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so we can put ebooks in libraries

Ebooks are already in libraries. The county library here makes ebooks available via Overdrive. I take out ebooks all the time. And Overdrive appears to be fairly widely used.

A lot of public libraries offer free audio-book programs (TBH, haven't used them. I can't concentrate on things long enough to get anything from an audio book). For example, the Los Angeles public library has deals with OverDrive, OneClickDigital, and Hoola.

Again, I can't vouch for whether their new releases or even good books, but the programs are there.

There's actually been a bit of discussion among the library community -- most libraries who offer ebooks get them via Overdrive, which has some major ties (is owned by?) Amazon.

But most libraries have privacy policies, but there's now a third party that can track their citizen's reading habits. There's also complaints about how Amazon sends e-mails to people who have 'checked out' ebooks that tells them to buy the book when it's about to 'expire'.

See, for example, the comments from Librarian Black. (it's in video form, but she raises issues about state laws on keeping lending info private, and most library's policies of not endorsing companies). It's possible that it's changed; I refuse to check out ebooks from my local library, as it's using Overdrive.

See: https://www.overdrive.com/ I don't know how other libraries do it, but this is how ours handles it. Yes, there are limitations, but add up all of the subscriptions we are now being asked to fund every month. Everything is becoming a monthly fee, conveniently charged to your credit card or coming out of your bank account.

Like most libraries, our local has embraced all manner of e-technology. Although the vast majority of users still prefer 'real books," they also offer e-books, e-reader loans, music downloads, and audiobook downloads, as well as access to a large group of databases.

As an end user I'd call most of this a disaster. Books are simple - you sign it out, take it home, and renew it until you're done reading it. If someone else needs the book they can place a hold, and you can't renew it any more. If you need a book not on the shelf you can place a hold.

I had been using them for audiobooks to listen to in the car on my Android phone. This worked great except that pretty much the only company servicing Canadian libraries is Overdrive, and their software is bar none the worst that I've encountered.

Still, it was just usable enough that despite the really poor selection of audiobooks, the limited number of "copies available", the lack of any way to renew books, and the really, really, really horrid interface on either PC or phone, I could live with it.

This year Overdrive updated their software, with a new added "feature": you could no longer limit downloads to WIFI. Or even pause a download in progress. As a consequence one ill-timed audiobook download consumed my entire month's cel phone data cap in less than a day.

I deleted it, and let my library know that I was using Pirate Bay from here on - faster, easier, better selection, and no chance of getting hammered with data overage charges.

Beyond that it's pretty well known that publishers define an e-book as only being downloadable for a few dozen times - alleging that this replicates the physical life of an actual book. It's an obvious lie, and ignores the longstanding practices of rebinding and repairing books - something that libraries have done for many decades.

Our library has a pretty remarkable section of CDs on loan, and actually has surprised me many times with the stuff that they have on the shelves. The downloadable music offering Freegal lets you grab a grand total of THREE songs per month. DRM free, but kind of useless.

At the end of the day I wish that our library would go back to lending physical artifacts - the restraints on them by the publishers makes any attempt to provide e-content pretty much impossible.

The chances are quite good that you can borrow e-books formatted for the Kindle through the online services of your local public library:

Nioga Digital Home [Western New York]

No they aren't.

If your library is like mine, there's only ONE "copy" of that book for the entire CITY, and the line to read it stretches all the way into the next millennium. So lots of luck there.

If they're going to attempt to control access on replicable items, I wish they'd at least take a page from ASCAP and allow as many concurrent readers as possible, with royalties distributed per-read instead of artificially restricting the distribution.

I hope so, kinda useless otherwise. Of course, only one place to buy that content from.

The are hundreds of thousands of free e-books available for the Kindle.

Free Book Collections

Baen Free Library

Munseys

The chances are quite good that you can borrow e-books formatted for the Kindle through the online services of your local public library:

Nioga Digital Home [Western New York]

A number of Libraries offer Overdrive, which lets you download up to 7 books for 21 days. http://www.overdrive.com/

Then there is the http://www.baen.com/library/

So the digital ebook libraries are already here. This Amazon thing is just a gimmick to help drive Kindle sales. I'll stick with my Nook and be able to read every format of ebooks besides the Kindle's proprietary format, nor do I need to worry about someone deciding to lock me out of my books.

They should also explain how cities and towns across the country have these buildings with lots of high-quality books that anybody can read completely for free.

Some of them, like the London Library Consortium (all the public, local libraries in London) already lend out eBooks.

(I tried it once, but I don't have a proper eBook reader. I'm not sure how good the service is.)

Apple is a noteable example who uses ePub.... with their own proprietary DRM layer.
Amazon and Overdrive recently launched library lending on Kindle, as well.

http://www.overdrive.com/

Or are you really that lazy to even look? It amazes me how uneducated people are.

Previously, if those 11,000 libraries wanted to be able to lend my book, I would have gotten 11,000 sales.

This may seem like a minor nit, but as someone who has depended on it in the past, I have to mention that you're completely ignoring inter-library loans. The number of books paid for depends more on the borrowing load than on the number of institutions involved in the lending -- and I'm talking about paper, not etexts.

I'm pretty sure there will be some kind of compensation model here.

Also note that Amazon isn't the first to do this. They are in no way blazing new territory here. They're partnering with OverDrive, and OverDrive has been lending out etexts for a while now. It's just that in the past, they were EPUB or PDF format with Adobe's DRM, and so were largely unavailable to Kindle users specifically (but Sony and Nook and iOS users could already get 'em).

http://www.overdrive.com/

I've found that the classic search is much better: http://search.overdrive.com/classic/

It looks like a competitor to the Overdrive system many libraries use."

That's exactly what I was thinking. My local library uses Overdrive, and I've downloaded many new audio books to my ipod from the comfort of my home for completely free.

But thanks to this article I found out that Overdrive offers an iPhone app so I can download books and audio straight to my phone. This is great! They even made a video explaining how it works.

They also have an Android version and here's a video by a user.

It looks like a competitor to the Overdrive system many libraries use."

That's exactly what I was thinking. My local library uses Overdrive, and I've downloaded many new audio books to my ipod from the comfort of my home for completely free.

But thanks to this article I found out that Overdrive offers an iPhone app so I can download books and audio straight to my phone. This is great! They even made a video explaining how it works.

They also have an Android version and here's a video by a user.

It looks like Overdrive is the site that is working with a lot of local libraries in the US. I'd never heard of it before, but here is their ebook compatibility list. It sounds like their audio books are more widely compatible than their ebooks, because the ebooks use DRM'd PDFs that a lot of devices aren't setup to use. Their audio books work in a player that they've written themselves for many platforms called "OverDrive Media Console"

If I were Amazon I would be doing more than this because the first-sale doctrine will eventually be held to include digital goods. The more that Amazon does now to treat ebooks like physical goods the longer that they'll be able to continue before they are explicitly required to do so. The fact that their current licensing scheme has lasted as long as it has surprises me; this has to be at the back of their minds.

And FYI, libraries around the world (in countries including the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, Mexico) are already offering ebooks online. Check out http://search.overdrive.com/ListLibraries.aspx

"It also is a bit silly how expensive ebooks are."

Paying the same price for an ebook as a paperback is like paying full price for a photo of a famous painting.

I refuse to buy any of these ebooks until they stop being stupid with the prices. Does Apple have to come in and crush publishers like they did with the music industry when they stuck by their $15 CD prices and ignored mp3s for many years?

Or will companies like Overdrive.com put them out of business by allowing libraries to give out eBooks for free? My library allows me to borrow new ebooks for free using the overdrive software and it's compatible with the Nook and Sony Readers. Why bother buying when I can legally download for free? Since I never own my eBook purchase anyway I don't see the difference.

http://shkspr.mobi/blog/index.php/2010/08/ebook-libraries-and-drm/
I wrote about this a few weeks ago.

It works in Linux if you can get Adobe Digital Editions to run under WINE.

But the whole concept of "borrowing" a digital file is nonsense.

The system for borrowing music is run on Overdrive Media Console. Linux unfriendly - but works on Android.... Go figure.

Sony needs to breathe new life into their own products. Overdrive Media Console is already available for many devices and many US libraries are already loaning ebooks and audiobooks this way. http://www.overdrive.com/software/omc/

"I want to create a free movie lending library that streams to Roku boxes and only allows one person to watch a movie at a time per disc..."

The scenario you're describing is only illegal in the US"

Are you sure about that? Because this US library provides a similar service, downloading printed and audio books directly from the library.

The company that provides it, OverDrive.com, claims there are libraries streaming videos and music too.

Just need something that forces Amazon to keep innovating and keep pricing competitive.

Thanks, B&N!

The innovation I want most right now is the ability to cleanly borrow DRM'd library books. Right now, libraries are hashing out their e-book lending schemes. From the San Francisco Public Library, I can borrow some e-books in one or more of several formats, some with DRM (epub, mobi) some without (PDF, mobi). (SFPL doesn't roll their own e-book lending system, they use OverDrive and NetLibrary.)

So on my kindle2, I can read non-DRM'd books and DRM'd mobis (legally, but through a clunky process to overcome kindle's hostility towards books not bought from Amazon). But I can't read the stuff that requires Adobe Digital Editions, which is a lot of the good stuff. (And after using a kindle, reading a book on the PC is unbearable.) IIRC the Sony Reader does support Adobe Digital Editions (but Sony doesn't have the online commercial library of Amazon or B&N, plus is it safe to stop hating Sony yet?).

Dear Amazon Kindle Team,

Please improve Kindle's support for commonly used public library e-book formats. Specifically:

1) Support legally acquired DRM'd mobi's without requiring clunky conversion with kindlefix or the like.

2) Support Adobe Digital Editions (DRM'd epub).

Thank you, and have a nice day.

It's obvious why Amazon would prefer you to buy a new bestseller from their store rather than borrow it for free from a public library, but I want to do some of both, and I hope competition from device makers will spur improvement in the public library lending scene.

Sony is doing the library thing. It's a bit new, and currently is mostly audio, but they do support text books checked out to a Sony Reader. Library Search

"Search is a different thing then browsing, as with search you have to know exactly what you are looking for. With a book you can grab it, flip through the pages and just look at random stuff"

Exactly. I also like to browse. I have tons of movies I've never seen stored on a HTPC, yet have no way to browse them as easily as I can at a real Blockbuster store. There's just something different about walking down an aisle and looking at all the books and picking up whatever catches your eye and reading the first page or two.

Until we reach head mounted displays, where i can virtually walk around and pick up books I see and read them, I don't think we should be getting rid of the books. However..... I do like the idea of browsing for the book, then transferring a digital copy to a ereader. There's really no reason carry out 20 lbs of books and no need for a library to order multiple copies or tell people "sorry, we're out. Should be back next month". My local library has formed a partnership with Overdrive.com to provide audio books. I can download and listen to audio books for free. I can only hope that someday they offer ebooks and even movies for free, and I hope all libraries eventually go that route, although that would eliminate late fees.

there Are electronic libraries. there are drm encumbered systems that have contracts with most library systems, then there is drm free project gutenburg, then there are a few other e-book libraries that cover more targeted groups than gutenburg and contemporary drm encumbered ebooks.

http://www.overdrive.com/ http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/

although as different as night and day, both the above sites offer 'free' to the end user, e-books, one at the cost of the public library system, the other with books that have fallen out of copyright, due to the death of the author.

Copybot reminds me of Damon Knight'c classic SF novel A is for Anything". in which a device called Gismo is mailed around the world. To quote from the opening chapter "THIS IS A GISMO IT IS A DUPLICATING DEVICE-- IT WILL DUPLICATE ANYTHING-- EVEN ANOTHER GISMO. TO OPERATE, SIMPLY ATTACH A SAMPLE OF WHATEVER YOU WISH TO COPY TO THE LEFT HAND ARM OF THE GISMO, AS SHOWN."
Economic and social chaos ensues, innovation grinds to a halt, civilization collapses... By the middle of the book only people have any real value, even these can be duplicated but they have opinions about what can be done to them; it is a great read.

You don't have to use WMP to rip CDs you know? This is really a moot issue. I mean I hate Microsoft and all that they are, but seriously, just don't use WMP.

Podcast novels? Do you mean something like this? Or this? Not to mention this and this.

I wish we had something like this in New Mexico.