Amazon Launches E-Book Lending for Libraries

Amazon Launches E-Book Lending for Libraries kindle

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This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Amazon.com recently launched its Kindle library-lending service in the United States. Millions of users of the Kindle reader and app can now borrow Kindle books from their local public library. The company is working with OverDrive, a leading supplier of e-books and other digital content to libraries. The service will be available through the websites of more than eleven thousand local libraries across the country. Users of other devices including the Barnes and Noble Nook and Sony Reader have already been able to borrow library books. Experts say Amazon's entry is likely to reopen a debate between publishers and libraries over e-book lending. Bill Rosenblatt is president of Giant Steps Media Technology Strategies, a consulting company. He says "Publishers and libraries are enemies that occur in nature like snakes and mongeese. Libraries would like to be able to make books available to everyone, all the time, with no limitations. And publishers, of course, would like to sell more books to the public." Mr. Rosenblatt says the debate in the United States centers on what is known as the law of first sale. "Once you buy any kind of media product such as a book or a CD or a DVD or anything like that, you can do whatever you want with it. You can read it, you can give it away, you can lend it, you can resell it, you can burn it, you can use it as a Frisbee -- whatever you want." This law of ...