Google to Rent Books?

WSJ reporters Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg and Kevin J. Delaney have a story in this morning’s edition about Google’s preliminary proposals for “renting” books online, as one of the publishers the Internet search engine has spoken with spills a few details to the press. “The books wouldn’t be downloadable or printable,” according to the scenario outlined by this source, and though he thinks “the proposed fee to end users—10% of each book’s list price—is too low, he said it still may represent a significant opportunity for publishers to tap the budding digital-book market.”

One publisher who was willing to go on record, Perseus Books CEO David Steinberger, says he’s tentatively interested, but only if there’s enough publishers and vendors involved and it can be proven “any rental program supplements sales of physical books rather than cannibalizes them.” Well, I don’t know about rental programs (do you? tell me!), but science fiction writer Cory Doctorow is a firm believer that “giving away ebooks sells more books.”

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