I originally wrote this on May 05, 2011 and was sure I had published it. Maybe I did and in my clunky use of WordPress, I accidentally UNpublished it, but in any case, here it is.
The inspiration for the article was a petition on Change(dot)org entitled, “Tell HarperCollins: Limited Checkouts on eBooks is Wrong for Libraries“.
For the record, I do buy eBooks now because I can read them in the dark on my phone without disturbing my wife, but I do it with the full kjnowledge that I don’t actually own them. It’s more like a long-term conditional lease.
Mike (May 15, 2024)
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May 05, 2011
Have you ever wished that your taxpayer-supported public library or school library had to buy the same books over and over again?
I didn’t think so. But that’s exactly what Harper-Collins (A Rupert Murdoch/NewsCorp Company) thinks that libraries should have to do.
To be fair, Harper-Collins isn’t the only publisher making noises about a “Mission Impossible”-style self-destruct feature programmed into your tax-purchased e-books. This is a plan that’s being kicked around by many publishers.
This threat points up a major reason why I don’t buy e-books. You see, you never really ‘own’ an e-book. Think of it more like a limited-use lease. You can’t lend it or re-sell it.If your hard drive crashes, you lose it. (It took a house fire for me to lose all my books, some of which I’d owned going back a half-century or more, but that’s another story.)
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(kalealugo) Cindy Lugo by ThinkWingRadioTell HarperCollins:(NewsCorp) to STOP – libraries forced to buy e-books that self-destruct after 26th reader is Wrong http://t.co/RB4Zk9o
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