Politics & Government

E-Book Price War Brewing—No, Not the Apple One

Public libraries, including Montgomery County, are charged a much-higher rate to make e-books available to the public, library advocates say.

Montgomery County Councilman Craig Rice (D-Dist. 2), of Germantown introduced legislation Tuesday urging state and federal governments to push back at publishers dubiously charging libraries more than they charge regular consumers.

Public libraries offering e-books to patrons are charged around $75 per book—up to three times as much as the consumer price—Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett said in a statement Thursday. All the while, demand for e-books within Montgomery County Public Libraries has soared, with checkouts increasing 88 percent between 2010 and 2011 and another 87 percent on top of that between 2011 and 2012. For fiscal 2014, which began July 1, $300,000 is allocated for e-books, according to a statement from the Montgomery County Council.

According to HuffPost Books, the American Library Association has tried to draw attention to the price differences before, to deaf ears from publishers. Other jurisdictions have taken up the issue. In Connecticut, legislators wanted to force publishers to offer the books at the same price, but when book companies got wind of the bill, they successfully lobbied to kill that part of it. Instead, the state will conduct a study on the availability of e-books and go from there.

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In Montgomery County, Leggett (D) urged council members and library advocates to support Rice’s bill, which would encourage the Maryland General Assembly, the U.S. Congress, Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to look into the issue.

“We need to act now to end this discriminatory practice and bring fairness back to the cost of licensing e-books for public consumption at our public libraries,” Leggett said in a statement. “We have a very strong lobby for public libraries in Montgomery County and I urge our advocates to call attention to this issue.”

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