HarperCollins Wants Library EBooks to Self-Destruct After 26 Loans

[sparkchaser]

Another one from Slashdot: HarperCollins Wants Library EBooks to Self-Destruct After 26 Loans

An anonymous reader writes:
"HarperCollins has decided to change their agreement with e-book distributor OverDrive [and other distributors, too]. They forced OverDrive, which is a main e-book distributor for libraries, to agree to terms so that HarperCollins e-books will only be licensed for checkout 26 times. Librarians have blown up over this, calling for a boycott of HarperCollins, breaking the DRM on e-books -- basically doing anything to let HarperCollins and other publishers know they consider this abuse."

Cory Doctorow, who wrote TFA, says:
"For the record, all of my HarperCollins ebooks are also available as DRM-free Creative Commons downloads. And as bad as HarperCollins' terms are, they're still better than Macmillan's, my US/Canadian publisher, who don't allow any library circulation of their ebook titles."

 

[Ell]

I thought the same as one of the commenters from the Slashdot article:

I'd sort of assumed that they were licensed the way that other media is licensed. But either way, the library buys a certain number of copies, and I don't see any reason why ebooks should be treated differently than regular books. Well, perhaps the fact that they don't wear out might warrant a little something to help the publisher, but this is just asinine.

Isn't that how it should work? The library purchases ebooks the same way they buy physical books and can only lend out the number of copies they actually own. Making more copies would be an infringement of copyright laws. The library I use states the number of e-copies copies its owns, how many are available and how many are on the waiting list -- just like physical books. Maybe they could build in a renewal license after a certain length of time - still thinking of how physical books work - akin to the library replacing or not replacing books as they see fit. It would be better than just making the books go poof! I'm just sayin' . . .