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The American Library Association issued a strong statement yesterday condemning HarperCollins' recent announcement that it would only allow libraries to circulate. Thursday Threads: HarperCollins Ebook Terms, Internet Archive Ebook Sharing, Future of Collections Posted on March 2, 2011 by Peter Murray This entry was posted in Thursday Threads and tagged David Lewis, disruptive innovation, ebooks, HarperCollins-OverDrive controversy, Internet Archive, licensing, Open Library by Peter Murray. ALA attacks new HarperCollins ebook lending policy by Melville House The American Library Association issued a strong statement yesterday condemning HarperCollins‘ recent announcement that it would only allow libraries to circulate copies of the company’s ebooks 26 times. What is HarperCollins' ebook security policy? HarperCollins ebooks are secured using BookShout's DRM. This means that consumers can download purchased ebooks to a.
LibraryGoblin sez, 'HarperCollins has decided to change their agreement with e-book distributor OverDrive. 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.' I've talked to a lot of librarians about why they buy DRM books for their collections, and they generally emphasize that buying ebooks with DRM works pretty well, generates few complaints, and gets the books their patrons want on the devices their patrons use. And it's absolutely true: on the whole, DRM ebooks, like DRM movies and DRM games work pretty well. But they fail really badly. No matter how crappy a library's relationship with a print publisher might be, the publisher couldn't force them to destroy the books in their collections after 26 checkouts.
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DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it's a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day. HarperCollins has some smart and good digital people (they're my UK/Australia/South Africa publisher, and I've met a ton of them). But batshit insane crap like this is proof that it doesn't matter how many good people there are at a company that has a tool at its disposal that is as dangerous and awful as DRM: the gun on the mantelpiece in act one will always go off by act three. And that's why libraries should just stop buying DRM media for their collections. It's unsafe at any speed.
When HarperCollins backs down and says, 'Oh, no, sorry, we didn't mean it, you can have unlimited ebook checkouts,' the libraries' answers should be 'Not good enough. We want DRM-free or nothing.' Stop buying DRM ebooks. Do you think that if you buy twice, or three times, or ten times as many crippled books that you'll get more negotiating leverage with which to overcome abusive crap like this? Do you think that if more of your patrons come to rely on you for ebooks for their devices, that DRM vendors won't notice that your relevance is tied to their product and tighten the screws? You have exactly one weapon in your arsenal to keep yourself from being caught in this leg-hold trap: your collections budget. Stop buying from publishers who stick time-bombs in their ebooks.
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