army collection is openly available to family members as various as "parent in law" (that would be my wife and I**) or "former spouse family member." (See "Relationship" pull-down menu here.). That makes for another big loophole, since the millions of people in one or another of those relationship categories live in many countries.

Also, when we go to Canada, are we supposed to not download a book from our local public library Overdrive collection? If it wasn't for this kind of thread, I wouldn't have a clue that is against a rule (if it really is).

Suppose that someone from Britain, vacationing in the US, downloads a James Bond book from their home public library Overdrive collection, despite being in a country where the local rights holder, Amazon Publishing, does not cooperate with public libraries. Amazon should have known that could happen when they bought those rights, so I don't see any unfairness.

Right in front of me, I happen to have my daughters's Barnet London Borough Library Membership card. Lucky she doesn't know the PIN, so I'm not tempted to open another loophole

I know it's easy to make a bit of fun of the situation. And it's hard to envision a cheap practical way to unify worldwide rights without creating new downsides.
____________________
* I fear this word is ridiculously dated. Is there a new one?

** But don't be jealous. The Army collection isn't large. The US Navy looks better

[yuhuanjoan]

I also haven't seen that yet.

[darryl]

Geo-blocking is, imho, an abomination. Whilst technology has created one world market, geo-blocking seeks, in a sense, to turn back the clock. The main beneficiaries are, of course, rights-holders who can leverage the maximum profits from their rights, and businesses who buy the rights to rape and pillage in their particular area without competition. The ones who suffer are of course consumers and of course businesses who would like to compete, and authors and other creators.

I have no problems with companies making profits. However, when technology makes business models obsolete, I don't believe we have any obligation to preserve those business models, particulary with ever more draconian legislation procured by armies of lobbyists. Big publishing, in particular, has extracted more than it's pound of flesh from Australians in the pre-Amazon pre-ebook days. Believe it or not, agency pricing seems to continue to flourish in Australia!

[Sydney's Mom]

Chicago Public Library cut off reciprocal ebook borrowing several years ago. They said it took too much of the librarians' time to deal with all the issues. And even if I paid as a nonresident, I couldn't get access to ebooks. I got the impression that the librarians were fighting for their lives, and they needed to please their patrons, not people who pay a pittance to gain access. For example, I can join the CPL as a nonresident for $100-I currently pay almost $500 through my property taxes to gain access to my local library.

[tubemonkey]

Seattle (SPL) and King County (KCLS) have a reciprocal borrowing agreement that won't allow SPL patrons to place holds at King County libraries. KCLS patrons aren't restricted and can still place holds at Seattle libraries. Agreements between Seattle and other libraries don't have this restriction.

Why can't Seattle residents place holds on KCLS materials?

In 2006 the imbalance of cross-usage between the two libraries had reached approximately $1 million. At that time the parties agreed to implement the holds restriction for Seattle patrons at KCLS, which effectively offset this imbalance.

Patrons who live within the Seattle city limits still may not place holds, a limit in place since October 1, 2006. This limit was imposed to relieve KCLS taxpayers of the cost of serving Seattle residents, as discovered in a cross-use study between KCLS and SPL. When cross-use was re-examined in 2008, this limitation had corrected this imbalance resulting in fairly even cross-use for taxpayers of both Library Systems.

Under the current arrangement, Seattle patrons are not eligible to make use of KCLS eBooks and downloadable Audiobooks from services that include a holds component–for example, Overdrive.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Chicago Public Library cut off reciprocal ebook borrowing several years ago. They said it took too much of the librarians' time to deal with all the issues. And even if I paid as a nonresident, I couldn't get access to ebooks. I got the impression that the librarians were fighting for their lives, and they needed to please their patrons, not people who pay a pittance to gain access. For example, I can join the CPL as a nonresident for $100-I currently pay almost $500 through my property taxes to gain access to my local library.

I don't really care too much about the georestrictions issue - but I would be annoyed if I couldn't get e-books because they were going to non-resident cardholders rather than to the people whose property taxes are going to support the library (and I only pay $200).