As many of you have seen posts at Boing Boing and Librarian by Day the push from HarperCollins to allow only so many checkouts on Overdrive before the book is deleted is an outrage. Libraries have been weary of licensing content for some time, and this is exactly why. So we are being punished if patrons actually want to read your material?
Do you plan to treat us the same way with physically materials? Do you think you will show up at my library and take a book that has circulated 26 times away from me?
Not only is this outrageous, but I’m to the point where I can’t take it from these publishers anymore. With the closure of retail booksellers, I wonder if publishers realize how much they depend on libraries to support their bottom line?
I know this much, I am now boycotting HarperCollins. I hope that both librarians, readers, and hopefully even libraries will boycott as well. You want to take your books away from me? Fine, but I hope you realize that I have no desire to buy them now in the first place.
Moreover, I am listening to the advice of Cory Doctorow when he says “And that’s why libraries should just stop buying DRM media for their collections. Period. It’s unsafe at any speed.”
The Information Activist Librarian 