Penguin Books Introduces a New eBook Lending Program

On November 19, 2012 Penguin Books, one of the world's largest publishers, announced a new ebook lending program.  Because of concerns about the security of digital rights management (DRM)- technospeak for worries about copyright infringement by illegal copying- roughly a year ago, in October 2011 Penguin pulled all of its ebooks from a larger library lending program powered by Overdrive. Those ebooks were also available on Amazon Kindles, and the withdrawal of Penguin's titles from that Overdrive program may also have reflected a growing friction between the publisher and Amazon.com which was competing with publishers not only in distribution but also in the production of new titles.  

"Under the new lending program, Penguin will work with Baker & Tayler [book wholesalers and distributors to libraries] to provide its ebooks to libraries in Los Angeles and Cleveland, Ohio. The program allows library members to check out an ebook, for a limited time, six months after a book becomes available in retail stores. Libraries can only checkout one ebook per person (unless they buy multiple copies, and the library also has to purchase a new license for each ebook every year" (http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/19/penguin-rolling-out-new-ebook-library-lending-program/, accessed 11-19-2012).