ability to lend books

Daniel DeVilder said:

DO love lending books to people, whether reference, or pragmatic or devotional books.  I would like to hear if that ability is even on the radar for Logos. (Naturally, the lending should be for a limited time only!  I need my book back! .  Perhaps a solution would be the cloud library--I really know little about what that means--and instead of lending one book, perhaps a person could log in to your library for a specified brief time.  And only a certain amount of borrowers could log in under your library in any given time. 

WoW, Daniel! You really do want it all.   At least you are generous with your library. [:)] Wih that many people needing to read good stuff you really could benefit from that Ambassador Program we were talking about.

How about the idea of digital book rentals managed like those DVD movie rental machines I see everywhere. With an account and online access a user could rent a title from Logos and it would be disabled after a certain number of days with rental fees credited toward a purchase option if the reader decides they want to own it. If lending a digital book came with an expiration option I would get my loaned books back! (That reminds me; I still have one of my Sunday School teacher's books I need to return -- about a year late!)

btw: Isn't that Barnes & Noble library the public domain Google Books stuff? Copyrighted material from dozens of different publishers would be a huge headache, if it is even attainable.

Randy Hartman said:

I am reasonably certain that the new Barnes and Noble "Nook" can lend any book in the owner's library.  To suggest that this might be a copyright infringement would certainly, if true, put all libraries in a state of high distress!

Technically, many libraries abuse (violate) the fair use doctrine of copyright law. Also, most video & audio recordings have different licensing for private consumers and lending libraries.  The lending library version is much more expensive! Since digital books are more easily copied they would probably be licensed for use and not actually purchased by the user. That issue was addressed a while back in a thread on the Logos EULA.  But, as we are all aware, Old Covenants can be superseded by New Covenants, Praise God!  So with proper structuring & concensus, there is no reason it couldn't happen.