E-book lending
E-book lending is a practice in which access to already-purchased downloads of e-books is made available on a time-limited basis to others. It works around the digital rights management built into online-store-published e-books by limiting access to a purchased e-book file to the borrower, resulting in loss of access to the file by the purchaser for the duration of the borrowing period.
E-book lending has become an increasing practice in the early 2010s for public libraries as well as independent e-book lending communities; the latter is increasingly viable, especially for books which are not available in the Amazon Kindle's Kindle Format, Mobipocket or Barnes & Noble Nook formats.[1]
As of 2012, over 19,0000 public libraries use Overdrive services in order to lend ebooks.[2]
Legal issues
E-book lending is currently an unestablished practice from a legal perspective.
In 2012, e-book lending site LendInk, which used the Amazon Affiliates program to allow users to lend e-book copies, was taken offline by multiple DMCA requests issued by self-publishing writers who had accused the website of e-book piracy.[3] However, the site returned after the requests were found to be controversial and mistaken.
References
- ↑ Stu Woo (March 11, 2011). "E-Book Lending Takes Off". Wall Street Journal.
- ↑ "eSecurity Planet: Internet Security for IT Professionals". Drmwatch.com. Retrieved 2013-09-06.
- ↑ Violet Blue (August 9, 2012). "Piracy witch hunt downs legit e-book lending Web site". CNET.
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