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The Anti-Ownership Ebook Economy

The Anti-Ownership Ebook Economy

July 2023

Of Interest to the Information Community

While this report specifically addresses issues affecting ebooks provided by the trade sector of the publishing community and carefully notes how that sector differs from the world of academic publishing, readers will find the report worthwhile.

The stakeholders in the world of ebooks are all working toward rational goals, whether it’s growing a business, expanding access to knowledge, or simply wanting to read in private. Legal and technological changes have created a new market structure that tends to privilege the interests of publishers and platforms over those of purchasers and readers.

Based on the research interviews with C-suite executives and staff from the Big 5 publishing houses, the report concludes with the following recommendations:

  1. Regulators Should Address Competition Concerns and Barriers to Entry for the Ebook Marketplace
  2. Economic Examinations of the Ebook Market Should Distinguish Between the Market for Digital Ownership of Ebooks and the Market for Platform-Controlled Licensing of Ebooks
  3. Digital Ownership Should Be Normalized Instead of Publisher Refusal to Sell Ebooks
  4. Library Privacy Laws Should Be Updated to Preserve Intellectual Freedom on Ebook Platforms

A quote by one industry association leader further amplifies: 

“I think academic publishing, the Elseviers of the world, are not easy models for trade publishers to look at but they’re useful ones, We think about these things a lot, even though we have a trade publishing bias in our membership. The reality is that we’re always thinking across the industry, we have to. And I think that it will come. My job is to hopefully have it come at a time and with capabilities that support a transition to a different way of working because I don’t want it to disrupt book publishing, I want to help book publishing get better and bigger.”

An event is planned for October 27, 2023. Available details on registration and program can be found here.  

The full text of the report is available at no cost in both HTML and PDF formats.

Abstract

Lamdan, S., Schultz, J.M., Weinberg, M., Woodcock, C. The Anti-Ownership Ebook Economy: How Publishers and Platforms Have Reshaped the Way We Read in the Digital Age.  Engelberg Center on Innovation, Law & Policy, New York University, July 2023.  DOI: https:/doi.org/10.33682/s4qr-ytrm