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Totally agree with the first part. > Controlled digital lending had a chance of getting off the ground. The IA's Emergency Library's unlimited digital lending

Totally agree with the first part. > Controlled digital lending had a chance of getting off the ground. The IA's Emergency Library's unlimited digital lending burned it to the ground and stomped on the ashes. One of the problems libraries face is that many publishers will not sell them "real" licenses, but only "quota licenses" that allow a total of n borrows and m concurrent borrows. Once the total number of borrows is exceeded, the license expires. n can be very low. This was not always the case. 10 years ago, most licenses were unrestricted licenses that allowed an unlimited number of total borrows, but only limited the number of m concurrent borrows at a time - just like it would be if the library bought m real books. The argument is that real books wear out - digital books don't. However, my local librarian vehemently disagrees with this statement, as many books survive more than 100 borrows, something the new e-book licenses will never manage. Additionally, those "quota" licenses are still way more expensive than an equal amount of m real, physical books. It's insanity. My local library could, by their own account, not survive if the number of digital lends permanently increased significantly (like it did in 2020). So if controlled digital lending had a chance for the mainstream, the publishers killed it many years ago, when many of them decided to just not sell libraries unrestricted licenses anymore, but only "quota" licenses. :/ (Disclaimer: Not the US, Europe)

CobrastanJorji 4y ago
This was not always the case because libraries weren't seen as a threat. Renting a digital book from a library was significantly harder than buying one from Amazon. The "Libby" app was a major motivator, at least in the US, because it made checking out digital books about as easy as just using the Kindle store. Usage went way up, and publishers panicked. Publishers aren't necessarily the villains here, except in the regular way all middle men are the villains. Authors want to make money, and they make money by selling books. If a library can digitally loan the book an unlimited number of times in parallel, it's a bad deal for the author. The "this book automatically explodes after 2 years or 10 rentals" system is a stupid compromise, but any solution is gonna be some sort of system to send money from libraries to companies based on how many people read the book.
- EleanorKonik 4y ago
  Honestly, in these days of the google play store taking its cut from Amazon, using Libby is actually easier than using the kindle app to buy books. Every time I hit that "you can't buy books from inapp" button I remember that I can use Libby instead and go there instead of the browser to buy my book, tbh.
- LordDragonfang 4y ago
  >Publishers aren't necessarily the villains here, except in the regular way all middle men are the villains. Except that in this case, their role as the middle man is effectively pointless, since their normal role (printing physical books) is literally not happening here, and they are contributing nothing to the author except litigation.
  - CobrastanJorji 4y ago
    Publishers manage a whole lot of tasks, notably the editing (up to and often including picking the book's title) and the design. Most important, though, is managing the marketing and sales. They get books into stores, they get interviews for the author, they get the book reviewed on websites, etc. For e-books, they're primarily a marketing firm. Whether that's worth the author giving half of their revenue to the publisher is another issue.
shagie 4y ago
Some of the information on how libraries in the US deal with digital books: NPR : Planet Money : The Indicator - The surprising economics of digital lending - https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1118289764 https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1118289764 That's from August of 2022 and the lawsuit against the internet archive was just starting to gain steam. And more recently (November 2022): NPR : Planet Money - The E-Book Wars https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1135639385 https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1135639385

CobrastanJorji 4y ago

This was not always the case because libraries weren't seen as a threat. Renting a digital book from a library was significantly harder than buying one from Amazon. The "Libby" app was a major motivator, at least in the US, because it made checking out digital books about as easy as just using the Kindle store. Usage went way up, and publishers panicked. Publishers aren't necessarily the villains here, except in the regular way all middle men are the villains. Authors want to make money, and they make money by selling books. If a library can digitally loan the book an unlimited number of times in parallel, it's a bad deal for the author. The "this book automatically explodes after 2 years or 10 rentals" system is a stupid compromise, but any solution is gonna be some sort of system to send money from libraries to companies based on how many people read the book.

EleanorKonik 4y ago
Honestly, in these days of the google play store taking its cut from Amazon, using Libby is actually easier than using the kindle app to buy books. Every time I hit that "you can't buy books from inapp" button I remember that I can use Libby instead and go there instead of the browser to buy my book, tbh.
LordDragonfang 4y ago
>Publishers aren't necessarily the villains here, except in the regular way all middle men are the villains. Except that in this case, their role as the middle man is effectively pointless, since their normal role (printing physical books) is literally not happening here, and they are contributing nothing to the author except litigation.
- CobrastanJorji 4y ago
  Publishers manage a whole lot of tasks, notably the editing (up to and often including picking the book's title) and the design. Most important, though, is managing the marketing and sales. They get books into stores, they get interviews for the author, they get the book reviewed on websites, etc. For e-books, they're primarily a marketing firm. Whether that's worth the author giving half of their revenue to the publisher is another issue.

shagie 4y ago

Some of the information on how libraries in the US deal with digital books: NPR : Planet Money : The Indicator - The surprising economics of digital lending - https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1118289764 https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1118289764 That's from August of 2022 and the lawsuit against the internet archive was just starting to gain steam. And more recently (November 2022): NPR : Planet Money - The E-Book Wars https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1135639385 https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1135639385