Comment on Amazon is changing what is written in books

• FinishingDutch@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Yes, a lot of them do. But their digital selection often is pretty limited and comes with restrictions.

  For example: our Dutch national online library lets you ‘borrow’ 10 e-books at a time. You get 21 days to read a book, but you can extend that one time by another three weeks. After that, you have to ‘return’ and ‘check them out again’ if you want to continue reading. With my particular reading habits, that’s a hassle and wouldn’t work for me.

  But the biggest issue is: they only offer a limited selection. Basically, NONE of the books I’m reading now are available through that system.

  I want to be able to read every book I want, no time restriction. And that’s not possible with the current digital library system they offer.

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  • balder1991@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Like… if the book is digital, why do you have to borrow and return? This makes no sense. They want to replicate a bad experience that doesn’t need to exist, what’s the point of that?

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    • Hazor@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Pleasing the copyright holders. I don’t know how it is for the Dutch national library, but with a system used by many libraries in the US there’s a cost to the library based on the number of times it’s checked out, so more revenue for the copyright holder and the digital middle man. Allowing you to have the e-book indefinitely would be, at least in their minds, no different than giving it away. 🤷

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      • balder1991@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        This could be solved in other ways. For example, the software can simply track what % of the books are actually read without this extra step of borrowing and returning. Just like when you listen to music on Streaming services that label gets more.

        Imagine if you had to select the specific album in music streaming service and choose to borrow it for x days, having to “return” it and borrow again if you wanted to keep listening, and being limited to 4 albums at a time.

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