Librarians calling for boycott on HC’s ebook policy
eBooks are such a touchy subject when it comes to lending and these odd restrictions only make it worse.
Publishers insist on treating ebooks like real books, which they aren’t. There is no real reason why a library can’t lend every single one of its ebooks to every one of its patrons.
It won’t take long for consumers to abandon these outdated, artificially scarce sources for more free ones.
I’m not saying I support this decision. But I wonder.
What happens if we really do migrate primarily to ereaders as a reading public? It isn’t too much of a stretch to assume that eventually, most avid readers will have a tablet or an ereader and do most of their reading there.
Libraries could very easily have an application for borrowing books on your ereader. Tap here, borrow the book. And you have access to the entire library’s contents, for free, with no restrictions. A wonderful thing. Awesome.
And some worry that this would soon cause there to be no new content, as the publishers, authors, and booksellers would go out of business.
I’ll admit, I love libraries. I love what they do, and I think book lovers end up supporting authors because they read a lot—and libraries facilitate that. Access to books creates more demand for books. But can you honestly blame the publishers for being panicked about the above situation?
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