Comment on YSK: You don't own your Kindle e-books.

• Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Borrow the hardback

  The digital titles often come with a price tag that’s far higher than what consumers pay. While one hardcover copy of Cook’s latest novel costs the library $18, it costs $55 to lease a digital copy – a price that can’t be haggled with publishers.

  And for that, the e-book expires after a limited time, usually after one or two years, or after 26 check outs, whichever comes first. While e-books purchased by consumers can last into perpetuity, libraries need to renew their leased e-material.

  staradvertiser.com/…/libraries-battle-publishers-…

  source

  • scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    This might actually make sense. Borrowers can’t lose or destroy a digital copy, or bring it back late. Probably a digital copy enables more checkouts. Max of 26? Well think about he condition if the last library book you checked out that had 26 stamps on the list. Hard copies don’t last forever. Sad that they had to charge more based on these assumptions, but you can imagine some reasoning to them.

    source

    • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      I think we need to know the average number of lendings for hardback vs ebook over a 2 year period. In theory, the library should be indifferent to the format being lent out and the costs should reflect that.

      source

      • scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Sadly it’s probably the case that publishers’ ebook pricing to libraries is based on paranoia about them destroying all book sales, plus the usual corporate greed.

        source