Last week, I wrote about the restrictions that HarperCollins was placing on ebook loans. The Virtual Library of the Pioneer Library System decided to see what a printed paperback copy of a HarperCollins book looked like after more than 26 checkouts.
You can read their open letter to HarperCollins on their website and you can let HarperCollins know what you think as well.
HarperCollins has revised the terms of their e-book lending terms to stipulate that, after 26 loans by a library, the license expires.
The publisher also issued a short statement: “HarperCollins is committed to the library channel. We believe this change balances the value libraries get from our titles with the need to protect our authors and ensure a presence in public libraries and the communities they serve for years to come.”
Josh Marwell, President, Sales for HarperCollins, told LJ that the 26 circulation limit was arrived at after considering a number of factors, including the average lifespan of a print book, and wear and tear on circulating copies.
While HarperCollins may think that this equates to the lifespan of a print book, it does not. There are numerous books in libraries that range from new to over a hundred years old and people are still enjoying them. HarperCollins is only committed to making as much money as they can off of libraries by limiting what can be done with an e-book.
If an e-book is no longer popular, the library and librarians are the ones who should decide to no longer catalog said book. It should not be up to HarperCollins to arbitrarily decide when the lifespan of a book is over. While it is understandable to place a limit on simultaneous checkouts, limiting the number of checkouts will only alienate library patrons.
For librarians—many of whom are already frustrated with ebooks lending policies and user interface issues—further license restrictions seem to come at a particularly bad time, given strained budgets nationwide. It may also disproportionately affect libraries that set shorter loan periods for ebook circulation.
While HarperCollins is the first major publisher to amend the terms of loan for its titles, two other members of the publishing “big six”—Macmillan and Simon & Schuster—still do not allow ebooks to be circulated in libraries, much to the consternation of librarians.
If the major publishing houses continue to treat patrons like this, they should not be surprised when they have completely alienated everyone who ever thought of checking out or purchasing an e-book. They are, essentially, pushing people towards pirating e-books. Overly strict policies do this to people.
Just what information do ebook retailers know about you? The EFF has a very handy guide to help you out, so that you can make an informed decision on the matter.
For example, Google’s new Google Book Search Project has the ability to track reading habits at an unprecedented level of granularity. In particular, according to the proposed Google Books Privacy Policy, web servers will automatically “log” each book and page you searched for and read, how long you viewed it for, and what book or page you continued onto next:
Physical e-reader devices pose similar threats to reader privacy. For example, the Kindle does not sell, but rather licenses, the books, magazines, and other materials offered for wireless download through its Kindle Store, which can only be used on a particular device. This implicitly requires Amazon to know what reading material a user has licensed at any given time.
Thankfully, there are some e-reader options that do not connect wirelessly, nor include any privacy or “terms of use” provisions that allow monitoring of what you put on the device or how you use it. Sony’s Reader, for example, may collect information about what books you buy from its own eBook Store, yet the Reader also works with books purchased from other sources as well. Even safer still, popular e-reader software programs, such as open-source FBReader, allow users to download content from a number of sources onto a multitude of devices, including one’s computer or mobile, without handing over all information about their reading habits to one source, or anyone for that matter.
The FTC is finally going to look into the reasons why DRM sucks through town hall meetings, but we already have several reasons why. They don’t even have to search hard to find the answers.
Now, Fictionwise is reporting that any books you downloaded using OverDrive are not able to be downloaded again if you lose them.
Fictionwise obtains “feeds” of eBooks from several different content aggregators, and these aggregators use their servers to deliver encrypted files to our customers. One of these aggregators, Overdrive, recently gave Fictionwise notice that they would cease serving files to Fictionwise customers as of January 31, 2009. That means that eBooks purchased from Fictionwise via Overdrive’s servers will no longer be downloadable after that date. To protect our customers’ investment in eBooks, Fictionwise immediately ceased selling all Overdrive eBooks and began negotiating with publishers to allow eBooks previously purchased from Overdrive to be substituted, where possible, with eReader format files.
This affects over 300,000 ebooks and, while Fictionwise is trying to obtain other ways to get the same books again, it’s a gigantic hassle that should never have there in the first place. If you have backuped your ebooks properly, you shouldn’t need to redownload them, however, we all know that this can, and does happen.
Fictionwise strives to maintain your purchases indefinitely, but our terms of service do not guarantee they will be available forever. Forever is a long time. We have control of our MultiFormat files and we have control of the Secure eReader format, so that gives us the ability to ensure we will continue to be able to deliver those formats to you. However, as noted above, other formats are delivered through third party aggregators. We do not have legal control of those third party servers. If those third party servers “go dark” for one reason or another, we have no way to continue delivering those files.
Herein lies the problem. Yes, forever is a long, however, if I purchased a product, it should be mine. It shouldn’t be mine just as long as some mysterious, third party has control over whether I can view or play the item I purchased.
If you want to wait 95 years until the book is in the public domain, then feel free. Your other options is to download unencumbered copies or try to fight it, starting with the upcoming FTC town hall meeting.
The FTC town hall meeting will take place March 29,2009 in Seattle, Washington at the William H. Gates Building, located at the University of Washington Law School. The town hall will be from 8am to 4pm and you can get your directions here.
You can get unencrypted ebooks at Fictionwise, Baen Books, LibriVox, and other sources as well.
