“Another commentator, Joshua Greenberg, the author of a book on video rental, has noted in private correspondence the historical congruence between current stresses in the digital book market and the emergence of rental video distribution models. In 1987/8, the Rentrak company revolutionized access to movies by facilitating the rental of VHS tapes directly to consumers through the creation of a trusted auditing platform, serving as an essential mediator between studios and stores. In a manner not dissimilar to Rosenblatt’s suggestion but avoiding any changes in law, Rentrak enabled a shift in revenue compensation to a per-rental fee split between stores and studios, where stores ceased paying upfront for (physical) video content.
“It is possible to imagine DPLA serving as a CA that fills Rentrak’s intermediary role for ebooks to the mutual benefit of libraries and publishers, while preserving free borrowing access for the end-user. An ebook CA could negotiate for per-rental fees that are lower for many libraries than the cost-per-circulation over many different types of books. Via a centralized ebook rental dispensary, public libraries would also benefit in cost reductions from lessened maintenance of physical inventory, damage and replacement liability, contents insurance coverage, and other factors. Irrespective of other metrics, Greenberg notes that a shift to subsidized rental rather from buying and lending could allow libraries to develop much more finely-tuned algorithms for rationing their collection budget across users and collections, while still using mechanisms like hold times to create ‘speedbumps’ where necessary.”
From Peter Brantley’s post on PWxyz, Renting out the library