Publishers have been using digital protection technologies for years for ebooks sold to retail customers, often referred to as DRM (digital rights management). Libraries lend ebooks using the same DRM, and the Internet Archive has followed that lead, using Adobe Digital Editions.
The digital protection allows books to be lent via downloads that disappear (or become inaccessible) when the loan period ends (e.g. two weeks). For users who prefer to read their ebooks directly in a browser, the same thing happens. The book becomes inaccessible at the end of the loan period, and the next reader in line has a chance to borrow it.
While it is technically possible to break the buy sales lead digital protections of these technologies, it is illegal to do so. Moreover, the typical user does not do this, allowing for a flourishing ebook marketplace for current books. make available for loan older books that are not available in ebook format. In every case, an authorized print copy has been acquired and made unavailable for simultaneous loan.
Many of the books in our collection are books that libraries believe to be of historical importance such that they do not want to throw them away, but are not worth keeping on their physical shelves. The digitized versions are therefore made available to a single user at a time, while the physical book no longer circulates. Since the books which are lent using the controlled digital lending technologies are limited to one reader at a time, it works best for “long tail” books, books that are not available in other ways. Fortunately, many of these books are wonderful and important and we are proud to bring them to a generation of digital learners who may not have physical access to major public libraries.
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