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A comment on Book Publishers Won't Stop Until Libraries Are Dead. Parent comment

Re:Book Publishers Won't Stop Until Libraries Are Dead by cpymchn on Thursday March 23, 2023 @12:11PM (#35277000)
> Something fundamental needs to change with digital library licensing

What do you recommend?

The artificial scarcity model they have now is broken. Pay-per-use seems better if the cost per read is adequate enough. All-you-can-eat-at-fixed-price (Oyster and Scribd) have the economics upside down.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Book Publishers Won't Stop Until Libraries Are Dead by mhypoq3vc7ajn2 on Thursday March 23, 2023 @01:13PM (#35277947)
I really liked the windowing approach that Macmillon wanted to try, which would funnel demand to purchases for new releases. Libraries already pay quite a lot for licenses, but I think there needs to be more scarcity too. The trouble is substitution ... customers just build a queue of free borrow options and read whichever comes available. Maybe tighter limits on the library side, instead of 25 concurrent borrows per library card make it 1. Or some way to introduce friction because instant wireless delivery is just so excellent.

Don't have a good answer, I'm an engineer not an economist :)

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