Publishers Fight OverDrive On Library eBook Distribution

Last month OverDrive launched the ability to check out library books with your phone, which is available on various devices including the iPhone/iPad, BlackBerry and Android-based devices. But some publishers are not happy about this easy access.

Library Journal reports: “HarperCollins has announced that new titles licensed from library ebook vendors will be able to circulate only 26 times before the license expires.”

OverDrive’s Steve Potash, sent out an e-mail this week defining some of the new eBook DRM terms on its library eBooks. Library hacker Joe Atzberger posted the note on his blog: “…we have been required to accept and accommodate new terms for eBook lending as established by certain publishers. Next week, OverDrive will communicate a licensing change from a publisher that, while still operating under the one-copy/one-user model, will include a checkout limit for each eBook licensed. Under this publisher’s requirement, for every new eBook licensed, the library (and the OverDrive platform) will make the eBook available to one customer at a time until the total number of permitted checkouts is reached. This eBook lending condition will be required of all eBook vendors or distributors offering this publisher’s titles for library lending (not just OverDrive).”

Via Librarian By Day.

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