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Originally Posted by eve6grl02
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that's really neat! although i don't quite understand the reason for allowing only one person to read the book at a time...i mean, that's the beauty of electronic books! the library can have a single copy, and infinite number of people can copy it onto their machine. i guess they're doing it to keep track of the book, and make sure no one is stealing a copy...
still, really neat!
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Think of the book as software... many companies have "application servers" instead of 5,000 copies of Word on 5,000 desktops. What are the odds that all 5,000 will be using Word at the same time? Not likely. So, the company buys 3,500 liscenses for Word even though all 5,000 PC's have Word installed.
On a much smaller scale, I am sure the library has only so many "e-copies" of a book that are allowed out at the same time. Could be possibly because of an agreement with the publisher. Either way, there is a good chance you can download a bestseller and read it for free durning the DRM'ed alloted time.
I think its a pretty neat idea myself. While most people loath DRM, I think using DRM for "loaner" e-books is a great use of DRM.
Kilo