Re: eBooks in Libraries a Thorny Problem, Says Macmillan CEO

[Eric Hellman <eric@hellman.net>]

One thing that came up in the comments was the "Public Lending 
Right" payments in the UK. I was aware of this, but didn't 
mention it for lack of actually knowing anything about it. 
Perhaps list members can help me out with this question: do 
"public lending right" payments apply to ebooks, and how does 
that work?

Eric Hellman
President, Gluejar, Inc.
41 Watchung Plaza, #132
Montclair, NJ 07042
USA
eric@hellman.net
http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/


On Mar 23, 2010, at 5:19 PM, Rick Anderson wrote:

> Sargent's comments are intriguing, in particular the quote that
> Chuck pulled:
>
>> "If there's a model where the publisher gets a piece of the
>> action every time the book is borrowed, that's an interesting
>> model."
>
> I anticipate that many of my colleagues will bristle at this 
> suggestion, mainly because we don't like the idea of any 
> corporation getting a "piece of the action" when the action in 
> question is a patron borrowing a book.  But of course, the word 
> "borrow" becomes immensely complicated in the ebook realm -- 
> "lending" can mean anything from (at one extreme) outright 
> distribution of unlimited copies to all comers at one extreme, 
> to (at the other extreme) time-limited read-only access to text 
> through a single handheld device passed from patron to patron.
>
> Then there's the question of what "a piece of the action" might 
> actually mean in this context.  What's the action, and how big 
> a piece does Sargent want?  What if the library's "acquisition" 
> of the ebook in question amounted only to provision of a 
> gateway into the book's content, and the library gets 
> microcharged with every access?
>
> There are enormous opportunities here, in part because the 
> potential number of models is limitless.  I hope the forces of 
> reaction (on both sides of the library/publisher divide) don't 
> stymie the innovative possibilities.
>
> Rick Anderson
> Assoc. Dir. for Scholarly Resources & Collections
> Marriott Library
> Univ. of Utah
> rick.anderson@utah.edu