Amazon to offer Library Lending to Kindle through Overdrive | Hacker News Reader

Amazon to offer Library Lending to Kindle through Overdrive

crunchgear.com

49 pointstylerrooney23 comments

This is huge for Amazon, because it eliminates the one competitive advantage the Nook (and others to a lesser extent) had over the Kindle -- compatibility with libraries.

As far as the potential for format fragmentation goes, it's still the wild west as far as the relationship between libraries, publishers and e-books go.

We have this wonderful technology called "computers". It allows us to replicate information with a marginal cost approaching zero, and yet we continue to handicap its potential so that it could resemble the printing press of the 16th century.

"We" don't do this, copyright holders do. Computers are a disruptive, and destructive force for old business. People talk about "finding new business models" to sound PC but the honest truth is there are no new business models for easily replicable content. It's probably just not going to be a job to be a writer any more. Or a journalist. Or a studio musician. Those are going to be hobbies. That's not a value judgment, it's just the way things are.

wrong, people are willing to pay for a good information filter. that filter can take the form of a writer they consider to produce consistent high quality pieces on areas they are interested in.

More than simply filtering as well, I'm willing to pay for e-books by writers I like, so they'll carry on being able to write - and write more things that I'll like. Think of it as distributed patronage. There are many more reasons people pay for something than owning a physical copy of it.

I may be in the minority (I doubt it), but I have no problem paying for content. This includes books and music. As a now-hobbyest DJ, Beatport was a godsend in terms of being able to get hard to find music and at a high quality. Paying 0.99 - 2.00 per track when I used to pay $10+ per vinyl with 1-2 tracks is fantastic. I think the trick with content is producing high-quality content - this is something people will pay for - and making it stupid easy to attain (This is why P2P music-movie sharing really took off. No need for figuring out FTP or other mechanisms/tools for the layman. Just search and download). I believe the success of the Kindle and the Apple App Store prove this point - it's drop dead stupid simple. Search and download, payment is done in the background. On the news side I'll give an example as well. If my local paper would stop reproducing AP stories and did real investigative journalism on local issues I would gladly pony up for the content. I think the problem with the music and news industries these days is they've effectively turned into content farms...and no one wants to pay for that crap.

Correct. The publishers are trying to enforce scarcity, so that they can make money.

Said money redirects - eventually - into the coffers of those who are the creators.

If there is no scarcity, then there is no incentive to give creators besides your personal ethics.

Supply/Demand/Price curve. If supply is infinite, then price goes towards zero.

If price goes towards zero, then no one gets paid except by sponsors/patrons[1]. Are you sure that's the world you want writers and musicians to live in?

--- [1] Do you want those sponsors to control the ideology spoken by artists?

If your conclusion was correct, the music industry would have run out of money and died. That has not happened yet. How do you explain how your theory does not match observed reality?

Things take time to play out. Plus, physical CDs are still pretty popular it seems.

How long? We're 10 years after Metallica sued Napster and the music industry is still going strong.

The music industry, meaning the record labels, may well be dying. If they didn't have a steady revenue stream coming in from easily identifiable licensees -- film, television, radio -- they would likely be in worse shape. I think the record labels are starting to realize they can't rely on individual consumer sales to keep them in business, which is why they're working with Apple, Amazon, Spotify, Rdio, MOG, etc.

If by the music industry you mean musicians, the common understanding seems to be that more and more musicians are relying on revenues from public performance. This works for music because people like to see it performed live and are willing to pay for tickets.

It's not clear how writers will make money. Public performance is probably a reasonable route for David Sedaris and a few others. There are probably a few who can do the Amanda Hocking thing. And the Kickstarter model may work for some.

art existed before IP laws and will exist after IP laws.

This is really awesome. I realize there will be limitations with the borrowing (despite the fact that they are digital books, there will be a limited number of "copies" available to be distributed at a given time), but that's totally understandable. I do hope, however, that you don't have to actually be at the library to download the books, that it can be done remotely.

If they throw a full functioning OS, like Android, on the next Kindle, keeping it at it's current size, I'm all there.

They have that already, but Amazon doesn't make it and it's called the Nook Color. I've got one and am using it more than my iPad.

Any idea if this will still subject participate libraries to publishers' rules surrounding e-books, like HarperCollins' idiotic 26-circulation limit?

I don't see why that would make any difference. It certainly won't make HarperCollins back down from their stance.

EDIT: Well, that might not be true about HC. But libraries would hit their limit a hell of a lot faster with Kindle users added to the mix, so they'll be really motivated to continue boycotting HC's e-books.

My concern is that making ebooks easier for libraries to obtain will encourage them to reduce or eliminate the printed version.

More most reading I prefer having a book, and every so often I look for something in my local library and find they only have some electronic version.

If I live in one city, would I be able to access the library of another city? Do all libraries essentially converge into one big cloud based library?

It wouldn't be that new if they did - we already have interlibrary loan, especially within states and throughout academia. Just go to worldcat.org, look up the book you want, and see if your library can do ILL with any of the libraries that come up.

Massively awesome.

I need to start showing up at my local library meetings.

edit:

For the purpose of working to bring e-books to our local library system.

Yet another one of those times when I wish I lived in America. I don't want to move, so I'm going to start inventing the future right here damnit.

I'm an Australian living in America; I sometimes seriously cite the lack of an Australian Amazon (or real equivalent) as one reason not to move back. Other, more normal Australians don't disagree.

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