This law is what permits libraries to lend books over and over again without having to pay publishers each time. But Bill Rosenblatt points out that it does not include digital products. Technology known as digital rights management can make e-books unreadable once they have reached a certain time or user limit.

BILL ROSENBLATT: “Several months ago, one of the major publishers, Harper Collins, which is a division of News Corp, announced that they were only going to allow e-books to be lent out twenty-six times, and then they would have to be purchased by the libraries again. Apart from HarperCollins, publishers are allowing libraries to purchase e-books for lending in perpetuity, meaning as many times as anyone wants to borrow them.”

HarperCollins says it took the action to protect the growing e-book industry and its own book sales. But Bill Rosenblatt says critics did not see it that way.

BILL ROSENBLATT: “Because a digital book lasts forever, as long as it’s stored somewhere in digital form, that it should be lendable forever, and that this business of restricting e-book lending to twenty-six times is sort of an unfair, artificial limitation that shouldn’t apply because it’s a digital product.”

He says the debate over e-book lending will likely end up in court.

A Harris Interactive survey this month found that fifteen percent of Americans now use some sort of electronic reader. It was eight percent just a year ago.