HarperCollin’s ebook lending: content creators vs content owners

This story is not only interesting because it deals with a struggle of an industry moving their content into digital formats but it also highlights the battle between the interest of the content creator (the artist) and the content owner (the company that monetizes the art):

The book publisher HarperCollins wants to restrict the number of times their ebooks can be lent digitally through a library to 26 times. The reason behind this is that this is the number of times a physical book can be lent out in average is 26 times before it is ‘used up’ and no longer readable. This is of course a desperate measure to hang on to a business model that is changing due to transformation of technology and those kind of decisions (that we have seen many times in other content industries) are mainly driven by fear and lack of imagination on how to view new technologies as a business opportunity. It’s discouraging to see that the book publishing industry is making the same mistakes that businesses like the music industry have made many times over the last decade. An example is the fact that all big record labels used to insist that all their music is to be sold protected by DRM – a decision that has since been reverted (and regretted) as the disadvantages for the consumer outweigh the benefit for the labels by far.

What makes this development even more complex is that the interest of the content creators is not always in line with what the industry thinks is best: various best-selling authors have spoken out agains HarperCollins e-lending policy (in addition to the more than 65,000 people that have petitioned petitioned petitioned change.org) and Ryk E. Spoor is giving a very good explanation on why lending of digital books should not be limited:

“Libraries — both school libraries and public libraries — are the foundation of true learning, literacy, and love of books. You can’t FORCE someone to love to read… but if you give them the opportunity, let them wander through the stacks (virtual or real) themselves, and choose their own path, they’ll teach that lesson to themselves.”

There is no doubt this struggle will continue over the coming years. But it will be vital for the industry not to alienate themselves from the creators and the consumers – otherwise they make themselves redundant within the ecosystem of digital content.