Kindle users can 'borrow' an extra book - forever
That's not what 'library' and 'lend' mean, say publishers
Amazon will lend Kindle owners a book every month as part of a new ebook borrowing scheme known as the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.
The digi-library will only be available to owners of a Kindle device who also subscribe to the £49-a-year Amazon Prime programme. It is not available via the Kindle apps for Android and iPad.
5,000 books are available for free lending, though the US's six main publishing houses have refused to take part, with publishing execs telling the WSJ that they feared digital lending would damage sales. Still, the selection on offer includes some bookshelf heavyweights including The God Delusion and New York Times bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Book borrowers can have only one library title at a time and are allowed a maximum of one per month. They can keep a book for as long as they like, but when they borrow a new title, the previously borrowed book automatically disappears from their device.
It's not a completely new system: iTunes lets you rent movies at a cheaper rate than buying them, allowing you to keep them for 24 or 48 hours once you've started watching them before they're deleted from the device. iPlayer downloads work in a similar way. But those services don't let you borrow something until you're bored with it - or forever, if you want.
We contacted Amazon to confirm whether the library system will apply to UK subscribers as well, but haven't heard back yet.®
COMMENTS
Sounds like a bad library as my local library allows 6 out for 6 weeks.
Looks like the US's six main publishing houses are operating a cartel to the determent of the general public.
No sign of it on Amazon.co.uk
When you used £s in the article you made me believe I could actually get one of the nicer services on my Kindle here in Blighty.
Is it US only then?
Ebooks in general - I may have missed the point but ...
I still still can't figure why any sane person would part their had earned cash to purchase something that has ZERO resale value, the instant they buy it.
Ebooks are all set to eventually eradicate the secondhand book market.
Which is bad. Really bad.
People should be boycotting DRM technology, rather than adopting the onerous restrictions.
Attention
I saw the title and thought 'ooh that sounds exciting I was thinking about getting a big graphite kindle for comics'. Then I read £49-a-year and only 5,000 books and came crashing back down to earth. Something for free? fat chance.
E-Library Titles
If it's anything lke in the U.S., then the library will have to purchase a new copy after a set number of lendings. The number is really low (I don't recall offhand, but I think it was 20 loans) and the librarians I talked to at a book festival we had this last summer were not happy about it. I don't blame them. The costs associated with distribution for the electronic copy is miniscule to the cost of the traditional version and the library can only lend out the number of copies it's licensed.
